KABUL A man with a long mustache opens the door of his apartment in the center of wintery Kabul.
Nasir is an Afghan security guard who worked for the Finnish embassy before the Taliban came to power. Finland did not evacuate him or other guards of the embassy’s properties after the Taliban took power in Kabul on August 15, 2021 in a chaotic atmosphere.
At that time, thousands of people flocked to the Kabul airport. In the end, Finland evacuated 330 people from the country, for example The United States again over 120,000among them Americans, foreign nationals and at-risk Afghans.
It was not possible to get all those on the evacuation list out of the country before the deadline agreed with the Taliban expired on August 30. However, Finland announced about a year later that all the persons on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ list were eventually taken out of the country.
will not publish the full names of Nasir or the other guards who were not evacuated, or show their faces for security reasons. has seen the men’s documents.
previously met Nasir in Islamabad, Pakistan in September 2021 after he fled Afghanistan.
Nasir was forced to return to Taliban-controlled Kabul almost two years ago, as he was deported from Pakistan back to Afghanistan in early 2022.
Nasir had entered Pakistan illegally without a visa, and he had not applied for a UN refugee card, as he felt it was safer for him to hide.
– The police came to my apartment and they took me and my family to the Afghan border, Nasir says.
Nasir was very scared when he crossed the border into the Taliban controlled country. He was afraid that the Taliban would take revenge, because he had worked for Finland.
According to the UN The Taliban have killed more than 200 Afghan ex-army soldiers and government officials since August 2021. On the other hand, there have been no reports of embassy guards or security guards.
– We hid in my home region in Paktika province, says Nasir.
In the end, however, the family decided to return to Kabul. After a long search, Nasir got a job from an international organization. However, the family could not return to their former house, which they had left behind after fleeing the country – the Taliban had taken over it.
Now the family lives in a rented house.
Former guards do not feel safe in Kabul
Nasir is lucky in relation to many other former embassy guards; most of them have become unemployed.
Nasir has invited 11 former security guards who worked for the Finnish embassy in Kabul to his home. The Finnish company FRF was responsible for the security measures, which in turn outsourced the work to the Afghan Tahiri Protection Risk Management Consulting.
One of the men who arrived is Ilyaswho worked with Nasir in the same security team.
– There are no jobs for us in Kabul, says the father of three children.
However, Ilyas’ brother has a job and has been able to help the family financially.
According to the men, there were 18 people in their security team, none of whom were evacuated to Finland. A few of them have fled to neighboring Iran.
Instead, the security men who protected the embassy’s staff, their family members and people in leadership positions were entitled to evacuation, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs saw them as working in a “visible role”.
A total of 83 persons who worked in a prominent role in security companies and their families were evacuated to Finland. It is difficult for the property guards to understand why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to leave them in Afghanistan.
– What is the difference between us and those who were evacuated? one of the guards asks.
Nasir and others were in the front line protecting the properties belonging to the mission at the gates. They took big risks, because many times the suicide bombers blew themselves up at the first checkpoint.
This happened, for example, on May 31, 2017, when terrorists blew up a water tanker loaded with explosives near the Finnish embassy, completely destroying the building belonging to the German embassy. Among the more than 150 fatalities were an Afghan guard at the German embassy.
The guards’ information may have ended up in the hands of the Taliban
The guards at the embassy feel that they have been abandoned and betrayed, both by their employer and by Finland.
Ilyas says that he often hears the Taliban and pro-Taliban people talking about those who worked for Western countries in a nasty tone.
– That’s why we don’t get jobs from the state. We are enemies of this administration, he says.
The guards say that every year their biometric data was taken by the former Ministry of the Interior of Afghanistan, which kept a list of people working for the police, the army and various countries. Now the information may have ended up in the hands of the Taliban.
Although all of the guards are still alive, they do not feel safe.
One of the guards got his brother I will apply reportedly arrested by the Taliban a few months after the Taliban came to power. Both brothers worked for the same Tahiri Protection Risk Management Consulting.
– My brother went to get a passport for himself. When the ministry’s employees found his name through biometrics, they said he worked for foreigners, Hakeem says.
They asked the man to hand over his gun, even though he didn’t have any.
– He was in prison for three, four weeks and was badly beaten, Hakeem says.
has seen pictures of the man injured in the hospital, but has not been able to confirm what caused the injury.
After the incident, the man fled to Iran.
– The Taliban are not interested in what kind of working relationship we had with the Finnish embassy or how prominent we were, says Ilyas.
Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ South Asia unit Veikko Kiljunen says that the situation of the guards who worked for the Finnish embassy has not been particularly monitored. However, according to Kiljunen, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been contacted by both Afghans who were evacuated to Finland and those who were not evacuated.
– We know about various cases that have been communicated to us, but I cannot comment on individual cases, he says.
Kiljunen considers the possible case of arrest and assault very unfortunate and very unfortunate.
According to the guards, not all wages have been paid
Aziz Tahiri, the guards’ Afghan employer, got to Finland with the men. They show the photos posted by the man on Facebook from Helsinki-Vantaa airport.
The guards had contracts until the end of 2021. However, according to the guards, not all salaries have been paid.
According to the men, they only received $100 from Tahir. According to Nasir, he is still unpaid for $2,400.
reached Tahir from the Finnish number, but he did not want to comment on the matter in any way. However, he said that he forwarded the matter to the Finnish company FRF, whose subcontractor was Tahir’s company. FRF did not respond to ‘s contacts.
According to Kiljunen’s information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, all salary receivables from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have been paid, and he cannot comment on the affairs of an outside company.
Now Nasir says that Tahiri or the Finnish FRF employees no longer answer their messages or phone calls.
– We want to come to Finland, or at least get the salaries we deserve, says Nasir.