Over the past few weeks, many messages have been sent to InfoMigrants from Afghanistan. They have been sent by people who say they are judges, police officers or former interpreters for NATO forces. Their messages, mostly written in English, explain their profound anxiety in just a few lines. Very often, they are accompanied by photocopies of passports or other documents that prove their profession or the help they have given to Western forces.

These testimonies show the regime of terror put in place by the Taliban. To protect the people concerned, we have changed all the names, and removed some details concerning the locations, job titles, and precise functions of the people who wrote to us.

Message received on August 12

"I am an engineer. Before the arrival of the Taliban, I owned a construction company in Khost.

I was working with foreigners, we had contracts. When the Taliban came, I immediately left the city with my children. Now we are living illegally.

I heard that the Taliban are looking for all those who worked with foreigners in Khost. They murder them, they hate all those who helped the foreign forces.

For fear of being identified, I could not go to Kabul at the time of the evacuations.

I need to be protected. I kept all my certificates and contracts. Here attached are the contracts I had with the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

I am now trying to find a way out of the country."

Hundreds of Taliban supporters marched on August 30 in Khost, eastern Afghanistan, with fake coffins in US and NATO colors to celebrate the departure of the last American soldiers. A few days before, on Wednesday 18 August, soldiers opened fire on the crowd that had come to protest against the return of religious fundamentalists.



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Message received on August 16

"I am 26 years old, my name is Dana, I worked as a nurse for an international NGO in Helmand province in Afghanistan. When the Taliban came, they asked me to stop working, they threatened me.

My husband has also been threatened. He was an interpreter for the British troops.

When the Western soldiers left Helmand [in 2014], they promised my husband that they would protect him, that they would come and get him.

Today, my husband is in danger, the Taliban are looking for us. Fortunately, we fled to another province. We know that they entered our house after we left, they took our documents, our computers.

We have two children, two and three years old. Please help us. If the Taliban find us, they will kill us all. They are looking for the people who helped the foreign troops. Please save us."

The southern province of Helmand has been considered a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan for years. It is where most of Afghanistan's opium is produced, a considerable financial windfall for the fundamentalists who smuggle it into neighboring countries. US and British troops at Leatherneck and Camp Bastion bases left the area in 2014.

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Read more: 'The Taliban wanted to shoot us': An Afghan recounts her escape from Kabul to France

Message received on August 16

"I am married and I have four children, two boys and two girls. We live in Kandahar province. My husband runs a fruit export business to Europe.

After the arrival of the Taliban, everything went downhill.

There was an attack on our house in the middle of the night. They asked my husband where he was hiding weapons. My husband kept saying the same thing: 'I am not working with the government, I don't have any weapons'. But they wouldn't listen. They kept saying, 'Where are the weapons? We know that you have information to give us and that there are many weapons hidden. Tell us where'.

They searched several houses, they found nothing. While they were searching, some Taliban men kept looking at my two daughters. I was so afraid for them. They are still small.

They took my husband. My children were crying.

We left the next day, we left the house, we went to my brother. Today we are in Kabul.

Please help us to get out of the country. I have a brother in Germany, I would like to try to reach him."

The Taliban entered Kandahar, in the south of the country, on August 12, 2021, three days before they took the capital Kabul.

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Message received on August 22

"My name is Mohamad and I have been working in the Afghan government for the past three years, including for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Taliban have already come to my house in Kabul twice. Fortunately for me, I had left my apartment. I left everything there. I am hiding somewhere in the city. They want to arrest me, they will kill me.

I am in great danger. Please help me.

I am attaching all the documents that prove I worked for the government."

According to many accounts, the Taliban have started searching houses and apartments in different cities across the country. A UN report accuses them of having "priority lists" of individuals they want to arrest.

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Message received on August 23

"I am a policeman. Now that the Taliban are here, I am in danger. Please help me, I am leaving you all my details.

I worked for NATO and for the American forces in Kabul.

I am married and I have six children. We moved, we left everything in our old house.

Please help us."

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Read more: Afghans left with land borders as only escape from Taliban

Message received on August 28

"My name is Mehdi, I work in the Supreme Court of Afghanistan. I have worked on many cases, including cases of Taliban who have been convicted. They are now released.

I am afraid for my life. I don't know how to get out of the country. We are in chaos. I narrowly escaped the suicide bombings.

I don't know what to do, I don't know where to go, I don't know who to contact.

I just found your email address.

I think I will be targeted by the Taliban soon.

Please help me."

On Thursday, August 26, a double suicide attack claimed by Islamic State group terrorists near Kabul airport killed at least 180 people, including 13 US soldiers.

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Message received on September 2

"I came back to Afghanistan because my mother got sick. I am originally from Kabul but I have been living in France with a residence permit. I am 22 years old and I normally work as an Uber driver.

Today, I am stuck in Kabul. I haven't been out of my mother's house since August 15, just two or three times to go to the airport. I am afraid.

It is dangerous for me to stay here. It's dangerous because I live in France.

I have a friend in France who informed the ministry [the crisis unit of the Quai d'Orsay, editor's note]. At the airport, I saw French people who had left. I told a French official that I was living in France, I showed him my residence permit. He didn't answer me and left.

Afterwards, I didn't go back to the airport, especially since the attack. I tried to call the French embassy to get out of the country, but nobody answered.

I am stuck here. I'm so scared.

I didn't expect the Taliban to take Kabul, otherwise I wouldn't have come.

My uncle managed to get me a visa for Pakistan but the borders are closed. In front of the embassy, there are Taliban. There are Taliban everywhere. I don't know what to do."

The airport at Kabul was, until August 31, the only option for leaving the country. Land borders with Afghanistan's neighboring states are closed, including Pakistan and Iran. Officially, more than 122,000 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan since August 15.