The U.S.-trained Afghan pilots and others held at a camp in Uzbekistan already feared being sent back to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. So it was little comfort when an Uzbek guard unsympathetically quipped the other day: “You can’t stay here forever.”
The offhand warning added to an already grinding sense of unease at the camp just across Afghanistan’s northern border, recounted one of the Afghan pilots who fled there with aircraft when ground forces fell to the Taliban in August as the United states and its allies withdrew their forces.
What follows is the first, detailed inside account among Afghans who, for nearly three weeks, have been waiting in vain to be evacuated by the United States.
“If they send us back, I’m 100 percent sure they’ll kill us,” said the pilot, who declined to be named because of fear of reprisal.
Speaking to Reuters on a cell phone that the Afghans there try to keep out of sight, the pilot described feeling like a prisoner, with highly restricted movement, long hours in the sun, and insufficient food and medicine. Some have lost weight.
“We are kind of like in jail,” said the pilot, who estimates the Afghans held there number 465. “We have no freedom here.”
Late August satellite images provided to Reuters showed high walls surrounding the camp, whose housing units had been used previously to treat COVID-19 patients and is near the city of Termez. Images shared with Reuters from inside showed sparse white rooms with bunk beds and no clutter – since most Afghans arrived with just the clothes on their backs.
Uzbek guards were armed, some with handguns and others with semi-automatic weapons, the pilot said.
TALIBAN PRESSURE
The camp risks turning into another crisis for U.S. President Joe Biden, who was criticized left and right for the poor planning of evacuations that marked the end of America’s longest war and the Islamist militant group’s swift takeover.
Current and former U.S. officials are critical of the failure of the U.S. government so far to evacuate the Afghan personnel and aircraft in Uzbekistan, as current and former U.S. officials warn of Taliban pressure on Uzbek authorities to hand them over.
Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was “deeply concerned” about the Afghan pilots and other forces there.
“It is imperative that these personnel not fall into the hands of the Taliban both for their safety and the valuable technical knowledge and training they have,” Reed told Reuters.
John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Uzbekistan, said he believed Uzbekistan faced real and substantial pressure from the Taliban to hand them over.
“They want to have good relations with Taliban. They don’t want to provoke them, but they also don’t want to provoke us,” said Herbst, now at the Atlantic Council think-tank. He called for “competent statesmanship.”
Retired U.S. Brigadier General David Hicks, who commanded the training effort for the Afghan Air Force from 2016 to 2017, said the State Department had failed to act fast enough after being supplied details about the Afghans being held at the camp from a network of current and former U.S. servicemembers and lawmakers.
“I’m not sure what they’re doing at this point, to be honest,” said Hicks, who is among those working to help the pilots and their families.
A State Department spokesperson said the United States was coordinating with Uzbekistan on the matter but stressed that Afghan personnel and aircraft were secure. It urged all of Afghanistan’s neighbors to allow Afghans entry and to respect international law against returning refugees to countries where they are likely to face persecution.
Uzbekistan’s government did not respond to multiple requests for comment.