An Afghan refugee has spoken of his joy at being reunited in Derry with an old friend who helped him escape a Taliban ‘kill list’ – decorated former soldier turned politician Ryan McCready.
Mr McCready, a UUP representative on the Derry and Strabane council, is a former RIR soldier who was given a meritorious service medal by NATO and was named the UK’s Most Outstanding Soldier in 2011 for his work in Afghanistan.
While in Kabul, he became friends with Yar Yardost – a civilian contractor who worked in a number of roles at New Kabul Compound.
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But when the United States announced it was pulling its military forces out of the country, Yar found himself left behind in the chaotic scramble to evacuate as the Taliban closed in on the capital – despite having full approval to seek refuge in the UK.
Thanks to the help of his friend from Derry, Yar was finally able to escape with his family via a detour through the United Arab Emirates.
And in recent days, he has managed to make his way to Northern Ireland to meet his old friend in person.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Mr McCready reflected on their time together in Kabul: “We developed a friendship – we would go and have cups of chai, something to eat, with his friends and our colleagues.”
On the evacuation, he said: “It was an absolute disaster. The US foreign policy at the time was to announce a date of withdrawal, and they didn’t really consult with anyone else. Once they announced that they were leaving, pretty much anyone with an air-bridge to their home country started to evacuate military personnel – anyone who was directly employed or contracted. It was then that Yar reached out to me and said ‘things are going very bad, very quickly’. The Taliban were outside the city limits. Then, within another 24 hours, the Taliban were inside the city. And before they knew it, the Taliban were right next door to the Kabul airport.”
Yar said: “I called Ryan saying ‘on one side is Taliban and on the other side, four or five metres, is NATO forces’. It was a really tough time for the people. People were trying to go inside the airport. A lot of women, a lot of children, and a lot of struggling to go inside the airport. Some people made it and some people not. The day I received a call to come to the airport so I thought I would drive with my family because I have a large family. I was left behind.”
Ryan said: “It’s embarrassing from my point of view and from a government point of view that after 20 years of supporting the Afghan government, the Afghan people, we had basically given them a big false promise and abandoned those who helped us. There are people still there. Yar has so many stories about people who have to move every night from their house because the Taliban have got a list of people who associated, worked with or were contracted by NATO forces. Whenever a locally employed civilian from the host nation worked with NATO, they got their iris scanned, their fingerprints taken, DNA. All that information was left behind so the Taliban have a huge, biometric kill list. That’s why these people are in so much danger.”
After years living under threat from the Taliban, Yar managed to make it out thanks to the intervention of his friend – who had since been elected to his local council as a unionist politician.
“I contacted Ryan and he was giving me directions on what to do,” Yar said. “After a lot of struggling, a lot of really tough times, we made it through and came to the UK. It was a really tough time and I’d like to thank the UK government – especially Ryan who was calling me asking my situation, where are you, what is going on.
“But I am here now. I got here last year, I came to the UK."
He continued: “It’s a lovely place, a lovely country, lovely people. I’ve been living in a hotel in Aberdeen. It’s a long time we’ve been staying in a hotel, waiting on the Home Office.
“Everything has gone okay, I’ve got my license so I can drive in the UK and I’ve been working as a interpreter in Scotland.”
He added: “It was my dream to see Ryan. It’s a dream come true to see him happy. I was really happy to see Ryan, a lovely moment for me. We went to the Guildhall, the city walls, the Peace Bridge. It was a really lovely day, really happy.”
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