'I need to be with my family': Afghan refugee pleads for help reuniting with loved ones

CTV National News: Afghan family seeks refuge Adbul Salam has been trying to get his relatives out of Afghanistan as his concerns grow amid the Taliban takeover. Melanie Nagy reports.

Kabul, Afghanistan — A young Afghan woman who escaped to Canada last summer is desperately worried for her family members who did not make it out of the country and are now living in hiding.

Rukhshana Ahmidi, 22, worked as an interpreter for a Canadian doctor in Afghanistan and was able to escape the country on Aug. 15, the same day a suicide bombing hit the airport in Kabul.

Amid the confusion and chaos at the airport, Ahmidibecame separated from her family and eventually made it onto a flight, but without an update on the status of her loved ones.

Ahmidi, who now lives outside Toronto, only found out after landing in Kuwait that her family did not make it out of Afghanistan.

“I am much worried as every moment it is possible that they will [be] killed because they changed the house three times and are living in hiding places,” she told CTV National News.

“They are not allowed to go outside. It’s not humane for them.”

The same day Ahmidi left Afghanistan, her brother Rostum Ahmidi was beaten and arrested at the airport. A photo of his injuries shows large red contusions across his back.

“It was really hard for me: ‘What should I do? [I have] to be careful about myself, but I have to think about my brothers, my mom,’” she said.

“I was in shock and confused.”

Back in Kabul, the Taliban destroyed Rostum’s music shop, as the organization has banned music in the country.  Ahmidi’s grandmother is in hiding and had to destroy her old police uniform, where she rose the ranks to become a sergeant.

The entire family is feeling the stress and anxiety of living in fear of the Taliban.

“I’m very depressed,” Ahmidi’s mother Eidmah said, translated to English. “I’m afraid the Taliban will come and arrest my son. I’m afraid they will kill us.”

Ahmidi said she is constantly awake at night concerned for her family’s well-being and is worried that the family’s connection to music may make them a bigger target.

“I am much worried, even tonight when my mom called at the middle of night,” she said. “I thought that something happened to my aunt or something happened to my brothers because he was signing.”

“If it continues, I’m sure that they will kill them, because they killed the cousin of my mother.”

Getting out of Afghanistan is extremely difficult, as refugees wait in line for hours and sometimes days for a visa that would get them to Iran and hopefully, from there, to Canada.

Canada has pledged to resettle 40,000 Afghan refugees in Canada, but has not provided a timeline for doing so. The government has brought in 6,860 refugees total through its immigration streams as of Jan. 12, according to government data.

Ahmidi said she emailed Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada asking for help with her situation, but has not heard back.

“I’m so thankful for the government of Canada that kept my life safe and I hope they help my family to reunite us, and also they could join with me because if I can not join with them, I’m sure that I can not continue my life,” she said.

“I need to be with my family because they need me. I was the only one that was supporting them and now there is not anyone to help them.”

With files from CTV National News reporter Heather Butts