Afghanistan
Taliban: Local staff find themselves in 'tough position' as US troops exit from Afghanistan
Kabul: The unconditional departure of foreign troops from Afghanistan will now leave the NATO's regional workers in a tough position.
Kamal Sadat, a former deputy minister for youth in the country, told DW that NATO's Afghan employees are likely to suffer after the withdrawal of foreign forces.
"Once they leave, former local employees will become easy targets for insurgents because they consider NATO's Afghan employees as foreign targets," Sadat said.
"Also, those who have fled the country are worried about their families back home because they are still at risk," he added.
Sekandar (name changed), who lives in Kabul, started working in 2019 as an interpreter for US Special Forces at Bagram Airbase, the largest US military base in Afghanistan and he told DW that he faces a dangerous situation now.
"NATO and US forces are withdrawing completely from Afghanistan; I am concerned about my future," he said.
"I don't know what happens to us now," he added.
Another former NATO worker who asked not to be named for security reasons told DW that the Taliban, al-Qaida and the Islamic State (IS) consider the alliance's Afghan employees to be enemies.
"If they know where I worked, they would kill me," he said.
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