Somewhere in southern Afghanistan, a former employee of Canada’s armed forces has been living for the last eight months in a hole in the ground, literally
Having aided the foreign military, he knows he’s being hunted by the country’s new Taliban rulers. The hole is camouflaged with vegetation and helpers drop food into it twice a day, says Merle Lidstone, a Canadian special forces veteran whose forward-operating base in Kandahar city — called Graceland — hired that man and numerous others.
Some have been tentatively approved by Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada under that “special immigration measure” but can’t get out. Many others have received nothing more than an acknowledgement of their initial application. Still others are in neighbouring Pakistan, waiting for final word.
“I try to be invisible to the public,” Ahmadullah said in an interview Wednesday. “I’m scared for my family. I don’t want to put my kids’ lives at risk because of my previous job.”s have been approved for temporary resident visas under a special program created after the Russian invasion, notes veteran and activist Amanda Moddejonge.