Afghanistan: 'You fear for your family and friends at home'

Almost 20 years after they were ousted from power, the Taliban has seized control of Afghanistan. People have reached new levels of desperation in their attempt to flee the country, with scenes of chaos at Kabul International Airport.

A number of people with links to the island of Ireland have been telling BBC News NI about their fears for themselves, their family or friends.

Muhammad Edrees fled from Afghanistan and has been living in Northern Ireland for the past three years. He has urged the western world "not to turn their back" on the people of his country.

He said he fears for his mother and three sisters who have fled from their home and are now staying in a tent on the streets of the capital, Kabul.

"It's not a great feeling knowing your loved ones are not safe," he told BBC Radio Foyle.

Mr Edrees left the country after this father - who was a government official - was murdered by the Taliban in 2011.

He called for greater efforts to help move fleeing civilians from Afghanistan.

"Please help take them out of this current situation or else the consequences will be felt by the whole world," he said.

"It's very hard to go through this situation when you know your family is in danger and you fear for their lives," he said.

"Your loved ones are living in a place where you're not guaranteed of your life for a minute.

"Everyone is trying to leave the country, it doesn't matter where the airplanes are going."

Mr Edrees said that he, like everyone else, wants his family to be in "a safe place" and said he would like to be reunited with them in Northern Ireland.

However, he said there are "no possibilities of bringing them here at the minute".

"The western world should know not to turn their back on Afghanistan and do something about this current situation."

Aoife MacManus, from Ashbourne in Meath, has been in Kabul for two years, working in the primary education sector.

"This last 24 hours has been so crazy, I don't know how many places I've been," Ms MacManus said.

"There is a sense of panic and fear all over the city. It's the fear of the worst expectations."

She described the scenes as her and her colleagues left their work compound on Sunday.

"We were all crying. Everybody was crying because of the expectations of what things are going to be like," she said.

"All the work we've put into education, that it might all be for nothing."

She said she had had to pass through several Taliban checkpoints, adding: "It's quite intimidating, you can spot them a mile off."

She added: "I've dressed conservatively here since the start. Today, my scarf is tighter."

Ahmed Khorami left Afghanistan 20 years ago and now lives in Belfast where he works as a taxi driver.

He said he is devastated by what has happened in the country and fears for his family who remain in Afghanistan.

"I'm so unhappy I don't know what's going to happen to my own family in Afghanistan, what will happen to our people," he told Good Morning Ulster.

"My brother is there, my sisters are there, my mother is there. I worry about everybody, not only my own family.

"I love my country, the UK is my second home. I have my children and wife here with me, but my heart is still there."

Mr Khorami, who fled Afghanistan because of the Talban, added: "I never thought, and no Afghan thought, a day like today would come.

"We were happy, we were hopeful," he said.

He said the Taliban were no different now to the time when he first left Afghanistan.

"They are the same people they were 20 years ago. They are the same people, they didn't change," Mr Khorami said.

"They will ask you to do whatever they want, if you don't do it you will be in big trouble with them.

"They had a different punishment for anything. If you did something serious against them they could kill you straight away."

Former BBC News NI journalist Mark Armstrong spent years with NATO in Afghanistan and ran news projects there, including radio stations.

He said he had been talking to friends and former colleagues who are still in Afghanistan and who fear for their lives, including a journalist who had worked with the Afghan government.

"He feels, I think justifiably that he's a target for the Taliban," Mr Armstrong said.

"He told me yesterday that the Taliban have been searching house to house and that they'd been specifically looking for journalists.

"He's absolutely terrified for the safety of him, his wife and his young daughter.

"He's been trying to get out through various schemes for quite a while, but bureaucracy runs slow and, as we've seen, the Taliban are lightning quick and what he feels now is it's too late."