Afghan refugee hopes to bring his family to safety in Ireland

Mohammad Zubair, a refugee from Afghanistan, got visas only last week to allow his wife and three-year-old daughter to join him…

Mohammad Zubair, a refugee from Afghanistan, got visas only last week to allow his wife and three-year-old daughter to join him in Dublin.

But the 35-year-old former doctor, who has lived in Ireland for three years, has not had any contact with his family since last month's attacks on Washington and New York put the spotlight on his native country.

He is not even certain where in Afghanistan his wife and child are, and whether they are safe. The last he knew, they were in the Afghan capital, Kabul, which the Taliban claim was targeted in Sunday night's US-led military attacks.

Mohammad believes his family has left the city with other relatives for the north of the country, close to the border with Pakistan. This area is under the control of the Western-backed Northern Alliance.

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He hopes to get a visa soon to travel to Pakistan and is confident he would be able to make contact with his wife from there and bring her and his child back to Ireland.

"I am worried about my family," he says. "For nearly 31/2 years I have not seen them. We are used to worry all the time for 20 years of war."

Since the military strikes on Afghanistan began at the weekend, Mohammad and his brother-in-law, Abdul Siddiqi (32), have been listening to news broadcasts on the hour.

Abdul, a businessman in Dublin, has sisters and brothers living in Afghanistan while his parents live in the Pakistan city of Peshawar, close to the border with Afghanistan. He spoke to them by telephone at 2 a.m. yesterday, hours after the air strikes began. His wife and four children are with him in Dublin, where he has lived for six years.

Both men sought asylum in Ireland because of the unrest in their country. Mohammad said he had worked as a doctor with the Mujahedin in a clinic near the border with Pakistan during the 1990s, after the withdrawal of the Soviets.

"The Taliban captured Kabul and came to our area and after that I left this area and came to Ireland," he says.

The men say that when they arrived in Ireland few people they encountered even knew where the central Asian country was. Now, says Mohammad, if you ask even a schoolchild, they will know where Afghanistan is.

Abdul says he loves his country, is worried about his relatives and the inevitable deaths of innocents in attacks on a state already ravaged by decades of war. With the borders of neighbouring countries closed to refugees and the harsh winter approaching, their fears are justified.

"At the moment, the way they are targeting their missiles a lot of people will be killed," says Abdul. "It will be very cold. It's very hard.

"How can I explain it to you? People are already suffering from hunger and drought and disease and everything. The country has been at war for more than 20 years now and with the strikes by Britain and America how would you expect it? It will be worse and worse."

Mohammad and Abdul are among fewer than 100 Afghan refugees and asylum-seekers living in Ireland. According to official figures, 74 people from Afghanistan have claimed asylum here since 1991. Only five Afghan asylum-seekers are currently living in State-funded accommodation outside Dublin.

They say they have not experienced any animosity as a result of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. Nevertheless, Abdul does not want his business to be identified.

Asked for their opinions on what course the war might take, Mohammad says the Taliban fighters who know the country's difficult mountainous terrain very well will take a long time to defeat.

Both say Afghanistan's exiled king, forced to flee in a Soviet -backed military coup in 1973, has strong support and could unite the people. "He is the only man who can bring peace in Afghanistan," says Abdul. "Our relatives there hope the king will come back ... the public is tired of fighting. People are looking for peace."