Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on August 16 that NZ forces would help evacuate Kiwis and Afghan nationals who had helped the NZDF efforts in Afghanistan. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on August 16 that NZ forces would help evacuate Kiwis and Afghan nationals who had helped the NZDF efforts in Afghanistan. Photo / Mark Mitchell
As Kabul fell to the Taliban in August, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta stepped in to open New Zealand's doors to Afghan nationals who had previously been denied entry despite helping the NZ Defence Force in Bamiyan.
The information is revealed in a series of emails and documents, released to the Herald by Defence Minister Peeni Henare under the Official Information Act, which shows how quickly senior ministers had to scramble to respond to an escalating situation.
A group of 37 Afghan nationals, fearful for their lives as US-led forces left Afghanistan and the Taliban marched towards Kabul, had been asking the Government for months to grant them visas.
They had done a number of roles to help the NZDF in Bamiyan, but many had visa applications repeatedly denied because they did not qualify under the 2012 guidelines.
The National Party has said the Government's mad scramble would not have been necessary if the visas had previously been granted using ministerial discretion.
The Afghan National's pleas became more desperate as the Taliban took Bamiyan in early August, causing many of them to flee their homes for the hills, or cross several Taliban checkpoints to get to Kabul.
Around this time, Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi described the situation as "an emerging issue", and he was looking into what could be done to help the Afghan nationals who had helped the NZDF during the 20-year Afghan war
"We have to have some discussions about the NZDF about how we might ascertain who might be eligible [for a visa]," Faafoi said on August 12.
By Saturday, two days later, the issue became far more urgent as it became clear the Taliban would take Kabul much quicker than the Government, as well as its Western allies, had anticipated.
Addressing the issue in a hurry saw it elevated to Ardern and Mahuta.
"She [Mahuta] has asked for further detail on categories of potential Afghan nationals who could seek assistance," said an email, sent on Saturday night at 9.44pm, from Mahuta's private secretary.
"We don't have a signed copy back yet but in the interests of time, it is referred to the Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, Minister of Immigration and Associate Minister of Immigration for information."
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta started asking more questions about who in Afghanistan needed New Zealand's help once it became apparent that the Taliban would take Kabul. Photo / Mark Mitchell
By Monday morning, with Kabul in the Taliban's hands, Ardern and Mahuta had made specific requests on which Afghan nationals should be helped.
This isn't reflected in the 10am situation report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which included "talking points" for ministers to say that the requests for help was still being "urgently considered" by Faafoi and his officials.
But it is revealed in a separate email that morning from Mahuta's senior foreign affairs adviser, which included a discussion document.
"Attached is the note (we understand worked up with MBIE and Defence) responding to questions this morning from PM [Ardern] and MFA [Mahuta] on who we would assist etc.," the email said.
"Will be asking for this advice to be formalised once we find out what Cabinet discussed."
Mahuta took the note to the Cabinet meeting that day.
In the background, a representative of the 37 Afghan nationals was repeatedly calling Mahuta's office in a desperate plea for help.
"He's called back again just now, obviously stressing the urgency of the situation," Mahuta's private secretary wrote in an email to several ministers' offices as Cabinet was meeting.
"I undertook that someone would call him back urgently."
A few hours later, Ardern revealed Cabinet's decision to expedite visas for the 37 Afghan nationals who had helped the NZDF in Bamiyan.
A C-130 Hercules was also to be deployed to help evacuate them, as well as 53 New Zealand citizens in Afghanistan.
Ardern added that the Government had been looking at widening the 2012 criteria for resettling Afghan interpreters, but Cabinet's decision had overridden that process.
National Party leader Judith Collins has asked why ministerial discretion wasn't applied to the visa applications that were denied, given that the Taliban were already advancing and Bamiyan locals were reportedly fleeing into the mountains in July.
Mahuta's office also received an urgent plea from Afghan interpreters who had already been resettled in New Zealand to help their parents and siblings still in Afghanistan.
"It is not a matter of 'if' anymore but 'time' now, the Taliban identify our families and drag them outside our house to kill them and take our mothers and sisters," wrote Raza Khadim, from the Afghan Interpreters' Association of NZ, to Mahuta the night before the Cabinet decision.
Asked about these family members following the Cabinet meeting, Ardern said their visa applications would not be expedited because the focus was on those who faced the "greatest security risk", and evacuation capacity was limited.
Their pleas have, so far, not led to the granting of any visas.
Khadim told the Herald yesterday that the number of people he was seeking visas for was more than 100, and he was relying on ministerial discretion for visas to be granted.
NZDF personnel at the Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan on August 25 on a mission to rescue people from the Taliban-ruled country. Photo / Supplied
Escape from Kabul
The Cabinet decision on August 16 was only one step. Getting people out was another.
Tens of thousands of people crowded the airport in Kabul in a desperate attempt to leave, with many clinging to - and falling from - planes as they were leaving the tarmac.
Afghan nationals with legit visas for New Zealand were told to carry coded signs with words such as "Taupo" so they could be more easily recognised.
This all took place as the Government's attention was urgently diverted to the Delta outbreak. The first case was detected on August 17, the day after Cabinet's decision.
In late August, a suicide bomb attack on the airport shut down the official evacuation operations, with Ardern conceding that the operation couldn't get everybody out.
But some Afghan nationals still managed to make it to New Zealand afterwards, including Nowroz Ali.
Immigration NZ has approved 424 critical purpose visa requests for Afghan nationals since August 14, covering 1291 people because immediate family were able to be included.
As at November 1, 531 Afghan nationals have arrived in New Zealand.
Immigration NZ has also established a new visa category - Afghan Emergency Resettlement - for those who were evacuated so they can stay in New Zealand permanently.
