Afghan war hero now safe in Inverclyde helps refugees

Brave Bilal Wardak, who has lived in Port Glasgow for the last three years, was awarded a British Empire Medal and a EU equivalent for repeatedly rescuing his colleagues and diplomats from attacks.

To mark Refugee Week he spoke in the Scottish Parliament about his role with the Refugee Council and his new home in Inverclyde.

Bilal with son Ishmael (Image: George Munro)

He spoke to the Tele afterwards, reflecting on his rise to the top of the police force where he was responsible for the safety of three million people before ending up in charge of security, first for his government and then as an expert for international forces.

After working with both the US and British Embassy he was lifted to safety only weeks before the Afghanistan capital fell to the Taliban in August 2021.

In the weeks and months that followed Bilal helped 600 of his former colleagues and also family escape certain death in his home country.

At the same time Bilal, his wife Huma and their young children were themselves left with nothing, arriving alone as refugees and living in Inverclyde.Bilal Warkak (Image: George Munro)

Bilal, who stays in Highholm Street, said: "I didn't want to go, I didn't want to leave my country. I kept saying no, I told them I wanted to stay in my country and fight. But in the end we had no choice. I would have been dead. It was too dangerous.

"In the months before I warned what could happen, I gave reports to the British and the US, I told them Kabul could fall in three days.

"I left so many people, both my parents and my wife's parents still live in Afghanistan. My family is now all over the world. It is very sad, I hope to go home one day but it is too dangerous.

"It was terrible to watch the fall of Kabul. I was contacting colleagues, I was on the phone to the British and the US embassies and government to get people out.

"There were about 600 people we managed to get to Germany, Britain and the Netherlands."

But for Bilal, his wife and their young family, they were flown to Manchester with no idea what the future would look like.

Bilal said: "We couldn't think about ourselves, we had to do what we could to get other people out of danger.

"It was in the middle of the pandemic so we had to stay in one of those hotels for ten days to isolate. They put a letter under the door telling us we were going to Inverclyde. Of course I had never heard of Inverclyde.

"But when we came here we were met by the resettlement team, they made us feel so welcome and put in touch with other Afghans."

In the early days after his arrival, hugely experienced Bilal took on a role with the Scottish Refugee Council, setting up and running a helpline for Afghans and creating community groups.

He now works a community co-ordinator building community groups all over the country.

Bilal was born and brought up in the Wardak province, 30 kilometres from Kabul, during the time of Soviet occupation, where his family home was bombed several times, and then they fell into the hands of the Taliban.

Bilal Wardak with his youngest son Ishmael (Image: George Munro)

He said: "So the killings had stopped but then there were no human rights, my sisters couldn't go to school.

"Things changed in 2001 when the UN arrived, I was a student and I was selected to join the police force, it was tough. I was then made head of CID and then taken in to the interior ministry. I was responsible for protecting three million people, it was dangerous.

"There was so much corruption, I arrested 3,000 people and even the deputy interior minister."

Bilal's life was always under threat and he was attacked three times.

The proud Afghan was at the centre of two rescue missions, one of which was a compound under attack, with only a Royal Marine and a South African military man willing to go into the line of fire with him.

He said: "It was my colleagues, they would die unless I did something."

They managed to make the rescue mission a success despite the car roof being full of bullets and he was awarded an EU defence medal.

In 2019 Bilal was honoured with a BEM for a similar mission when he risked his own life again to save colleagues from a terrorist attack. He was recommended by head of the diplomatic service Sir Simon McDonald.

Bilal now lives safely with wife Huma, 34, and their four children daughter Hasant, aged 10, who would not be able to go to school if she lived in Afghanistan, as well as twin boys Michael and Gabriel, aged six, who are at St John's Primary and two year old Ishmael, born in Scotland.

He said: "I love Inverclyde, it is so nice and people are so friendly. When people speak to us in supermarkets and find out where we were from, they hug us.

"I now try to get as many Afghans as I can to come here to live, to come to Scotland. It has been difficult for us, we are on our own."