'If sent back, Taliban will kill us,' says US trained pilots held at Uzbek camp

The pilot recounted feeling like a prisoner, with minimal movement, long hours in the sun, and little food and medicine.

Afghan pilots who have received training in the United States and those arrested in Uzbekistan dread being sent to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. So when an unconcerned Uzbek guard stated the other day, "You can't stay here forever," it was little solace. The offhand warning contributed to an already nagging sense of unease at the camp just outside Afghanistan's northern border. According to one of the Afghan pilots who fled there with planes after ground soldiers were lost to the Taliban in August when the US and its partners withdrew their forces.

The pilot, on the anonymity, said that if they send us back, he is 100 per cent sure they'll kill them. The pilot recounted feeling like a prisoner, with minimal movement, long hours in the sun, and little food and medicine, speaking to Reuters via a mobile phone that the Afghans there attempt to keep out of sight. Some people have lost weight.

Satellite pictures supplied to the media agency in late August revealed high walls around the camp, which had previously been used to treat COVID-19 patients and is located near the city of Termez. Images of Reuters from inside the facility showed basic white dormitories with bunk beds and little clutter, indicating that most Afghans arrived with only the clothing on their backs. The pilot said the Uzbek guards were armed, some with pistols and others with semi-automatic rifles.

Some Afghan pilots made a spectacular escape in the last days and hours before surrendering the battle to the Taliban, flying 46 aircraft out of the country before the Taliban could capture them - more than a quarter of the available fleet of roughly 160 planes.