A British national stuck in a UN safehouse in Afghanistan says he has accepted his fate and feels ‘abandoned’ as the country falls to the Taliban.
Miles Routlege, 21, from Birmingham says he visited the country because he thought it’ll be safe to visit because the country would not fall to the Taliban for several months.
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However, on Sunday, August 15, Taliban troops rolled into the capital, seizing power as president Ashraf Ghani ran for his life.
Miles, whose ambition is to visit some of the world’s most dangerous places, claims he was stopped by insurgents near Kabul international airport who asked him where he was from.
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He said he told them ‘Wales’ because he didn’t want to say the UK and they didn’t know where that was so let him go. Miles, a student at Loughborough University, said he had called the British embassy but feels ignored.
He said to The Times: ‘I was fully prepared for death, I accepted it. This trip has been a test of God. I’m very religious so I believe I’ll be looked after.
‘Before I left I wrote a letter to my friends saying that if I died, not to feel guilty, that I would die happy and religious and proud.’
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He also hopes his American Express card, which gives his names as ‘Lord Miles Routledge’, might help keep him safe.
He added: ‘The Taliban may see that as reason enough to keep me alive, thinking it may hold some negotiating power as they’ll think I’m important.’ Before the Taliban took over, he shared pictures of himself in a local market with guns.
Miles, told The Times he decided to take the trip after spending the summer working as an intern for a wealth management firm.
He also shared photos of his plane ticket to Kabul to prove to doubters he was really in the country.
He said: ‘I like risk, I’m a banker, so it makes sense. I hate lying around on a beach so I wanted to do something a little bit different.
‘After graduating I’ll have a full-time job and maybe a family so won’t have the opportunity to do things like this again. I thought [Afghanistan] looked quite nice, the food seemed amazing and it was dirt cheap.’
The UK Government has announced it is currently trying to rescue the 4,000 British nationals who are still in the country.
