This is what defeat looks like.
In the small waiting area outside the office of a refugee charity that overlooks the railway line between Peshawar and Karachi, two exhausted families shelter from the sun. One of them is led by Khair Muhammad Yaqoobi.
He shows me a document on his phone. It is a British visa application for him and his wife and five children, addressed to the UK embassy in Kabul and dated July 21, 2021 – less than a month before the city fell to the Taliban.
A covering letter explains that Mr Yaqoobi had worked for the British-founded firm Global Strategies Group as a security officer at Hamid Karzai International Airport.
In the small waiting area outside the office of a refugee charity that overlooks the railway line between Peshawar and Karachi, two exhausted families shelter from the sun. One of them is led by Khair Muhammad Yaqoobi (right)
That is where the calamity-defining scenes of panic and death unfolded last month during the mass evacuation of Westerners and Afghans who had reason to fear the change of regime.
The letter was written by one of his former managers, a former Australian Army soldier called Stephen Hull.
In the circumstances it is worth quoting at length: 'Khair Muhammad Yaqoobi's employment oftentimes exposed him to personally dangerous situations because of his support of the UK.
'On frequent occasions, Khair Muhammad Yaqoobi, while performing in his official capacity ... was the target of ridicule, harassment, and life-threatening circumstances.
'As a security team member, Khair Muhammad Yaqoobi dutifully and faithfully ensured that the safety and interests of UK personnel and property were put at the forefront as he protected and helped facilitate these Government programs.'
The letter concludes: 'Based on his years of proven dedicated support to the UK Government and due to the threats that he faced and currently faces, I see him eligible to apply for the visa program.'
Last night Mr Hull said: 'I know him. I have been in contact with him for three months. It has been an extremely difficult few months.'
It certainly has. The letter arrived too late and Mr Yaqoobi was left behind.
The 38-year-old Tajik was just one of scores of Afghan former employees of Global Strategies, a company which reportedly ceased trading in 2017 after doing tens if not hundreds of millions of pounds of Afghan-related business.
Mr Yaqoobi started working for for the British-founded firm Global Strategies Group as a driver but was promoted to security officer and assigned to protect Kabul airport. Above: His ID card
Mr Yaqoobi's case was very unlike that of the 150 stray Afghan dogs under the care of the Nowzad animal charity run by former British serviceman 'Pen' Farthing which were evacuated by air to the UK. Or the 68 Nowzad staff and their families that the Foreign Office arranged to be taken to Pakistan.
Global Strategies was not Mr Yaqoobi's only Western employer. He shows me his staff pass for Armstrong Aviation Development Services, a firm registered in London, which closed in 2016.
Another laminated pass confirms he was also once employed by the US Department of State's 'Justice Sector Supporting Program'.
Taken together these documents are a potential capital crime in today's Afghanistan.
When Kabul fell Mr Yaqoobi sent his wife and children to what he thought would be the safety of the 'undefeated' Panjshir Valley, only to see the Taliban claim to have taken it over.
Meanwhile, he and his brother and nephews crossed into Pakistan via Kandahar, having been on the road for days as fugitives.
'In Kabul I would be living underground still,' he tells me.
'We were left behind by our employers.
'I came to this office to get my refugee card, but they said "Come back in 20 days".
'We have no money, no medicine (he is suffering from an injury sustained in a terrorist explosion in 2015). It is very bad.'
The other family, of 12 adults and children, are led by Nasra Tallah, 36. His sister-in-law is cradling a baby, her features hidden beneath a burka.
Mr Tallah speaks good English – 'I learned it from the movies' – and worked as an interpreter and gate guard for Western security companies, including the British-registered firm Strategic Security Solutions International.
A week ago he and his family fled by road to the Pakistani border. It was a hard and frightening journey.
At a Taliban checkpoint Mr Tallah was challenged by a fighter: 'He asked me "Why are you leaving your country for Pakistan? Tell me, what is the reason"?'
Mr Tallah dared not say, of course. It was only by claiming his son, who was seriously – and obviously – brain-damaged in a car accident, needed medical care that he got through.
'Many times we have called at the UN Refugee Agency office but heard nothing.
'They say they will call us but they don't. We are
