When Australian forces pulled out of Afghanistan in 2014, local interpreters who served alongside them were promised safety in Australia via a refugee visa program. Years later, many are still in limbo as they wait for news on their application while the threat of the Taliban rises.

This video was a co-production between SBS’s Dateline program and Audio and Language Content’s Pashto program.

Working with reporter Abdullah Ali Khil, this video told the story of Afghan language interpreters who served with Australian troops. They remain in Afghanistan as their visa process for Australia has been delayed.

The video presented many challenges including being in a foreign language, not being able to identify its subjects and sourcing footage from the conflict zones.

The package was part of a long-form feature and was also presented in a captioned square video for social media.