A former Afghan interpreter for the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) whose family are hiding in mountainous Bamiyan province with their children is pleading for the Government to rescue them.

The plea comes as the Defence Force issued an edict for Kiwi soldiers to stop seeking information and trying to help their trapped Afghan friends, who are fleeing in fear of the returning Taliban regime.

“My family they have a three-month-old baby, they don’t have enough food to eat, he is in a critical condition, he is coughing. My [family member] said: ‘Maybe he is die, I don’t know what is happening,” said the former interpreter, who was granted refugee status and has been living in New Zealand since 2013.

“They run from the Taliban, and they are living under a tent in the mountain, it’s very, very cold. I am so worried about them.”

Stuff is not naming the interpreter or identifying any of their family members, in order to protect them from possible reprisals by the Taliban.

The Defence Force has embarked on a mission to rescue 37 Afghan allies and their families. They’re aiming to airlift them back to New Zealand on a Hercules C130 aircraft, which departed from Whenuapai Airport for Kabul on Thursday morning. There are also 105 New Zealand nationals thought to be in Afghanistan.

Amid confusion about who is on the official evacuation list, the Afghan interpreter – who helped New Zealand troops on the ground for more than a decade – is asking that the government ensure it rescues families of those who worked at Kiwi Base.

“They run from the Taliban, and they are living under a tent in the mountain, it’s very, very cold. I am so worried about them.”

Canada and the UK have said they will accept 20,000 nationals each, and Australia 3000. Canada’s number is in addition to the thousands who worked for the government including interpreters, embassy workers and their families.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has previously said New Zealand was currently focusing on those who had helped New Zealand and their immediate families, which could be “in the order of 200” people.

“At this stage, we are prioritising those who have the greatest security concerns, based on the fact that they have supported New Zealand efforts and have a security risk attached to them as a result of those efforts, and that’s who we’re having to prioritise.”

The Taliban, a fundamentalist militant movement, seized Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, on Sunday evening, toppling the Afghanistan government as international forces withdrew after two decades.

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Despite the Taliban saying it would not undertake revenge attacks on those who helped the enemy, the interpreter said his family had fled to the mountains because they will be targeted.

“If they survive today and tomorrow, in a couple of weeks or months if Taliban find out they will kill them. Taliban is Taliban, they never stop killing people they are very dangerous,” the interpreter said.

“I want New Zealand Government as much as they can please help these people, help these poor people. We gave good help, now we want help back. Please.”

Meanwhile, the Defence Force has told worried former and current serving soldiers trying to seek information on behalf of their Afghan friends to stop.

“Various units have had contact from previously employed LECs [locally employed civilians] or persons who know someone who was a LEC in Afghan,” said a widely-distributed NZDF email, viewed by Stuff.

It went on to say that all staff working for Operation Kōkako, the evacuation team, had been advised not to provide any “advice, support or formal correspondence” to anyone trying to seek residency or refugee status in New Zealand. They were instead instructed to refer them to the Immigration NZ website, where there is resettlement criteria.

A Defence Force staffer who served in Afghanistan told Stuff they and many others were worried for their former Afghan colleagues.

“There are already Taliban people coming into their village to hunt them down. Them, their wives, and their children. They are literally being rounded up, and they are fleeing to the mountains,” the source said.

“The Afghan people here have families who are still there on the Taliban hit-list and have no clarity if they're on the Defence Force list. There sounds like there are people who will be left off and honestly, they will be executed and so will their kids.

“People are terrified.”

There needed to be more transparency around who qualified for evacuation and more help or support provided to worried families already in New Zealand, they said.

In 2012 and 2013, 44 former employees and 96 immediate family members of those who worked for Kiwi Base were resettled here.

Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi has been approached for comment.