Vahid Safinia was visiting his family in Iran when the bombing started and his wife Tania Halder got him out. Photo: Supplied
The wife of an Iranian New Zealander feared her husband was dead as he tried to escape Tehran.
Vahid Safinia was visiting his sick parents when Israeli aerial strikes pounded their area. His mother has dementia and his father had just had an emergency back operation.
His wife Tania Halder, back in Auckland, saw the devastation unfold and fought to get him out.
"It was very bad. I mean all around their building, everywhere, bombs were falling and people were dying, people were injured. So they ran away from there. That very night they started moving out from Tehran. And I lost complete connection with them.
"They drove - my husband and his eldest brother and his mum and his dad, who was not able to move because of his surgery, but they put him back of the seat somehow to make him lie down. They were driving down and bombs were falling all around."
They had a home outside Tehran where they stayed for the night, but that area also started to be bombed and they returned to Tehran, said Halder, who is originally from India.
"Everything is stopped, everything is shut down, there is no food, no water, no bread. People don't have food. No-one can buy anything. They have no news, no connection to the outside world. We cannot make any calls to them anymore. No WhatsApp access, no internet access, frequent cross-connections."
She got Safinia's email password to look at instructions New Zealand officials were sending on how to get out - by applying online for an Azerbaijani visa. She said New Zealanders without internet would likely have stood no chance of receiving or following MFAT's advice.
"They sent us an email saying we will be at the Azerbaijan border waiting for NZ citizens on the 19th and 20th and if there is a demand, we will extend these dates further. So I emailed them and said that either 20th or 21st [Saturday] he will be there - please, please assist him at the border. They did not respond to that e-mail."
There were no consular staff by the time Safinia arrived on Saturday, and it took him 12 hours to clear the border.
'Interrogation was going on'
"People were treated very, very badly, very shabbily, very rudely. They were taken to small, small rooms without any windows and made to sit there for hours. Interrogation was going on. They were made to empty their pockets. They took out everything from their suitcase. They were mistreating them like anything, they were treating them like terrorists."
Vahid Safinia was visiting his family in Iran when the bombing started and his wife Tania Halder got him out. Photo: Supplied
Border staff also demanded all his wife's personal details and claimed his passport was a forgery.
Safinia did get through into Azerbaijan over the weekend and then reached Turkey to board a flight home today. He will land back in Auckland tomorrow.
But his wife remains angry about MFAT support, as it seemed consular officials from Ankara had only been there on days when embassy staff and their families from Iran were being evacuated.
"They were not waiting for NZ citizens there at all. They were just waiting for the consular staff from Tehran to get out from the country."
The trauma had affected both of them, she said, describing her husband as 'my universe'. Safinia, 40, an IT consultant, had not experienced bombing before.
"There were times, moments when I felt like he's dead. There were time when I didn't have a connection for 24 to 48 hours at a time and they were bombing all around, every building was getting bombed.
"He cried like anything. He has very bad psychological effects from it because he saw those bombings, everything right in front of him."
The couple have lived in New Zealand for 10 years, and became citizens. It was the first time he had been back in six years and he registered on MFAT's SafeTravel website but a specific warning came out only after he had boarded his plane to Tehran on May 30.
Israel launched air strikes on 13 June, and Iran has retaliated. Safinia's Iranian-citizen parents and brother are still in Tehran.
MFAT said 135 New Zealanders were registered with SafeTravel as being in Iran and some would have departed via land border crossings and not updated their SafeTravel details.
"We know there are many New Zealanders who have been impacted by this and other crises in the region," said a spokesperson. "Our thoughts go out to them and their communities. New Zealand families are understandably worried about their loved ones overseas."
It was unable to provide information on the specifics of cases for privacy reasons.
"Our longstanding advice to New Zealanders has been do not travel to Iran. Only extremely limited consular support options are possible within conflict zones. There is ongoing disruption to phone and internet connectivity throughout Iran. Despite these challenges, MFAT emergency response teams continue to work around the clock to provide consular support to New Zealanders in Iran, including via regular proactive outreach by phone, email and WhatsApp to those that are registered with us.
"We are also working closely with NZDF aircraft and personnel who have now been deployed to the region. We remain in regular communication with partners about departure options. Although repatriation flights are not possible right now because of restricted airspace, we are preparing in case that changes."
New Zealanders needing urgent assistance in the region should call +64 99 20 20 20.
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