An Afghan refugee who drove for Uber was killed in San Francisco — his household is in search of solutions

Ahmad Fawad Yusufi, a refugee from Afghanistan and father of three, was shot dead in a botched robbery attempt in San Francisco last month. His family says Yusufi, a former U.S. Army interpreter who lived in Sacramento, was in San Francisco driving for Uber, a job that was their only source of income.

The shuttle company said Yusufi appeared to be “offline” at the time of the shooting, meaning he was off duty, but his brother Ilyas says Yusufi worked for Uber all night Sunday, which is his reason for staying in San Francisco was early Monday morning at the time of filming. He has written a letter to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Chief Legal Officer Tony West, and Senior Vice President of Marketing and Public Affairs Jill Hazelbaker asking for $ 4 million in aid to Yusufi’s family – which he believes the company is “Ethically committed” – and has access to Yusufi’s deactivated Uber account. Ilyas believes the report may provide more information about the circumstances surrounding his brother’s death.

In an interview with The Verge, Ilyas said that it feels like Uber doesn’t care what happened to his brother. “He worked for them, but they don’t want to help us,” he said, adding that Yusufi’s wife does not speak English and is unable to work, so the family is at risk of losing their home. “At the moment we don’t know what to do. But when his children ask me what I did for their father, I have to tell them I tried. I have to try to give them a good life. ”

In his letter, Ilyas points to Khosrowshahi’s September blog post, in which he wrote about being an Iranian refugee as a child, and promised that Uber would support Afghan refugees. The CEO announced that Uber has added an in-app donate button that will send funds to International Rescue Committee refugee resettlement programs and added support for Pashto and Dari languages ​​to its Uber Driver app. “We want to make access to economic opportunities even easier for Afghan refugees, if they are ready,” wrote Khosrowshahi.

“… you turn your back on us in times of need”

But Ilyas said he and hundreds of other Afghan drivers often sleep in their cars while driving for Uber. “And now, after all the work we’ve done for your company, turn your back on us in times of need,” he writes.

In response to a request for comment from The Verge, Uber spokesman Austen Radcliff said in an email that the company was “saddened by this senseless act of violence that killed Mr. Yusufi. Our hearts are with his family at this difficult time. ”Radcliff added that Yusufi was not online or on a trip at the time of the incident and that his last trip was the night before. Uber has reached out to the family to offer their condolences, Radcliff said, and is working to give them access to the account. He referred to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle in which police said Yusufi was with a friend near a park at the time of the incident.

Uber has historically tried to postpone responsibility for incidents with its drivers – who are considered independent contractors rather than employees of the company – if the drivers were inactive at the time.

Perhaps the most famous test for this position is an incident in 2013 where a driver who said he worked for Uber in San Francisco ambushed a family at a zebra crossing and killed six-year-old Sofia Liu. However, the company claimed that although the driver was a “partner” of Uber, he “did not provide any services on the Uber system during the incident”. A lawyer for Liu’s family said the driver was logged into the Uber app at the time to check fares, even though he did not have a passenger in the car when he hit Liu. The company eventually settled out of court with the family, and the incident resulted in new state law requiring drivers and businesses to get liability insurance when using a ride-hailing app.

Yusufi isn’t the first Uber driver to be killed on the job

And Yusufi isn’t the first Uber driver to be killed on the job; two of the most recent incidents are Javier Ramos, who was shot dead in an attempted car theft in Chicago in March, and Timothy Perkins, who was beaten and stabbed to death in Detroit in January.

Driving for the company’s delivery platform Uber Eats can also be dangerous. Pakistani immigrant Mohammad Anwar was killed in an attempted car theft in Washington, DC in March. Two teenagers pleaded guilty to the murder.

Cherri Murphy, an organizer of Gig Workers Rising, a Bay Area organization that supports Yusufi’s family, said Uber drivers sleeping in their cars were not uncommon in the area and criticized the company as it stood out from the crowd “washed his hands” for him and his family. “That is just unacceptable. We stand in strong solidarity with Ahmad’s family and for workers everywhere who are endangered or killed at work. ”

Ilyas, who also drives for Uber, says he and his brother came to the US in 2017 and typically made the trip from Sacramento to San Francisco every weekend to make money on the ride-hailing platform. In his letter to the Uber executives, there is a request that the platform pay its drivers better.

“When my brother and I went to San Francisco every weekend, we couldn’t afford a hotel room after driving your customers around town all night,” Ilyas wrote. “We bring people like you to your multi-million dollar homes every day. We deserve a safe, hospitable place to sleep for the night after. “