By BEN FOX, JACQUELYN MARTIN and JULIE WATSON, Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Taliban forces had taken the Afghan capital. Crowds of panicked folks thronged the airport. And a younger man who had labored as a subcontractor for the U.S. army confronted a horrible selection.
Hasibullah Hasrat, after having navigated the chaotic streets and Taliban checkpoints to make it contained in the airport, might both return for his spouse and two younger youngsters or board an evacuation flight and get them later. Not taking the flight seemingly meant none of them would get out of Afghanistan.
Hasrat’s choice haunts him. He’s within the U.S., one in every of greater than 78,000 Afghans admitted into the nation following the U.S. troop withdrawal in August that ended America’s longest battle. However his household hasn’t been in a position to be part of him. They’re nonetheless in Afghanistan, the place an financial disaster has led to widespread starvation and the place Taliban repression is on the rise.
“My spouse is alone there,” he stated, his voice breaking as he describes nightly cellphone calls house. “My son cries, asks the place I’m, when am I coming. And I don’t know what to say.”
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It’s a reminder that the journey for lots of the Afghans who got here to america within the historic evacuation stays very a lot a piece in progress, crammed with uncertainty and nervousness concerning the future.
Afghan refugees, a few of whom confronted doable reprisals for working with their authorities or American forces in the course of the battle with the Taliban, say in interviews that they’re grateful to the U.S. for rescuing them and members of the family.
However they’re usually struggling to achieve a foothold in a brand new land, straining to pay their payments as help from the federal government and resettlement businesses begins to expire, caught in non permanent housing, and making an attempt to determine how one can apply for asylum as a result of a lot of the Afghans got here beneath a two-year emergency standing often known as humanitarian parole.
“We’re not positive what could occur,” stated Gulsom Esmaelzade, whose household has been shuttled between lodge rooms within the San Diego space since January, after spending three months at a New Jersey army base. “We don’t have something again at house in Afghanistan and right here we additionally don’t have any future.”
It’s taken a toll. Esmaelzade stated her mom has needed to be rushed 3 times to the emergency room when her blood stress shot as much as harmful ranges. The youthful lady attributes it to the stress of their lives.
Then there are extra mundane challenges which are nonetheless daunting for a lot of Afghans. They embrace studying English, navigating authorities bureaucracies and public transportation, and discovering a job.
There’s additionally the isolation for these, like Hasrat, who got here alone. “I don’t know anybody right here,” he stated within the house outdoors Washington he shares with two different evacuees. “I’ve no associates, no household, no kin. I simply dwell with my roommates and my roommates are from different elements of Afghanistan.”
Some have managed to get established. “However there are a lot of extra who are usually not doing positive than are doing properly,” stated Megan Flores, government director of the Immigrant & Refugee Outreach Middle in McLean, Virginia.
The expertise of the evacuated Afghans shouldn’t be not like what refugees have traditionally confronted in coming to america. In some methods it’s a preview for the as much as 100,000 Ukrainians who President Joe Biden says can be welcomed, additionally in lots of instances on two years of humanitarian parole.
Afghans on humanitarian parole should apply for a option to keep within the nation resembling by means of asylum. It’s a time-consuming course of that usually requires discovering an immigration lawyer, at a price of hundreds of {dollars} not available to most refugees until they will discover somebody to do it professional bono.
The Division of Homeland Safety says about half of the 78,000 seemingly will finally qualify for the particular immigrant visa, or SIV, program. It grants everlasting residency to folks, together with their rapid household, who labored for the U.S. authorities. Hasrat hasn’t been in a position to safe an SIV, a minimum of not but, regardless of his work as a subcontractor organising transmission traces for the U.S. Military.
Congress might resolve the state of affairs by passing the Afghan Adjustment Act, which might allow evacuees to use for everlasting residency after a yr within the nation, just like aid granted up to now to folks from Iraq, Cuba and Vietnam. Biden just lately gave the hassle a lift when he endorsed the concept of including it to an upcoming Ukraine help invoice, a transfer welcomed by a coalition that features veterans, non secular organizations and resettlement businesses.
“They’re going through a ticking time bomb of what occurs in the event that they don’t get SIV or asylum standing,” stated Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. “Do they get deported again to Afghanistan and into hurt’s manner?”
Within the meantime, Afghans try to sew collectively new lives as public consideration has shifted to Ukraine and different issues. At a current job truthful in Alexandria, Virginia, there have been a whole bunch of evacuees, together with Arafat Safi, a former senior official in Afghan’s international affairs ministry who got here to the U.S. together with his spouse, 4 youngsters and mom.
He’s hoping to land a job in venture administration or worldwide improvement, to make use of an schooling that features a grasp’s diploma from the U.Okay. To this point, he’s landed a place as a Pashto-English interpreter and is delivering packages for Amazon on the aspect whereas his spouse, Madina, works within the bakery part of a grocery store.
Safi stated he nonetheless hopes to discover a higher job and is raring to get everlasting residency. However he by no means complained in a prolonged interview on the household’s house in Alexandria. An intricate and vibrant Afghan rug — the one possession the household introduced from house — occupies a outstanding place in the lounge.
“I’m very fortunate to be right here, to be welcomed by the U.S. society. I met plenty of associates right here who’re checking on me virtually day-after-day,” stated the 35-year-old Safi. “And it’s wonderful. However there’s a small a part of me that misses Afghanistan and that misses my folks.”
Hasrat stated he has little time to consider something apart from his household again house and the hazard they face from the Taliban. A 29-year-old former aggressive boxer, he rides a motorcycle to his job as an administrative assistant at a medical workplace. After taxes and the cash he sends house, he barely has sufficient to pay his payments. His roommates, who’re nonetheless studying English, have even much less and have hassle making the hire.
Most nights, Hasrat waits till it’s late sufficient to have a video chat together with his household. On one current name, he tried to hitch the celebration of his youngsters’ birthdays however was unhappy to appreciate his daughter doesn’t even know him.
“I’m telling them that, ‘yeah, I’m pleased,’ as a result of if I advised them my state of affairs right here they are going to be unhappy,” he stated. “But when nobody is there to deal with your spouse, how are you going to be pleased?”
Watson reported from San Diego.
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