There was a moment, and only a moment, when he felt safe. It wasn’t when he managed to shove his way into Kabul’s bustling airport, successfully on the second day of the attempt, and only after being forced to leave his elderly father behind.
It wasn’t when they approached the front of a second row, overseen by American troops, but which frequently descended into chaos as soldiers fired their guns into the air in an attempt to control the crowd. It wasn’t even when he and his family were crammed into the cargo hold of a huge C-17 Globemaster military plane.
And even when they arrived in Qatar, on the way to the United States, the 29-year-old feared that his wife and son could still be detained because, unlike him, they did not yet have a proper visa.
Rather, says Mustafa, It was the moment when an American official told him and his family at Washington-Dulles International Airport that they could all enter the United States together.: him, his wife and their young daughter. The whole family.
“When I got to DC and spoke to the border security officer, I asked if my wife could be with me. And he said, ‘Yeah, they have their own place together.’, he tells The Independent. “And at that moment I said: ‘Yes, thank God, I finished. I feel better and I feel safe. And I said:’ Nothing is going to happen to me.
The first thing they did was rent a Toyota 4Runner pickup at the airport and head to Mustafa’s home in California, a road trip that would allow his wife and son to see their new nation for the first time. He hoped it would also allow them to process some of what had happened to them in the previous weeks. They made stops along the way, including a zoo in Cleveland, Ohio, which their daughter delighted, and Salt Lake City, where they stopped for photos against the backdrop of crystal lake beds.
In the days since the Taliban took control of Kabul and completed their capture of Afghanistan on August 15, the US military has evacuated at least 114,400 thousand people from danger through Hamid Karzai International Airport. According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, of that total, nearly 5,500 were US citizens, while many others were Afghans who had been working with US or NATO forces at some point in the past 20 years and whose service put them in danger. .
Every person airlifted from Kabul, on the largest military airlift of a generation, will bring a story to share about the sheer drama and baffling emotions.happy for their own safety but anxious for the loved ones left behind and the fate of their country.
Few trips could have been more tense than Mustafa’s, who traveled in both directions, once to Kabul to pick up his wife, Osmani, 24, and their 21-month-old daughter, Honeya, and then guide them back to the United States. More than once, he says, he feared they wouldn’t make it. And at the Kabul airport, he says he saw elderly people die in the crowd.
“It was a nightmare getting to the airport,” says Mustafa, who asked that he and his family be identified only by his first name.. He and other members of his family worked for international organizations and he fears for the safety of those still in Afghanistan.
His story also highlights the slow and faltering pace of processing special immigrant visas created to help the thousands of Afghans and their families who risked everything to help US and NATO forces for two decades of the so-called war on terror. While he was able to travel to the United States on such a visa in the spring of 2017 with the help of a humanitarian group, the process of preparing the documents for his wife took much longer.
As a result, after obtaining your permission, Mustafa traveled to Afghanistan half a dozen times to see his wife and family, always attentive to the situation in the country, and while Donald Trump and later Joe Biden promised to withdraw American troops and leave the Afghans to fend for themselves. In statements to The Independent from Nevada, with his home in the San Francisco Bay Area just a day’s drive away, Mustafa says this summer saw the situation deteriorate as the United States withdrew its last 2,400 troops and the Taliban advanced with control..
In July, he decided that he had no alternative but to go to Kabul to try to save as many members of his family as possible: his parents, his brother and, of course, his wife and daughter. “People told me not to go, but I had to go,” he explains, adding: “I couldn’t leave my wife and daughter there.”. He flew to Kabul on July 11 and stayed with his family, in days marked by growing concern for the Taliban.
“I was very worried, but I tried not to be paranoid and to stay calm.”says Mustafa, also remarking that he helped his parents obtain passports in the hope that if they could not reach the United States, they could at least find refuge in countries like Tajikistan or Kazakhstan.
A day after the Taliban took over Kabul, Mustafa and his family tried to get to the airport but were unable to break through. The next morning he got up at six in the morning and tried again. Once again he faced a huge crowd that his father, who says he spent 12 years working at the British embassy, ​​couldn’t get past.
“Finally, I said to my father: ‘Sorry, it is not possible to enter. But I will try to find a way to enter and help from within.” Mustafa remembers that at the airport in the Afghan capital “there were children and women dying around me because it was difficult for them to breathe”.
After overcoming the outer cordon, Mustafa says that they slept on the floor with just a few sips of water and a bite of food. The next day he passed it on a second line, waiting to be cleared to travel. Finally at 2:30 the next day they boarded the military flight to Qatar: a crowd of people on the floor of the plane, but happy to start flying.
In Qatar, Mustafa and his family passed a couple of days before they were put on a 14-hour flight to Washington. “It was very comfortable. There was a lot of food,” says Mustafa, who has an economics degree and worked as an Uber driver during the pandemic..
Mustafa is happy that the United States has evacuated him and his family, although he says that many Afghans risked their lives to help America and deserve to be helped. He is critical of the chaos and danger he experienced at the airport, with the soldiers firing into the air. “The lack of a good evacuation plan was causing more problems. I don’t know why they didn’t have a plan.”, he maintains.
Back in America, Mustafa is thinking about his family’s new life with the possibility of his wife, Osmani, attending college and taking their daughter to kindergarten.. Mustafa says they are trying to enjoy these moments together, but they cannot forget their families in Kabul and the danger posed by the Taliban.
That danger was reinforced last Thursday with a double attack claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS-K) that killed at least 170 people. Among the dead were 13 US soldiers, whose remains were fired Sunday by President Joe Biden. That same day there was a US drone attack on an alleged Islamic State vehicle, and on Monday several rockets were fired by the insurgent group at the Kabul airport.
“After a long time, my wife and daughter are with me. But I am very worried about my family and what will happen to them in Kabul,” he says. Mustafa. In fact, like many, in addition to his concerns about ISIS, this young father does not believe that the Taliban have radically changed their ideology or in the threat they pose to a more tolerant way of life in Afghanistan.
“So far they are trying to act like they are more tolerant than they used to be, but I think they still have the same mindset.”, Mustafa comments and adds: “Very soon they will go back to the way they were and they will be more powerful than ever”.
From The Independent From great britain. Special for Page12
Translation: Celita Doyhambéhère
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