News broke last week that the U.S. government is again helping eligible allies depart Afghanistan through state-owned Ariana Afghan Airlines.
To avoid upsetting the Taliban, these flights are not being hailed as “evacuations.” An estimated 160,000 Afghans await removal, including U.S. citizen Ghousuddin, whose name has been changed to protect his identity. On June 1, Ghousuddin’s mother called to say that his brother had disappeared. Amid door-to-door searches, reprisals, imprisonment, and torture, the family had many reasons for concern. Ghousuddin’s brother recently graduated from medical school. He had protested the Taliban after they murdered some of his female classmates and one of his professors.
In 2012, Ghousuddin worked in a detention facility, where he translated Taliban interviews. He told me that several of the high-ranking Taliban members recognized his regional accent and pinpointed the precise district and village of his birth. It is known throughout his village that Ghousuddin worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Army. According to a powerful recommendation letter that helped Ghousuddin achieve a special immigrant visa in 2014, the former interpreter provided assistance to over 300 combat patrols in Kandahar province. It was on one of those patrols in 2008 that Ghousuddin helped save the life of a U.S. soldier who had been set aflame by the enemy. Ghousuddin told me he rushed to the soldier, using his hands to try putting out the fire. Under enemy gunfire, he removed the soldier’s body armor and dragged her into a body of water, where he continued performing first aid until relief arrived.
That same determination compelled Ghousuddin to put himself at risk to save his brother, Haroon. After hearing of his mother’s anguish, he departed for Afghanistan, leaving behind his wife and two children. On arriving, he discovered his mother had been hospitalized due to anxiety. Ghousuddin quickly found Haroon in a precarious mental state. He suspects his brother was the victim of an attempted kidnapping, a common act in lawless Afghanistan. He is unable to take the situation to local Taliban authorities for fear of further persecution. Over the past nine months, Ghousuddin accrued $8,000 in credit card debt covering his family’s expenses. He borrowed an additional $4,000 from a friend to travel to Afghanistan. Sleeplessness has affected his concentration. He was recently demoted as a help desk technician to “make sure that my personal issue does not affect … clients.”
Ghousuddin’s struggle is far from over. He sponsored his mother for U.S. citizenship in June 2020 and sponsored Haroon in August 2021. After being in contact with the Department of State for months, officials told Ghousuddin only last week that he and his mother are eligible to depart but may endure a lengthy wait. Haroon cannot join them, as there is a 14-year processing wait time for sibling visa applicants.
Ghousuddin’s attempts to get Haroon a Pakistan visa have been futile. Though his brother is a doctor, Ghousuddin has found no method to evacuate him. It is “very hard to leave [Haroon] behind because what happened to him … will happen again,” he explained.
Ghousuddin’s is just one story among many.
The State Department did not provide requested details about the number of Afghans leaving the country each week or the time required to remove all eligible Afghans. A source in the evacuation community tells me between 100 and 200 Afghans are being flown to Qatar weekly. At this rate, bringing 160,000 Afghans to safety will take another 15 years.
Maintaining flights will force the United States to keep up a delicate diplomatic dance with the Taliban. This could limit opportunities to push back against the group’s draconian rule, likely allowing poverty, hunger, radicalization, and the persecution of women, minorities, and former government employees to continue.
The U.S. should pursue the speedier removal of its allies rather than remaining beholden to Taliban oppressors.
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance writer from the Detroit area.
