A Survivor Story: How a Family Escaped the Taliban and Found a Fresh Start in the U.S.
Editor’s Note: For the safety of our source and his family, names have been changed or withheld from the story. The initial “S” does not reflect the first initial of the speaker. The family no longer resides at Quantico and have since relocated to an undisclosed location. ITDRC met S and his family while responding to the Afghan Resettlement efforts at Quantico, where they heard the following story.
“I just want to be considered a human being,” said S, “That’s what America can do for my children.”
S thought his chances were up, he believed he would not live to see August 25th. But now from his bunk bed, under a large tent that has been placed on top of a helicopter pad, S is excited for his new life. He shares this space and dream with thousands of Afghan refugees at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. His two children and wife are alive, and he’s hopeful his son and daughter won’t remember their trauma, how their parents carried them aboard the Air Force C-17 plane, and how they nearly suffocated from tear gas just weeks ago. S is kept awake with worries about his extended family trapped by the Taliban, he knows they haven’t been allowed to leave their homes for food. He hasn’t explained to his children that their cousins, aunts, and uncles did not make it out of Afghanistan.
S is newly connected to the outside world since the Information Technology Disaster Resource Center installed WiFi for the thousands of refugee guests at Quantico. The org is currently providing assistance at six locations in the US that have transformed fields and parking lots into temporary shelters.
Many Afghani’s came with phones, but their cellular plans don’t work in the U.S. Connecting to WiFi enables Afghans reach family members, separated by shelters or left behind in Afghanistan. S writes to family on WhatsApp but when he does hear back, it’s not comforting news.
But right now, despite his mixed feelings, S says he will remain grateful.
“I thought I had lost my two kids, I thought I would lose my wife,” he said “My daughter she still wakes up and asks ‘Is this America?’ I say we are here, we are safe, this is America.”
Back in Afghanistan, he worked as a translator, the head of linguistics, relaying important information for the Americans, three years before the Taliban regime took over.
The day Afghanistan fell was a faster sequence of events than citizens prepared for, and as S describes, his simple but good life was over. The Taliban hunted him, shot at him, gassed his children, and nearly grasped every person S loved in his life.
His name was on a list, and for five days, the Taliban were only a few steps behind him and his family while they tried to secure travel out of the country.
The day of the takeover, S received an urgent email from his supervisor, “Go to the airport immediately.”
S threw what items he could into a suitcase and ran with his family into the streets, the chaos outside his apartment would not end for Afghanistan. S knew, “If they get the chance, they will kill me, there will not be many more chances for me now.”
“This was the biggest challenge in all my life…I’ve never been in such a situation.”
Linking hands with his children, S, pushed through the layers of people, who were running in all directions. Dust and distant gunfire surrounded the city. S approached taxis, bargaining for a ride to the airport.
“I am not going to be killed by the Taliban for you, they told me,” S explained.
After locating three buses the Taliban cleared to travel to the airport, S arrived at departures August 16th at 1:30 A.M., his first attempt to get his family out of the country.
From 1:30 to 6 o’clock in the morning, S elbowed through panicked crowds and hid his family from the bullets shot from behind the gates the Taliban occupied.
“So for 6 hours I thought we are risking too much for my family, trying to get my family out was very, very, very, hard at that time” S said.
He looked at his children and wife, dehydrated from taking cover in the Afghan heat, and decided to try their escape again tomorrow.
“I risked my family again, and took them to the gate.”
The second attempt on August 17th yielded nothing new, the scene at the airport had only escalated to more gun fire, more screaming, more fatalities.
“I decided to go back home and at that time I received a call from my gatekeeper, he works in our building and we have a good relationship” S explains, “He said the Taliban are here and asked for you by name, don’t come back.”
With no safe spot to return to, the family went into hiding, sleeping in various locations around the city, in an attempt to throw the regime off their tracks. For three days S changed his phone number, his Facebook name, and checked into locations in neighboring cities, before turning his location off at night. They stayed on their feet during the day, leaving their hideouts at first light and praying for more information from S’s supervisor.
Life as a wanted man was not realistic for two small children and burnout soon set in. After three days of being on the run with very little food, S was convinced by his wife that it was time for their family to return home and wait for instructions there. Under the cover of night, S and his family returned to their apartment, keeping their children calm in order to maintain vacant appearances. The gatekeeper, a trusted friend, agreed to act as look out and run errands for the family until finally on the 25th the family received communication from S’s supervisor.
“All will be well, send a picture of your family and we will help you out with travel,” the email signed off with instructions on when and where to meet.
For the third time, S and his family arrived at Kabul International Airport desperate to secure travel as soon flights out of Afghanistan would cease and the danger of being killed by the Taliban would grow.
“We reached the airport and the gatekeeper said there was no way he could let me in” S explains “I said I cannot go home, sir, I am sure there will be no more chances for me.”
While waiting and arguing for passage through the airport gate, S received a phone call from a woman who shouted through the receiver that she worked for his supervisor. She shouted over the gunshots, “I have your papers, put your daughter on your shoulders so I can find you!”
S balanced his daughter on his shoulders for two hours before his family were handed the answer to their prayers — documentation, and the reality of escaping the Taliban.
They were allowed to enter the airport and then the airport descended into chaos as one of the final planes arrived on the tarmac.
The crowd began to surge and people started shouting but there was nowhere to move. The crowd pushed and fell, then the tear gas filled the air.
"Because of the crowd and because of the type of tear gas, my son and my daughter were unconscious because there was no air. Almost I lost my kids, I shout, I cry, I ask people to please help me out. I looked at my wife because my son, he was not answering me, I was slapping him, he was not opening his eyes, he was not moving actually. My wife was screaming we lost our kids and I was saying no, no not like this. If we were there 5 minutes more, I knew I would lose my kids and my wife. There was no oxygen at all, the tear gas was everywhere and there were people arguing. There was no water and nobody was able to move but all the crowd was pushing."
S and his wife picked up their children and ran, they were not giving up. S promised his wife their son and daughter would be okay as they sat on the floor of an Air Force C-17 plane along with 800 passengers and who all collectively hoped for better.
“I am really excited, I want my kids to grow up and be considered a human being, not hated because of their religion or where he or she came from.” said S, “So I want for them a bright future, that’s it…that’s it.”
The family has since left Quantico to start a new life near the ocean. In a follow up phone call, S told ITDRC that his children visited the beach for the first time and are excited to meet celebrities. His daughter still asks him where they are when she wakes up and S responds, “This is America and we are safe.”
