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Fort McCoy military base in the U.S.—— In the first few weeks Taliban takeover For the thousands of Afghans now living at the Fort McCoy military base, the journey through dangerous checkpoints, sleepless nights, and multiple flights to the United States is largely unimaginable.
But as the Taliban occupied the country’s capital Kabul in mid-August, taking a U.S. flight became Best hope of survival For countless Afghans who are afraid of reprisals from the organization.
Now, weeks after a hurried and chaotic evacuation, Afghan families find themselves in a strange place thousands of kilometers away from home.
Al Jazeera interviewed several Afghans* in Fort McCoy, a vast US military base in western Wisconsin, where they were waiting for immigration processing before being released to host communities across the country.facility Placement In early September, there were more than 8,000 Afghans.
Here, they tell how they fled Afghanistan and shared their hope for the future, as well as their desire to help their relatives at home and reconnect with them.
Abdul: Leaving his son is the “biggest sorrow”
Abdul, the father of three children, has worked with the Afghan security forces. He said he was “fear” of the Taliban’s sweep of the country. “We know what the Taliban are and how they behave,” he told Al Jazeera.
As Retaliatory report The killing in the Taliban-controlled area spread, and he said he and his family had no choice but to flee.Taliban has promised Do not seek revenge Afghans who oppose cooperation with the government or the US military.
“I am in a panic. On the one hand, I feel that I need to leave, but leaving my country and family makes me feel very sad,” he told Al Jazeera.
Abdul’s 9-year-old son fell ill when the family tried to reach Kabul Airport, and his panic intensified. He said his initial attempt to reach the compound failed because the Taliban fighters at the checkpoint near the airport simply pushed people back and refused them to pass.
Over time, he said he had to leave the sick child with his parents in the capital and tried to reach the airport gate guarded by the US and Afghan troops. “This is my greatest sadness,” said Abdul, who had to keep his son in Afghanistan.
In the end, Abdul, his wife and two young children spent three sleepless nights at the north entrance of the airport. Abdul did not apply for the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program for Afghans working in the United States. At the airport gate, he showed evidence of cooperation with the Afghan security forces, and the U.S. military let him in.
As soon as they entered, they took his biometric information and he was approved to evacuate. Abdul and his family flew to Doha, then to Ramstein, the U.S. Air Force base in Germany, and then were transferred to Fort McCoy. Although the conditions during the trip were not ideal, Abdul said his family was pleased to leave Afghanistan successfully.
Abdul also thanked the US military, saying that they had saved his life. “I am fully committed to complying with the rules and laws of this country in the future,” he said, adding that his first task is to bring his son to the United States-and then his brother and two sisters. “We want to be self-sufficient and find a job,” Abdul said.
The US government says it evacuated more than 120,000 people from Afghanistan in August [File: Armend Nimani/AFP]Abbas: “Our Hazara community will suffer”
Abbas said he lived a “happy life” before the government collapsed. He lives in Kabul and plans to go to university while processing the SIV application. His family comes from the Hazara community and grows potatoes in Bamyan Province, west of the capital.
“Before the Taliban occupied the province, they were very happy,” he said. “We have been rebelling against the Taliban, and now they are ruling, our Hazara community will suffer.”
Amnesty International record on file The massacre of Hazaras by Taliban fighters earlier this year.
Abbas said that when the Taliban arrived in Kabul on August 15 and occupied the city with little resistance, he was shocked and “feeling desperate.”
“Because I worked for the US military in the past, I went to a relative’s house and hid on the day the Taliban entered Kabul,” he said. “I chose to stay in a densely populated but working area, which would not attract people’s attention… I thought all my waiting and trying to get SIV was just submerged in the ocean.”
The next day, he decided to go to the airport, hoping to leave the country. “There is already a large group of people and the Taliban are preventing them from entering the airport,” he said.
After a day’s waiting, Abbas said that he had reached the gate of the army, where he “waved” his SIV file to every American soldier he encountered. Eventually, he was allowed to enter the compound. “I immediately called my family and told them that I was safe; my mother cried, and it made me cry,” he said.
Abbas traveled to Kuwait on a military plane, then to Dulles International Airport near Washington, DC, before being transferred to Fort McCoy, where he told Al Jazeera that the situation was improving.
“This is a completely different continent and country; we need to adapt and get used to this kind of food,” he said. “And the soldiers are very nice to us. I really like that they call us guests instead of immigrants.”
Abbas said he hopes to start work to help his family return to Afghanistan. “Economic Situation It has started to deteriorate over there,” he said.
Thousands of Afghans were placed in Fort McCoy [Zubair Babakarkhail/Al Jazeera]Hashima: “Everyone wants a good life”
Before the fall of the Afghan government, 23-year-old Hashima was studying international relations at a private university in Kabul.
She said that before the Taliban captured Kabul, she had no immediate plans to leave the country, but there were two family members working in the US military, and she felt she had to flee.
She first went to the airport in Kabul, but Hashima could not reach the compound because the gate was crowded with people. She said that her brother had cooperated with the US military and fled to China from Afghanistan, and he instructed her to take a flight to the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
She said: “We went to Mazar and waited there for two days, and then we were sent on a flight to Qatar.” But Hashima, who had no children, had to leave her husband behind.
“My husband’s name is not on the list of evacuees, so I have to come alone,” she said. “Because all this happened suddenly, my brother has not submitted my husband’s name in his SIV case.”
She said she felt “happy and relaxed” at Fort McCoy, but her main focus was to help her husband go to the United States with her. “He works in an American company. He is indeed threatened by the Taliban. The Taliban has come to our house to find my husband, but he has not stayed at home,” she said.
Hashima added that compared to her efforts to be happy in her surroundings, concerns about her husband’s safety made her “confused”.
“Everyone wants a good life,” she said.
“These days I pick up a pen and a notebook here, sit in the shade of a tree, and write down my plans for the future here. I write down my wishes and goals. I want to be the representative of the Afghan people in the United States. I hope to have Full freedom to achieve my goals.”
On September 1, a girl evacuated from Kabul waved to an American soldier at Washington Dulles International Airport [File: Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP Photo]Muhammad: “nearly impossible to accept” the Taliban takeover
Mohamed, 54, said he is still working on the Taliban’s takeover of the country. “I think I must have seen a dream, but then I realized and said to wait, it was real,” he said of the collapse of the Afghan government.
“It is almost impossible to accept the reality that our troops will leave the provinces and Kabul like they did.”
Mohamed, the father of six children, worked as a cleaner at a US base in Afghanistan. He applied for SIV four years ago, but he said he was “happy” living in Kabul with his family. “Our only concern is that our lives are in danger because we serve the Americans.”
Mohamed said that the arrival of the Taliban in Kabul changed everything. “The day the Taliban took Kabul was like the end of the world,” he told Al Jazeera.
After the army fired tear gas to disperse those who tried to climb the compound wall, he and his family waited four days after entering the north gate of Kabul Airport before finding their way in.
“Everyone started to have trouble breathing, putting their hands on their eyes,” he said as he recalled how the crowd disappeared from near the gate. “Everyone is calling their family’s name and hoping to find them,” he said.
“As soon as we saw that there was no one in front of the gate, we ran to the gate again and showed our credentials to the U.S. Army. The U.S. Army immediately opened the gate and let us in.”
They flew to Kuwait first, and then to Wisconsin. “The only thing I see on my family’s faces is a smile. Although we are tired, everyone is very happy to finally come to the United States.” He said.
Mohammad said he had no complaints at Fort McCoy while processing his family’s visa. “Even if I wait here for a few months, I don’t mind, because it is at least peaceful here. Kabul was like hell when we left,” he said.
*For security reasons, all interviewees used pseudonyms or names for identification.
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