Uncertain future for Afghans living in the US

In a neighborhood in Boston, an Afghan family begins to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Israr and Sayeda have already started working, while they improve their English and prepare their home to welcome their first child.

Like many of the tens of thousands of Afghans evacuated after the Taliban occupation of Kabul, the young couple, who only wanted to give their first names, are trying to secure their new lives in the United States.

Although he worked as an interpreter for the US military, Israr and his wife are in this country on a humanitarian visa, a “vague legal status”, according to the host organizations, which only offers two years of residency.

After a winding and hard journey that took them from Kabul via Qatar to Washington and to a Texas military base, the couple settled earlier this year in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, under the protection of a couple they now call their “second moms and dads.”

“My dad is working on it,” says 26-year-old Israr about his immigration status. “He got me a lawyer.”

Israr prepared all the documents before heading to Kabul airport, where a chaotic evacuation was taking place at the end of August last year. His wife Sayeda, 23, hid some under his clothes in the hope that the Taliban would not search her.

But they beat her to the point where she couldn't walk. Israr, also wounded, left his luggage and carried her in his arms.

“I lost my luggage, my important documents, my money, my clothes, everything,” he tells AFP.

But they managed to get on a plane with their passport and some documents that they managed to save.

Now the couple faces an uncertain future. They have to get a special immigrant visa, reserved for those who helped the US government, or asylum.

But although they claim to have received “threats” and “blackmail” from the Taliban, it is not easy to prove that there has been credible persecution.

- “Obvious” -

The resettlement of Afghans in the United States ended in February, but now, with the Ukrainian war and the new refugee crisis, their advocates urge congressmen to pass a specific law that allows them to stay in the country.

Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar is working on a bill and Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, head of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) said she has met with favorable Republicans.

“For us, it's obvious,” says Vignarajah, but there are fears that there will be “obstacles.” In particular, for asylum, whose requirements are much more difficult to meet, he told AFP.

And it is that to create a credible request, many documents are needed that the Afghans destroyed to remove any evidence of their ties with the United States and prevent retaliation from the Taliban.

“The same documentation that could lead to a death sentence in Afghanistan could be the key to asylum in the United States,” he says.

- “Unfair” -

Jeffrey Thielman, head of the New England International Institute (IINE), which helped Israr and Sayeda settle down, has news that a Boston court is denying Afghans their asylum application, considering that the evidence of persecution is “too general.”

On the same basis, Thielman fears that many will not be able to obtain permanent residence either, he told AFP.

“They have been investigated, they have carried out our cultural orientation program, their children are now in school and are getting jobs,” so it is “very unfair” not to guarantee a future for these people in the country.

Added to this are the delays in processing 10,000 applications for special visas and more than 600,000 asylum applications, says Vignarajah.

Israr and Sayeda are grateful and happy to be safe and have “another chance” in the United States.

In the quiet of her bright and tidy apartment, Sayeda prepares fruit juice before going to work in a day care center and Israr to a supermarket.

Both help their families in Afghanistan.

sw/ec/st/af/yow