Mursal and Ahmad were evacuated from Kabul in August 2021 as the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan. After two months in Qatar, three months on a military base in New Jersey, and another three months in a hotel in Silver Springs, MD, they were finally resettled in North Carolina, in May 2022. The couple fled their home country because they had worked alongside the US military in Afghanistan.
Mursal gave birth to their first child shortly after arriving in North Carolina. And last year, she began working as a paralegal supporting other refugees navigating the immigration system. After two and half years in the Triangle, Ahmad says, “We feel safe. But the only thing we are not feeling comfortable is our family.”
When the Taliban took over, Ahmad’s brother, who had worked with the US embassy, did not make it onto an evacuation flight. He and his family fled Afghanistan on their own to another country in the Middle East. They had been moving smoothly through the refugee resettlement process there, waiting on the final step: to receive travel notification. Then the executive order came halting all refugee admissions.
Ahmad said, “[My brother] cannot go back to Afghanistan. If he returns, they will kill him.” But the country where they first sought refuge is not extending their visas. Now they are afraid of the police and being deported. They don’t go outside and struggle to access food and medicine. Their children cannot go to school.
Ahmad says, “I’m in a situation where we are not able to do anything for them. They have four children and are living in one bedroom. There are six in one bedroom. The kids cannot go to school…Even the smallest nephew is talking to me and is depressed. ‘I want to get to US.’ He is always talking to the phone to me and already worrying about the future and not playing like a kid.”
“[My brother] is a hard worker and will be a great addition to this country. He just needs a shelter.”
Two months ago, Mursal’s cousin was brutally killed by the Taliban. He had worked with the Afghan military. Mursal and Ahmad fear that their family waiting overseas may face the same fate if the resettlement process does not reopen.
Consider making a gift today to support vulnerable refugee and immigrant families in the Triangle impacted by executive orders halting refugee admissions and cutting off refugees in our community from critical federally-funded services.