3 families from the San Diego area get out of Afghanistan to safety
EL CAJON >> Three families from a San Diego suburb have made it out of Afghanistan after they went to the country earlier this summer to visit relatives and got stuck there amid the chaos following the Taliban’s takeover, officials said Thursday.
Five other families from El Cajon were still trying to get out, and U.S. government officials along with California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa were working on their safe return. The suburb, east of San Diego, has a large refugee population. Many of the families had gone to Afghanistan in May and early June, weeks before the crisis unfolded, so their children could see their grandparents and other relatives.
Officials initially said six families from El Cajon were trapped there but later learned there were a total of eight families from the city trying to get out of the country.
“We have more work to do and under extremely difficult conditions,” Issa said in a statement.
Fraidoon Hashemi, an Afghan who works as a community liaison for the Cajon Valley Union School District, said he has been in contact with the families and on Thursday was awaiting word from those who remain. All the families have children attending various schools in the district.
He said he was growing concerned because of news that two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport Thursday.
“We hope to hear from them soon,” he said.
Howard Shen, a district spokesman, said one family with five children arrived in San Diego on Wednesday night. The two other families were out of Afghanistan, but Shen said he could not confirm exactly where they were — only that they are safe.
“That’s all we want,” he said.
Counseling was being made available for the families and for their children’s schools.
Hashemi said the family back in San Diego was still shaken after their harrowing experience.
“They are OK now,” he said. “They need to calm down and forget what they’ve seen.”
In all, the El Cajon families included two dozen children, some of whom witnessed shootings and other violence in and around the Kabul airport in recent days, Hashemi said.
The families had each traveled to Afghanistan on their own on different dates and were not part of an organized trip.
The families asked U.S. officials for help after being blocked by the throngs of Afghans at the airport desperately trying to escape after their government’s rapid collapse and the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
The school district became aware of the problem after a relative of one of the families reached out to say their child would be late starting the school year, which began Aug. 17.