New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
UNH professor, another CT resident help a third escape from Afghanistan
The three Connecticut residents had to weigh the danger of one of them — a former interpreter for Americans in Afghanistan — leaving that country with his family after the Taliban had taken control.
The former interpreter, Atifullah, had been living in Connecticut on a Special Immigrant Visa, or SIV, but returned to his native Afghanistan because he wanted to bring his wife and children here, according to Matt Schmidt, associate professor at the University of New Haven and former instructor of strategic and
operational planning at the Army’s Command and General Staff College.
Then Atifullah needed help. Hearst Connecticut Media is using just his first name for safety reasons.
Atifullah was one of about 900 Connecticut residents stuck in Afghanistan, according to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, where an attack outside the airport in Kabul Thursday killed 13 Americans and and at least 170 Afghans.
Schmidt learned of what was occurring because he and Mike Kuszpa are on the same listserv in New Haven. Atifullah is Kuszpa’s former interpreter in Afghanistan. The issue was whether Atifullah’s papers were in order: Schmidt said that if Atifullah made it through the checkpoints at Hamid Karzai International Airport, but was then turned away, he likely would not make it back.
Schmidt, turning to a former student who now works in the State Department, said he was able to help the government link Atifullah and some of his key records — a passport and a green card. He, Kuszpa and Atifullah spoke, weighing the danger. They initially decided against it; then Atifullah ventured out for the uncertain journey.
Atifullah made into the custody of U.S. soldiers last Wednesday.
“We knew he was safe at this point,” said Schmidt. “I was in tears.”
After traveling, Atifullah is now in Washington, D.C., hoping to return to New Haven, Schmidt said.
Blumenthal said the Afghans who are trying to flee Afghanistan include “special forces who raided the Taliban. The Taliban know who they are and they have targets on their backs.”
“My office is working night and day on behalf of Connecticut residents who came here maybe years ago and went back maybe for a wedding or a funeral or some family event. … There are Connecticut residents who have tried to escape across borders. Frankly, we’re unsure at this point where they are and whether they’ve made it.”
The crisis has called for resettlement agencies, such as Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services in New Haven, to find extraordinary and creative ways to try to get people out of Afghanistan.
“We have 11 families, clients of ours, that are stuck in Kabul right now,” said IRIS Executive Director Chris George during a webinar Friday afternoon. “A number of staff members have been in touch with them, calling them on the phone … taking pictures of their green cards.”
Volunteers and IRIS staff have been communicating with Afghans via WhatsApp to help them fill out repatriation assistance request forms. It’s critical to have these forms filled out because that is how the State Department knows they are eligible to leave and can notify them to come to the Kabul airport, according to Ann O’Brien, director of community engagement for IRIS.
“We’ve got English language teachers who are suddenly involved full-time trying to fill out forms and trying to coordinate with families on the ground trying to get them into the airport,” George said.
In addition to 32 Afghans who have arrived in Connecticut, O’Brien said, “We have roughly 45 clients that we have been in contact with who are in transit back to the United States from Afghanistan, and for those clients all but seven of them … our staff helped them complete the repatriation form online.
“We have at least 50 clients, likely more that are still in Afghanistan and are not close to boarding flights,” she said. That number is “not even close to the hundreds of applications we are trying to process.”
Those with green cards, giving an immigrant permanent resident status, may have been resettled by IRIS years ago but went back to Afghanistan for personal reasons. Others have SIVs, given to Afghans who worked for the U.S. military as translators, interpreters and in other jobs.
However, SIVs only permit the visa holder and immediate family to evacuate. That leaves parents, siblings and other relatives behind, causing tremendous worry for those who leave.
“During this evacuation we also realized that there are not just green card holders … or Special Immigrant Visa holders that need to get out,” George said. “We have an obligation to bring them and their families out. There is no way that’s going to happen by the 31st (of August) and we have no idea how they will get out after that.”
For those who do evacuate, the stress and trauma continue. “You’re luckily escaping from Kabul but you’re leaving dozens of relatives and friends behind. You’re feeling worried about them. You’re feeling guilty that you made it out,” he said.
“Once you get in the United States, your phone is ringing nonstop and you’re getting text messages and emails from the people you left behind,” pleading for help. “It is just crushing, and we’re worried about them,” George said. “And indirectly, it’s also very difficult for my staff who are getting that next phone call from the Afghan who’s made it out. … Staff are hearing these same stories” about the Taliban going door to door or people hiding in safe houses.
“I’ve never been more proud of the people I’ve worked with at IRIS but it’s difficult,” he said.
There have been reports of Afghans trying to cross the border into Pakistan and being shot by Pakistani security forces, George said. The Taliban have closed the borders, he said.
O’Brien said those who are in the process of getting SIV status will be processed by the State Department just as SIV holders are. Others who are not eligible, including “women, children, journalists who are outspoken against the Taliban, will be processed in a different category and at the outset will not be eligible for the same benefits that SIV provides,” she said.
Those people will have to apply for asylum, meaning they will not be able to work until their first hearing. “How are they going to eat? How are they going to live?” she asked. After their first hearing, asylum seekers can get limited work authorization.
These restrictions don’t apply to typical refugees, who become legal permanent residents of the United States as soon as they arrive. “It’s easy, relatively speaking, not easy but easier to get a person like that an apartment,” because they are helped to get a job within the required six months.
It also will be a challenge to resettle the largest number of refugees IRIS ever has been asked to take in. The State Department had assigned IRIS a total of 400 refugees for the upcoming year. “We’re being asked to resettle another 300, an almost unimaginable total of 700,” George said. The highest total was 530 in 2016.
“If there is no housing, if there are no apartments to put people into, then that’s a major obstacle,” he said. He said IRIS will be approaching universities to see whether there is extra dorm space.
O’Brien said the original plan was to settle 250 people in New Haven, 100 in Hartford and 50 among the community groups that have been trained to resettle refugees just as IRIS’ case managers do, including assisting with getting jobs, adjusting to American culture, education, health care and legal issues.
“The United States has far more rules and regulations about employment as well as societal rules about how to get the next job than they have experienced before,” O’Brien said. Basic things like references are unknown to most refugees.
She said this year the United States was expected to take in 125,000 of the 290,000 refugees around the globe who are designated as eligible to be resettled by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. That is just one percent of the world’s 2.9 million refugees, she said.
How eligibility is determined is “super unclear,” O’Brien said. “The thought of being an asylum officer in that system is unbearable. How do you choose?”
In the normal process, each refugee is screened by the UNHCR, then “they sit in a camp or in an urban situation for an undefined period of time until their case reaches a point where they are identified as eligible for resettlement [and] assigned to a U.N. member country,” O’Brien said. “We do additional screening that often takes two years.” In Afghanistan now, none of that can happen.
O’Brien said the first 90 days are critical. “The key is English and employment,” she said. “If their English is not strong enough to even get entry-level positions, then we really go hard on the English.”
Safety
Blumenthal said the U.S. military “is reaching out and attempting to provide a path for escaping to the airport to some of the American citizens and Afghans who can be transported. … They can’t necessarily reach everyone. They want to avoid unnecessary conflict with the Taliban and they have to do it in a way that doesn’t raise unacceptable risk for the people who are doing it.”
Schmidt, excited that Atifullah is safer, began making plans for the families to get together for pizza in New Haven. He suggested Sally’s; Atifullah countered with Modern.
He said the episode had added to the impact Afghanistan has had on his life. The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. changed the course of his life as a young man; he worked for the military; he’s had students who have served for four tours; he had students who died there.
“It’s pretty special to be able to eek out this one small victory,” said Schmidt. “I think it’s important for Americans to remember, for a small percentage of their friends and neighbors in this country, this war has been ever present for 20 years. … These people are real, and unlike in World War II in many cases, I think you don’t see the scars, physical and mental ... they’re coming out in these last few days.”
Those scars and difficulties were all the more present for Afghans. Atifullah worked with the U.S. for 15 years, Schmidt said — a significant chapter in his life. He and his families faced either a more limited future in Afghanistan, where, even if he was able to live safely, the abilities of women will be curtailed, or a hard adjustment to a different culture in America.
Schmidt said he was glad to have played a role in getting Atifullah out. Atifullah and his family had shown the true bravery, Schmidt said, but the episode still would be a notable marker in his own life.
“This is almost certainly going to be one of the most important things I’ve done in my life, the tiny, tiny thing I’ve done in this,” said Schmidt.