BOSTON, United States — One of the US’ newest families
is finding its feet months after fleeing Afghanistan: Israr and Sayeda are
starting work, studying English and setting up home to welcome their first-born
child.
اضافة اعلان
But like many of the tens of thousands of Afghans evacuated
after Kabul's fall to the Taliban, the young couple — who asked to be
identified by first names only — are also taking steps to ensure the rug
doesn't get pulled out from under their new life.
Though he worked as a US Army interpreter, Israr and his
wife are in the US on what is known as humanitarian parole, a "tenuous
legal status," according to resettlement organizations, that offers only
two years residence.
After an arduous, months-long journey that took them from
Kabul via Qatar, Washington, and a military base in Texas, the pair settled
early this year in Boston's Charlestown neighborhood, where they were taken
under the wing of a couple they now call their second "mama and papa”.
"My papa is working on it," 26-year-old Israr said
of his immigration status. "He got me a pro bono lawyer."
Israr had carefully packed all his documents before heading
to Kabul airport as the chaotic evacuation unfolded in late August.
But after nerve-racking encounters with Taliban at the
airport entrances, Sayeda, 23, hid some on her person, hoping they wouldn't
search, or beat a woman.
In the event, she was beaten to the point she couldn't walk.
Israr, also injured, abandoned the bags and carried her.
"I lost my luggage, my important documentation, my
money, my clothes, my everything," he told AFP.
They finally made it onto a plane with only his passport, a
handful of documents and the clothes on their backs.
Now the couple face an uncertain path to permanent residency.
For the time being, the main avenues are the Special
Immigrant Visa — reserved for those who aided the US government — and asylum.
Israr said completing his SIV application is proving
complicated, but asylum comes with other challenges.
While he describes "threats" and
"blackmail" from the Taliban, a credible fear of persecution is not
always easy to prove.
'No brainer'
Resettlement of Afghans to the US wound down to a trickle by
late February, but as focus turns to the Ukraine war and a new refugee crisis,
advocates are urging lawmakers to ensure Afghans can stay for good.
Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar has said she is working on
legislation and Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, head of the Lutheran Immigration and
Refugee Service (LIRS) said she's met with sympathetic Republicans too.
LIRS and others are advocating for Congress to pass an
Afghan Adjustment Act, which would give Afghans a pathway to permanent US
status.
"To us, it's a no brainer," said Vignarajah, but
she is still braced for "challenges" ahead.
For now, asylum is a "high threshold to meet," she
told AFP.
To establish a credible claim, Vignarajah explained,
requires a significant amount of documentation.
"That's a potential Catch-22," she said, with many
people encouraged to destroy evidence of their links to the US to avoid Taliban
retribution.
"That same documentation that might be a death sentence
in Afghanistan could be the key to winning an asylum case here in the US."
'Unjust'
Jeffrey Thielman, head of the International Institute of New
England (IINE), which helped settle Israr and Sayeda, already knows of a Boston
immigration court denying an Afghan asylum request over persecution concerns
deemed "too general".
Thielman told AFP many may find themselves without a pathway
to permanent residency on the same grounds.
"They've been vetted, they've gone through our cultural
orientation program, their kids are now in school, they're getting jobs — to
rip these people out of this country and to give them this uncertainty is very
unjust," he said.
Another hurdle is that the US resettlement infrastructure
faces "severe" backlogs of more than 10,000 SIV applications and
roughly 600,000 pending asylum cases, said Vignarajah.
The impetus to create a new pathway is amplified by the
deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, where aid agencies have
said more than half the population faces hunger.
Israr and Sayeda are relieved and grateful to be safe in the
United States with "another chance”.
In the calm of their bright, cozy apartment, Sayeda blends
breakfast smoothies before going to work, she at a daycare and Israr at a local
Whole Foods.
And yet they are wracked with worry for those left behind.
Israr is helping both his and Sayeda's relatives in Afghanistan,
as jobs disappear and food prices skyrocket, while also preparing for their
baby's arrival and to pay rent once it is no longer covered by the resettlement
organization.
"It's a lot of responsibilities on my shoulder,"
he said.
But he holds out hope that perhaps "one day my family
is coming here."
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