n the night of August 15th, 2021 I received the following email:
Dear sir/madam,
I am sure you are aware of the security situation in Kabul. I am stuck with my family in the middle of nowhere. The city is closed and anti-government elements are every where and robbing, thieving and entering to people’s houses and taking their stuff by force. All the banks are out of money and the ATMs are out of service. Including of me a lot of people are out of cash. In Afghanistan no one use visa or credit cards.
The airport is closed and I am not sure how to get out. I served to the US mission in Afghanistan for about 18 years. My identity has been exposed in the area that I live and everyone knows that I worked with and for the US government for years. I and my family are at very high risk please don’t forget us in your prayers.
My flight has been scheduled on 24 August but I am not sure if I will be able to get out.
Any update from your side??
Signed, “A” (Name redacted for privacy)
‘A’ was an Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) recipient. He had been in contact with us for over a week. I serve on the Board of Directors for No One Left Behind (NOLB), an organization dedicated to assisting the Afghan and Iraqi translators who served with US troops.
Back in July, we realized with growing dread that the fall of Kabul to the Taliban was going to happen sooner than we anticipated. At that time, we thought we had months. In reality, we only had weeks.
SIV recipients have access to a process where tickets can be booked for them through the International Organization for Migration, but the process can take weeks, and time was running out. Thanks to a grant from The Change Reaction, NOLB was able to privately and quickly book tickets for more than 50 SIV families. Sadly, there was even less time than we feared. The first family we helped with commercial tickets left the country on July 21st. The Taliban entered Kabul and seized the Hamad Karzai International Airport on August 16th.
Many of the families that had booked tickets with us were suddenly trapped. The messages for help that had begun slowly suddenly exploded. I was being contacted directly with hundreds of messages a day by at-risk Afghans of all types: journalists, artists, those who had worked with US businesses, and those who had applied for SIVs but hadn’t been able to finish the process.
Soon they overwhelmed my email and then my LinkedIn. The words were heartbreaking in their urgency. By August 17th I was unable to sleep more than an hour or so at a time because I wanted to be tied to my computer and the little bit of connectivity I had to help. From the 17th – 21st of August I worked out of my living room, sleeping on the sofa in short naps and barely eating. On the 22nd of August I went to join a group of volunteers at a rented conference room in a DC hotel to be physically near other people dedicated to the same effort. My experience during the evacuation is very similar to those of many of the hundreds if not thousands of volunteers that came together to save as many Afghan allies as possible.
Most of these volunteers were hearing daily from Afghans who have been terminally stuck in the SIV application process. It was disheartening and enraging. Despite advocacy efforts by groups like NOLB and some Congressional allies to repair and streamline the SIV process, it remains needlessly complicated and chronically under-resourced. We could have made this process more efficient long ago, as NOLB has advocated for, and if we had, thousands of our translators would already be in the US rather than trapped in Afghanistan today. Our system has failed these brave individuals who put themselves at risk to serve alongside us.
From the 22nd – 26th of August our coordination cell tried to help as many translators and allies as possible make it inside the gates of Kabul airport. It was exceptionally difficult for people to make it inside the gates of the airport. There was chaos, with tens of thousands of people channeled into an area with high walls and tightly packed crowds, where people fainted from exhaustion or were trampled. There were reports that ISIS was in the area and was going to set off a VBIED (Vehicle Borne Explosive Device). On August 26th, when the blasts went off at Abbey Gate, 13 American servicemembers and over 170 Afghans were killed. I had been talking for hours via WhatsApp to a fellow veteran I had served with in Afghanistan who had family at Abbey Gate. I was emailing every contact I could think of, for these Afghan allies and others I was in contact with, in the hopes that a military member could help them get inside. After the Abbey Gate blasts, the entrances to the airport were barricaded to everyone still trapped outside. There were so many allies that were left behind.
At the end of August, official US government efforts to evacuate our Afghan allies ended, leaving many trapped. The whole volunteer community was in a state of despair, yet our mission hasn’t ended. NOLB is now focusing on assisting our Afghan allies who have newly arrived in the US, but it is critical that we all keep in mind the thousands – translators, US residents, US citizens, and other allies – who remained trapped in Afghanistan and at risk for their lives. Their calls for help aren’t ending, and it is up to us to find ways to keep their hope alive.
“A” made it to America with his spouse and 4 children. He made it onto the airfield and arrived in Dulles International Airport on August 30th. He contacted us and we purchased his family tickets for them to get to California where they are getting settled into their new home in America.
a global affairs media network
Their Calls For Help Are Still Sounding
Children of Afghanistan. Photo via Pixabay.
November 10, 2021
Since July, NOLB has been overwhelmed by calls for help from Afghans who supported the U.S. mission there who remain trapped in the country. Despite the passage of months, those calls are still sounding, writes No One Left Behind Board Member Mariah Smith.
O
n the night of August 15th, 2021 I received the following email:
Dear sir/madam,
I am sure you are aware of the security situation in Kabul. I am stuck with my family in the middle of nowhere. The city is closed and anti-government elements are every where and robbing, thieving and entering to people’s houses and taking their stuff by force. All the banks are out of money and the ATMs are out of service. Including of me a lot of people are out of cash. In Afghanistan no one use visa or credit cards.
The airport is closed and I am not sure how to get out. I served to the US mission in Afghanistan for about 18 years. My identity has been exposed in the area that I live and everyone knows that I worked with and for the US government for years. I and my family are at very high risk please don’t forget us in your prayers.
My flight has been scheduled on 24 August but I am not sure if I will be able to get out.
Any update from your side??
Signed, “A” (Name redacted for privacy)
‘A’ was an Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) recipient. He had been in contact with us for over a week. I serve on the Board of Directors for No One Left Behind (NOLB), an organization dedicated to assisting the Afghan and Iraqi translators who served with US troops.
Back in July, we realized with growing dread that the fall of Kabul to the Taliban was going to happen sooner than we anticipated. At that time, we thought we had months. In reality, we only had weeks.
SIV recipients have access to a process where tickets can be booked for them through the International Organization for Migration, but the process can take weeks, and time was running out. Thanks to a grant from The Change Reaction, NOLB was able to privately and quickly book tickets for more than 50 SIV families. Sadly, there was even less time than we feared. The first family we helped with commercial tickets left the country on July 21st. The Taliban entered Kabul and seized the Hamad Karzai International Airport on August 16th.
Many of the families that had booked tickets with us were suddenly trapped. The messages for help that had begun slowly suddenly exploded. I was being contacted directly with hundreds of messages a day by at-risk Afghans of all types: journalists, artists, those who had worked with US businesses, and those who had applied for SIVs but hadn’t been able to finish the process.
Soon they overwhelmed my email and then my LinkedIn. The words were heartbreaking in their urgency. By August 17th I was unable to sleep more than an hour or so at a time because I wanted to be tied to my computer and the little bit of connectivity I had to help. From the 17th – 21st of August I worked out of my living room, sleeping on the sofa in short naps and barely eating. On the 22nd of August I went to join a group of volunteers at a rented conference room in a DC hotel to be physically near other people dedicated to the same effort. My experience during the evacuation is very similar to those of many of the hundreds if not thousands of volunteers that came together to save as many Afghan allies as possible.
Most of these volunteers were hearing daily from Afghans who have been terminally stuck in the SIV application process. It was disheartening and enraging. Despite advocacy efforts by groups like NOLB and some Congressional allies to repair and streamline the SIV process, it remains needlessly complicated and chronically under-resourced. We could have made this process more efficient long ago, as NOLB has advocated for, and if we had, thousands of our translators would already be in the US rather than trapped in Afghanistan today. Our system has failed these brave individuals who put themselves at risk to serve alongside us.
From the 22nd – 26th of August our coordination cell tried to help as many translators and allies as possible make it inside the gates of Kabul airport. It was exceptionally difficult for people to make it inside the gates of the airport. There was chaos, with tens of thousands of people channeled into an area with high walls and tightly packed crowds, where people fainted from exhaustion or were trampled. There were reports that ISIS was in the area and was going to set off a VBIED (Vehicle Borne Explosive Device). On August 26th, when the blasts went off at Abbey Gate, 13 American servicemembers and over 170 Afghans were killed. I had been talking for hours via WhatsApp to a fellow veteran I had served with in Afghanistan who had family at Abbey Gate. I was emailing every contact I could think of, for these Afghan allies and others I was in contact with, in the hopes that a military member could help them get inside. After the Abbey Gate blasts, the entrances to the airport were barricaded to everyone still trapped outside. There were so many allies that were left behind.
At the end of August, official US government efforts to evacuate our Afghan allies ended, leaving many trapped. The whole volunteer community was in a state of despair, yet our mission hasn’t ended. NOLB is now focusing on assisting our Afghan allies who have newly arrived in the US, but it is critical that we all keep in mind the thousands – translators, US residents, US citizens, and other allies – who remained trapped in Afghanistan and at risk for their lives. Their calls for help aren’t ending, and it is up to us to find ways to keep their hope alive.
“A” made it to America with his spouse and 4 children. He made it onto the airfield and arrived in Dulles International Airport on August 30th. He contacted us and we purchased his family tickets for them to get to California where they are getting settled into their new home in America.
