Afghans recall harrowing evacuations as they mark one year since the fall of Kabul

PATERSON — A year ago, Kabul fell to the Taliban and some 80,000 Afghan refugees fled political or religious persecution and began their quest to become Americans, 1,000 of them settling in New Jersey.

They left behind their old lives. Shahla and Fatima Farid, a mother and daughter associated with the University of Kabul until the Taliban took over, were among those who lost everything.

Members of the Farid family, mom, dad and three daughters, fled Kabul, taking weeks to wend their way to Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan. Their car was repeatedly stopped, and they were questioned, before they got a flight out to Albania, where they lived in a one-room apartment.

"We lost our home, our kind neighbors, our friends and colleagues," Fatima said. "On our third day in Albania, I lost my father; my mother lost her husband."

Fatima said her father, Mohammad, died in an Albanian hospital, of stress and heartbreak over having to leave his homeland.

They eventually relocated to Highland Park, near Rutgers University, which welcomed them. Shahla Farid, a renowned author and advocate for women and human rights, now works at Rutgers.

The journey Mohammad Wazi made was equally harrowing. Just getting to the Kabul airport required running a gantlet of abuse and violence.

"The Taliban was attacking us wildly at the gates" to the airport, Wazi said, adding that he eventually got out, flying first to Germany before winding up in a refugee camp in Indiana.

"Jersey City is our home now," he said. "We now need time to get accustomed and find our role in society."

With the help of organizations like Welcome Home Jersey City, a volunteer group committed to providing educational, employment and material support to refugees and asylum-seekers, Wazi is getting used to American life.

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Volunteers, like Welcome Home Program Director Kenna Mateos, have helped Wazi and about 120 other Afghans bridge the language and cultural gaps they are facing.

Freshta Taeb, an organizer with the New Jersey Coalition for Afghan Refugees, said Welcome Home is just one of the various volunteer groups that are making a difference in these folks' lives.

At a press conference Sunday at Paterson's Gould Avenue Park, Taeb's group and others dedicated to helping refugees outlined the successes and challenges facing Afghans as they make over their lives.

Most are out of the refugee camps like the one set up last fall at Joint Base McGuire/Dix/Lakehurst, and with the help of volunteers they are finding jobs and housing, mastering English and getting their kids enrolled in schools. Still, a significant number are in temporary housing.

It's particularly difficult because sometimes they get notifications from various social services, but, unable to read English, they forgo assistance.

More disconcerting, Taeb said, is that many are here on humanitarian parole, a temporary period based on urgent humanitarian or significant public benefit reasons.

"They have no status," said Taeb, who herself was born here after her mom, at age 17, emigrated shortly after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979. What has followed there since her mother's emigration is four decades of war and civil strife.

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Advocates say the Afghan refugees' lack of standing, and the likelihood that they will be forgotten in the next news cycle, confirms the need for the passage of the federal Afghan Adjustment Act, which among other things would create a pathway to permanent status for Afghans evacuated to the U.S. and hope of safe passage for those who are still seeking safety and family reunification.

“The majority of refugees entering the U.S. have been preparing to do so for years," Taeb said. "That was notthe case for Afghans who arrived in the U.S. last fall."

Refugee resettlement infrastructure was ill-prepared to care for the vast numbers of refugees who left on short notice.

Sikandar Khan, who founded Global Emergency Response and Assistance, said much remains to be done, especially since former Gov. Chris Christie dismantled the Office of New Americans.

Although Gov. Phil Murphy has welcomed Afghan immigrants and reopened the office, the grunt work still remains in the hands of local groups like Welcome Home Jersey City, GERA and others to help Afghans adjust to life in the United States. They need increased financial assistance, Khan said.

Those interested in helping an Afghan family can reach out to organizations like Welcome Home Jersey City or the New Jersey Coalition for Afghan Refugees to find out ways to help.