Consider This from NPR - One Month After The Fall Of Kabul Thousands Still Wait For Escape

Episode Date: September 15, 2021

It has been exactly one month since Kabul fell and the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. With U.S. troops gone from the region and the collapse of the Afghan Armed forces, thousands have been fleeing the country for safety.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theschmidt.org. We did not go to Afghanistan to nation build. A little over two months ago, President Biden recommitted to ending America's longest war. And it's the right and the responsibility of Afghan people alone to decide their future and how they want to run their country. Almost immediately, the Taliban made their move. These advances are incredibly significant. Washington Post reporter Susanna George described the advances

after they took control of three cities in a single day. The Taliban's sweep across Afghanistan that began not long after the final phase of the withdrawal of foreign forces began, it happened a lot faster than U.S. and Afghan officials were anticipating. And then on August 15th, the Taliban took over the capital city of Kabul and walked back into power. The embassy shuttered, the flag coming down. Now the U.S. military is gone. Tens of thousands of Afghans have been evacuated. But for those left behind, life under Taliban rule has been changing, and rapidly.

I would just say that we're on the edge of disaster here. New York Times reporter Matthew Akins. We have long lines of people outside banks trying to take out money. We have people who are on the verge of starvation. So if there's not urgent action taken by the world, we are going to have a massive humanitarian crisis. Consider this. One month since the fall of Kabul, thousands of Afghans who were promised protection are now trapped

under Taliban rule. And those who did escape face an unknown future. From NPR, I'm Adi Cornish. It's Wednesday, September 15th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today, or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. Support for NPR and the following message come from Carnegie Corporation of New York, working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education,

democracy, and peace. More information at carnegie.org. It's Consider This from NPR. One of the Afghans who was left behind is a man we're calling Khan to protect his identity. Khan worked as an interpreter for the U.S. military from late 2004 to mid-2008. He was embedded with troops that he says routinely went on combat missions in Taliban-controlled areas. We were lucky we survived. We survived like around 12 ambushes. Because of his service, Khan was approved for a visa to come to the U.S., but he wasn't able to get on a plane out of Kabul. So Khan had to drive 11 hours back to his home in Kandahar to wait for an email from the U.S. embassy.

I heard nothing. Nothing. Khan told NPR this week what that silence felt like. That makes you feel disappointed. That makes you feel left behind. That makes you feel you will be shot and dead every day you're living in Kandahar where all the Taliban's around you. Working closely with the U.S. makes Khan vulnerable to Taliban reprisals. And he says he's seen neighbors captured. They went to their home late at night and they get you out and some of them are returned back. Some of them are not yet been returned or released. Khan moved into a small apartment

with his wife and three children in an area of town where he feels less likely to be recognized. There's no other option. You are fully at risk and you have to stay here. Like you feel you did something wrong. I maybe I'm left behind. Why did I help the U.S. Army? Why was I risking my whole life doing a job as interpreter? I feel I shouldn't have done this. I have clients that I'm representing in Afghanistan right now who are in various stages of their immigration process. Mariam Masumi is an immigration attorney in Virginia. I have a couple who were in a situation just like Khan where they attended an interview at the U.S. embassy in Kabul, but were just waiting on their visa to be issued and their passport.

The problem is the U.S. government needs to process paperwork and hold in-person interviews, and the Americans are gone. So right now, full approval can't really happen unless someone was able to leave and meet with U.S. officials. But you can't leave without approval. The State Department has announced that now that the U.S. troops have withdrawn, they're going to come up with a process and a procedure to assist those individuals, but there have been no details released about that. On Capitol Hill this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was vague when speaking to lawmakers about those people left behind, left waiting in this limbo.

We will continue to help Americans and Afghans to whom we have a special commitment to part Afghanistan if they choose. Whether or not the U.S. can help hinges on its relationship with this new Taliban government. Well, it's a major challenge. NPR diplomatic correspondent Michelle Kellerman spoke with Mary Louise Kelly about that challenge. The U.S. wanted to see the Taliban form an inclusive government. That was optimistic thinking. The list so far includes mostly people who are on U.S. sanctions lists and an interior minister who's wanted by the FBI. No women, of course, and no representation from

the government that collapsed, at least so far. So the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, is facing a lot of questions about how he's going to deal with this group. He was on Capitol Hill this week. And just take a listen, you know, to Senator Mitt Romney asking him about if the Taliban have broken ties to al-Qaeda. Has that relationship been severed? The relationship has not been severed, and it's a very open question as to whether their views and the relationship has changed in any kind of definitive way. And of course, this whole war started when al-Qaeda used Afghanistan as a base to launch the 9-11 attacks. The secretary says the intelligence

community currently doesn't believe al-Qaeda has that kind of capabilities, but he says the world has to keep the pressure on the Taliban to make sure that remains the case. Well, and this gets at the very tricky balancing act because the world needs to keep the pressure on. But at the same time, there are areas where the U.S. and the world need the Taliban's help right now. Yeah. I mean, particularly for the U.S., Lincoln and his staff have to deal with the Taliban to get Americans out of Afghanistan, to get green card holders, Afghans who worked with the U.S. and who are at risk, those people who did not make it out in that massive airlift that ended last month. You know,

he hasn't been meeting directly with the Taliban, but U.S. officials have. They've been talking about getting that Kabul airport back up and running with the help of Qatar and Turkey. There have been a few flights out there. They're talking about overland routes. They're talking about charter flights out of Mazar-e-Sharif. Still no work there. So far, he's maintained kind of back channels to the Taliban just on practical issues like that. And more broadly, he doesn't want to lend legitimacy to the Taliban government. He wants the world to show a united front to make clear that it expects freedom of movement, it expects basic human rights, and it expects the Taliban not to allow Afghanistan to be a safe

haven for terrorist groups that can threaten the rest of the world. And Michelle, what about daily life in Afghanistan now, a month after the fall of Kabul?. And Michelle, what about daily life in Afghanistan now, a month after the fall of Kabul? We heard a moment ago, New York Times reporter Matthew Akins talking about people on the verge of starvation. How bad is the situation right now? Well, really dire. I mean, you know, it's not only the conflict, but also the coronavirus pandemic, a severe drought, and there's just no cash in the country. Afghanistan in recent years has been entirely dependent on foreign aid. The World Bank manages donor funds, and that's been put on pause. Afghanistan's reserves are in the U.S., and those reserves

are frozen. Even the U.N. can't pay its workers, according to the Secretary General. He's asking to the U.N. Secretary General countries to figure out ways to get around sanctions and allow the economy to breathe. He said a collapse of Afghanistan's economy is in no one's interest. And what about other countries? How are they approaching the problems in Afghanistan and the many challenges there from starvation to drought to the need to allow women to work? Well, there's, you know, Secretary Blinken has been trying to rally the international community to keep everyone on board, to keep everyone focused and sending the same messages to the Taliban.

But of course, neighboring countries have different interests. Pakistan has different interests, Russia and China. So that's going to be a challenge for him to keep that united front. NPR diplomatic correspondent Michelle Kellerman. Of the thousands of refugees who have been able to flee Afghanistan, most of them have landed in Virginia and are brought to the Dulles Expo Center, this cavernous building just outside of D.C. There are hundreds of State Department, DOD, USAID and TSA in this building at any one time. They're running three shifts a day, 24-7.

So we're really running a small village here. That's Tressa Rae Finnerty, Deputy Executive Director at the State Department. Finnerty spoke with NPR's Tom Bowman. He was given an exclusive tour inside the facility. This is my favorite spot. Maybe we stop here for just a second. Crayon drawings stretch up a tall wall. Boys and girls toss balls with a volunteer from the humanitarian group Save the Children. A huge cardboard box is flattened,

laid out, and serves as a drawing board. It's my favorite use of recycled boxes, probably the best I've ever seen. Besides a kid's corner, there's sleeping cots, a cafeteria, a medical unit, and a large processing hall that looks like an airport terminal. The flow of people is constant. We had approximately 29,000 Afghans come through the Dulles space and move on to their forward bases. There's still more than 30,000 to come. Everyone is given a wristband based on their medical condition or immigration status. Some of the Afghans here work for the U.S. military or its NATO partners and were granted a special immigrant visa and a path to citizenship. People like Fauzia from Kabul, who are only using

her first name for her protection. She's 52 and had a career in telecommunications. Her husband and sons were for years with the U.S. military. had a career in telecommunications. Her husband and sons were for years with the U.S. military. Here she is talking through our interpreter. So she says since my two sons and my husband, they served America since 22 years. They helped them. So now she wants better life here, like peaceful life for me and for my kids. Other Afghans here might have a long wait and an unknown future, arriving in the U.S. on humanitarian grounds. There are young adults separated from their parents with no paperwork.

Others have just scraps of paper. They can apply for asylum or wait until Congress offers a special legal status, like it did for those fleeing the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Despite the unknowns, young Afghans arriving in America are hopeful. 22-year-old Hamidullah left a good life in Kabul, but his dad worked for the Americans and was no longer safe. Now he hopes he can continue his education in electrical engineering. He wishes so he can continue his studies here because he was in university there and he says if one day Afghanistan gets better, he wants to go back again.

They all left Afghanistan, first traveling through the Middle East before arriving at one of several U.S. bases in Europe. That's where the top U.S. officer, General Mark Milley, recently watched the medical and security screening process and met with some Afghans heading for Dulles. Officials say of the thousands who went through Ramstein Air Base, only a small number are being detained. How many real, actual, suspected members of some sort of terrorist or criminal group, those numbers have been very low so far. And I have confidence in the FBI. I have confidence in the DHS system. General Milley spent years commanding troops in Afghanistan. He acknowledged the war didn't turn

out as many of them hoped. One is a feeling of disappointment of the outcome, you know, painful questions of was it all worth it? What was it all about. On the other side, the idea that we just liberated 124,000 people and are giving them an opportunity to be free. In the sea of green cots at the Dulles Expo Center, a small, shy girl approaches us. She's wearing a pink sweater with gold stars. Her hair is in a neat bun held together by a baby blue scrunchie. Her name is Monis. Monis came from Mazar-e-Sharif, a large city close to the Uzbekistan border. She tells us she likes it here. She draws butterflies. Those are her favorites.

When we ask her what she wants to tell us most, she has a clear message. She wishes that Taliban can go away forever, so our country will be in peace forever. That, she says, is her only wish. NPR correspondent Tom Bowman. You're listening to Consider This from NPR. I'm Adi Cornish. Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography. Kauffman.org.