Hundreds of Afghan professionals who escaped their home country following a U.S.-led troop withdrawal and the Taliban takeover in August 2021 are enduring a long wait for U.S. visas, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
They live on “an emotional rollercoaster,” juggling “concern and fear for families back home” with hope for a new life “despite the prolonged bureaucracy” delaying “the promised U.S. visa,” the AP News report revealed.
Firooz Mashoof, 35, is a photojournalist and former Afghan soccer federation employee who now works at a mall and lives in temporary housing in Shengjin, Albania. He often takes long seaside walks to “stave off panic attacks that he has been forgotten” or “the ‘crazy fear’ for his family back in western Herat province,” according to the report. “I was saved, and now I am to start my new life in America. But when?” he asked, according to the report. He is one of the over 3,200 Afghans who were relocated to Albania, the report added. Albania is one of the European countries the U.S. government was in talks with concerning temporarily housing at-risk Afghans who worked for the U.S. government, according to Reuters. (RELATED: Biden Admin Review Blames Trump For ‘Challenges’ In Afghanistan Withdrawal)
Elyas Nawandish, an Afghan journalist, and his wife Latifa Frotan, chat in a bar outside a tourist resort in the coastal city of Shengjin on September 11, 2021. (Photo by GENT SHKULLAKU/AFP via Getty Images)
Farishta Oustovar, 23, a television news reporter and former national volleyball team player for Afghanistan moved to Albania in 2021. She worked “first at a hotel, then at a shoe factory and finally at a childcare center,” according to the AP news report. “I need to feel that I can have a normal life,” she said, still worried for her family in Herat, according to the news report.
The U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, which ended in August 2021 after nearly 20 years, cost more than $2 trillion, according to a White House report.
There are more than 100,000 U.S.-allied Afghans already in the U.S. as part of both the initial Operation Allies Welcome and the ongoing Enduring Welcome, according to the White House report. Congressional efforts to permanently resolve their immigration status, however, have stalled, according to a separate AP News report. The White House has appealed for “Congress to act on legislation, such as the Afghan Adjustment Act, to support those joining new communities to become well settled and integrated,” per the White House report.