SIV applicant in Afghanistan details harrowing Kabul airport experience
A Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicant who worked as a translator for the U.S. Embassy for nearly four years has tried twice to evacuate Afghanistan with his wife and three young children. He told Yahoo News about his intense experience with trying to get to the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
Video Transcript
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]
- My name is Same. I am an SIV applicant. And I applied for SIV in June 9, and waited for seven weeks but didn't got any email back from US embassy. So I sent it back in July 27, and I'm still waiting for my case. On August 19, I received an email from US embassy, which was an instruction how to get to the airport.
So on 19 August, I and my family leave the house to the airport. We reached the airport. There were lots of crowds, very rushed. So we wait next to the airport, over the night. And by tomorrow, August 20, the gate was opened at 6 o'clock morning.
We enter the airport and so we pass three gates of the Taliban. There was lots of rush and crowds where the Taliban was firing to separate the people. And I was with my daughter, she is six, and my other daughter, she is nine, and my boy, he is eight months. I was carrying my six-year-old daughter on my shoulder and my boy was carried by his mom.
When we reached to the third gate of the Taliban, we were very close. And they shot the gunfire, which was very close to the hair of my children, and they were very scared, crying. We were in a very bad situation. And then we got out of the airport and came home.
On 22 August, US embassy made another announcement. And they instructed all the American citizens, lawful residents, and immigrants, and those people who work with the United States government, was received the instruction email to go to the airport. On 22nd, we start to walk to the airport on 10 o'clock. We reached there, it was 11, and we make some place to reach through the gate.
American soldiers were there. So they were there, we reached there, and they said to sit on the ground. We sit on the ground, and because of lots of crowd we don't have very much space. So we sit there over the night. And by 7 o'clock morning, today, they open. They came and said that we are going to verify the documents. Then we leave, enter through the gate.
So I was in the first line. First I give them my documents and next to me was my friend. He also gave them the documents. And they saw the documents and said that, yeah, it's OK. You can wait here. We will verify some others, and then we will let you enter the gate. They are going to verify the 10 to 20 people, then the people start pushing, pushing, pushing. So the US Army officer left, behind a gate. And then the pushing was started.
We passed a lot of difficult time. And there was like more than-- near to 3,000 people behind a gate, they all are pushing. And the weather was very hot. So it was very hot for my family, especially my kids and their mother. They can't breathe. There was no water. And there was one thing that I don't know why the United States Army didn't get any action, they were just there watching people die. So it was-- it took one hour, this pushing. Then they fired some tear gas on the crowd. Then suddenly, I saw that now I can leave. So I took my family and children and left the airport.
