Exhausted, Irfan Ali Shah Akhundzada was ready to give up and go back into hiding.
It was August 2021, and he had been at the Kabul International Airport for hours with his wife and five of their seven children — and thousands of other people — in a desperate attempt to leave the country.
Getting nowhere, though, Akhundzada was prepared to seek refuge again in a family member's basement. As someone who had worked for the U.S. government on and off for nearly 20 years, he had been threatened after the return of the Taliban and had been hiding, in fear for his life.
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His wife, Shahgul, urged him to wait just a few more minutes outside the airport — and those minutes changed their lives forever.
That's when he received a call from American soldiers saying they were waiting for him, ready to get him on a plane out of the country and away from danger.The family walked through a ditch filled with human waste — Akhundzada with his children on his back — and climbed over a barbed wire fence. A plane took them to Qatar, then to Germany and then, finally, in January, to Philadelphia. From there, they came to Columbus and were helped into an apartment on the Northwest Side by Community Refugee and Immigration Services, a local refugee resettlement agency that now employs him as a case manager and interpreter.
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It has been a year since the city of Kabul fell to the Taliban on Aug. 15, 2021, as U.S. armed forces withdrew from the nation after being there nearly 20 years.
Now, Akhundzada is one of approximately 650 Afghans living in central Ohio, each of whom is experiencing unique challenges — and sharing uplifting successes — as they try and settle into their new homes.
Even though Akhundzada misses his extended family — especially his two youngest children, both under the age of 4, whom he left in Afghanistan with his mother for fear that they wouldn't survive the journey — his home in Columbus “is everything.”
"The United States is a dream for the people of Afghanistan," he said. "Now they are well-settled, well-treated. ... The people of Columbus are very nice."
In total, about 79,000 Afghans are estimated to have come to the United States in the past year, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a bipartisan, nonprofit group that studies immigration.
How they got here, though, varies and has significant implications on how difficult it will be for them to stay.
Some — like Akhundzada — came through special visas issued because they helped Americans in their country. Others came as refugees.
But the vast majority of those who fled Afghanistan for the United States came into the country as humanitarian parolees. That means they can stay here with legal status for two years, apply for work authorization and potentially gain permanent legal status through the asylum system.
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Despite new actions to reduce backlogs, however, it can take the government up to nine months to process work authorizations for Afghan nationals. And there are already more than 1.8 million cases pending in the nation’s immigration courts, where Afghans with humanitarian parole would need to go to seek asylum. That means it could take years to gain legal residency, time Afghans with two years of parole don't have.
That's why the federal government is working on bipartisan legislation to address the issue. Earlier this month, Congress introduced the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would establish a special legal process for the Afghans who came here after the fall of Kabul to stay permanently.
In Columbus, three different resettlement agencies have been involved in the process: CRIS, US Together and Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services (ETSS), a local nonprofit that had been supporting refugees and immigrants for years and began welcoming Afghan parolees in November.
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Kay Lipovsky, director of resettlement at ETSS, said the arriving Afghan population it is working with is doing well and finding employment despite the difficulties in obtaining Social Security numbers, identification and other documentation.
“It’s full of success stories,” she said. Still, “It’s been very hard work. It’s been very challenging work … to help them integrate here.”
Mohammad Zafari, 34, entered the country on Sept. 5 with his wife, Hakima Rezayee, 28, and their 18-month-old daughter, Zahra.
Last August, the family traveled back and forth to the Kabul airport from a nearby friend's house, failing many times to get on a plane to safety.
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"The situation was very bad," Zafari said. "The Taliban was firing. ... We couldn't get into the airport."
Eventually, they made it to the airport and were able to get a plane out.
Zafari and his family live in Reynoldsburg now, thanks to the help of ETSS, and Zafari was able to get a job working security. But, before that, he and his family were at Fort Lee Army base in Virginia for five months, then a hotel here for six months.
“It was hard,” Zafari said. “Fortunately, we’re in an apartment now and it’s good.”
Zafari, who worked for the Afghan special forces previously, said he was worried about bringing his wife and baby with him, but he's so happy they're here together now.
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"I was thinking ... If I go myself, what about my family? Who is going to care for them?" he said. "I said, 'Are you ready?' and my wife said, 'Yes, anywhere you want to go I will be with you.'"
While Rezayee misses her family in Kabul, she worries less about her husband's safety when he goes to work now that the threat of the Taliban is gone, he said.
And he knows there are more opportunities for his daughter in America, as girls in Afghanistan only go to school until sixth grade. He wants Zahra to get more education than she could in Afghanistan.
"I want her to study and learn more and be someone for herself," he said.
While advocates have celebrated the introduction of legislation to help Afghans here, some also urged the federal government and President Joe Biden to make it so more Afghans can seek safety in the United States.
The majority of Afghans who worked with the United States in their home country were left behind, according to the International Refugee Assistance Project, a New York City-based organization that uses legal resources to advocate for refugees.
There also are many Afghans still in Afghanistan who are at immediate risk from the Taliban, but processing of visas and parole applications are delayed, the organization indicated.
Those who already have made the journey, however, have found help in Columbus from churches and other volunteers as they try to start their new lives, Lipovsky said.
"The churches are awesome, they help me. They help me too much.”
At Akhundzada’s home on a recent weekday afternoon, Linda Karr was sitting in a chair in the living room, helping him sign up his daughter, Khadija, 5, for school.
Karr, who is involved through Worthington United Methodist Church, is part of a welcome team set up for families like Akhundzada’s through CRIS.
Now, both sides say they're like family. They have Sunday picnics and eat dinner together often. The kids even began calling Karr, 73, “grandma," she said.
"He'll make friends wherever he goes," she said affectionately of Akhundzada.
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Akhundzada looked on as his children climbed in and out of the chair with Karr, excited to show her their artwork and make more with her using pages torn out of a notebook.
“I’m feeling that she’s like my mom or grandma,” Akhundzada said. “The churches are awesome. They help me. They help me too much.”