Afghan refugees in Utah: Inside the Kabul airport evacuation, ISIS-K attack

The chaos unfolded in 30 minutes.

First they got a call that the Taliban had invaded downtown Kabul. The next call warned that they were only 3 miles from Hamid Karzai International Airport.

So 34-year-old Azim Kakaie, an 11-year-old air traffic controller, packed his things and evacuated the tower.

Afghan refugee Azim Kakaie, who fled Kabul, Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, poses for a portrait at Utah Catholic Community Services in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, September 1, 2021. Kakaie, who worked as an air traffic controller at Kabul Airport, also worked with NATO and the US military from 2010 onwards. Shafkat Anowar, Desert News

Kakaie is the first of likely hundreds of recently evacuated Afghans who will soon call the beehive state home. He spoke to Deseret News at the Catholic Church Service headquarters in Utah on Thursday, about 40 hours after arriving at the Salt Lake City International Airport – 40 hours he spent navigating paperwork and a flurry of media inquiries.

Leave Afghanistan

When Taliban fighters enveloped the country’s capital, Kakaie and his colleagues moved to another, less exposed tower on the other side of the runway. Over the next two days, he experienced firsthand the turbulence at the airport that would later captivate the world.

“The second day at noon (was) when people came over the runway and stopped the plane,” he said, describing the scene of hundreds of desperate Afghans chasing after a US Air Force C-17, some of whom attacked to the side. “They just want to leave the country and be somewhere else.”

Kakaie spent several days in the tower to aid the air traffic of the military planes that carried people out of the country. Meanwhile, his wife Shazia, his younger brother and his mother-in-law were still at home. They had made several unsuccessful attempts to enter Kabul airport.

Shazia was beaten by the Taliban. Her body began to get “black and swollen”. She was poisoned with tear gas by Afghan government forces guarding the airport. Every time she tried to get through the gates, she was turned away.

On the third day, air traffic control was handed over to the US military. Kakaie was released from his duties and ordered by military officials to evacuate him. It became clear that the situation at the airport could be further defused if Kakaie did not leave immediately and he might never leave again.

“I was under pressure and just crying, and my two American friends held me tight as I left my room to get to the (plane). … It was very difficult, “said Kakaie with a trembling voice.

He folded his hands and his eyes wandered to the floor as he tried to contain his emotions.

“I can’t imagine … what will happen to my wife and how I should leave and leave my family like that. It was a very difficult decision. “

Kakaie got on a plane and landed in Qatar hours later.

“Whatever I had from the day I was born to that point, I had to give up,” he said.

He let out a small laugh as he thought of the car he’d left behind.

“My vehicle may still be at the airport. Or maybe it’s destroyed, I don’t know. “

The day after his evacuation, Kakaie’s family took a different route to the airport, which he said was guarded by “US heroes” who let them in. Thirty minutes later, at the same gate, a suicide bomber who later claimed was an IS-K member triggered an explosion that killed over 180 people, including 13 US soldiers.

Eventually his family got on a plane. They were flown to a US military base in Germany, where they are still awaiting relocation in Utah.

One of Kakaie’s first assignments now that he is in Utah is to help the family of Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, a native of Utaher who was killed in the blast.

“I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart that his victim will be with all people … he tried to help the humanity of the people to get out of this difficult situation.”

After spending several days in Qatar helping the State Department reunite Afghan families, Kakaie was flown to Washington, DC and eventually Utah.

‘Be strong’

Kakaie is one of over 110,000 Afghans evacuated from Kabul Airport in the past three weeks, although many of them are still trapped in a web of bureaucracy and bureaucracy that could delay the relocation process by months.

Kakaie holds a special immigrant visa, a status bestowed on Afghans who have worked with U.S. and Allied forces – often as interpreters, translators, or contractors – who have helped streamline its relocation process. However, many of the Afghans currently held at U.S. military bases are considered humanitarian probation officers and likely qualify for a special immigrant visa, but the U.S. embassy didn’t have time to process its paperwork during the chaotic evacuation.

Most of those released are eventually granted political asylum. But it is “a long and very complex process” that requires the help of immigration lawyers and resettlement agencies, said Aden Batar, director of migration and refugee services for Utah Catholic Community Services.

“We’re not going to take in all of the refugees at once; it will stretch for weeks or months, ”said Batar.

Cocoa’s advice to those in limbo? “Be strong.”

“As soon as you leave Kabul, you will be safe,” he said. “I know it will be some time before they reach their final destination. You have to be strong and not lose hope. ”

The challenges for Afghan refugees

Regardless of where they are from, refugees face a mountain of challenges upon arrival – language, jobs, culture, food, weather, laws, and modes of transport are all new.

“Everything is strange,” said Batar. “Navigating through all of this will take time.”

Organizations like the Catholic Community Services or the International Rescue Agency have the task of making the transition as smooth as possible for people like Kakaie. Two days later, the employees were already taking him to the shops and providing him with basic state benefits.

Immigration is working on relocating his family, the work team is trying to find him a job and, if he wants, enroll him at Salt Lake Community College. Kakaie currently lives with his cousin, but when the time comes, employees will help him find an apartment.

“I haven’t had any challenges since I arrived in Utah. This community supports us very much, they are very good people, ”said Kakaie.

Many who hail from Afghanistan, a country plagued by nearly 40 years of war, could also struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder, Batar said.

“Anyone who comes from war-torn countries, mental health issues are one more thing that we need to watch and evaluate and that they may need to address,” he told Deseret News on Thursday.

Salt Lake City was recently named one of 19 cities where Afghan refugees can be relocated, and it remains unclear exactly how many will end up in Utah. Local advocate estimates range from a few hundred to over 1,000.

“We are ready to take on any case that is given to us. … We could get a few hundred, but I don’t know, “said Batar, who noted that the beehive state can take in up to 1,300 refugees each year.

“Everything is in danger”

Cocoa’s emotions when he sees pictures of the Taliban roaming freely through the city he once called his home are difficult to put into words.

“I want to be as strong as possible,” he said. “But when I’m alone, I can’t tell how much I cried for all of these people.”

During the decades-long war that cost the US nearly a trillion dollars, Kakaie saw a transformation in Kabul with new schools, towering buildings and cobbled streets. Now he says: “It’s all gone.”

“The presence of the international community in Afghanistan has brought about tremendous changes,” said Kakaie. “Universities, schools, human rights, democracy, media and communication, they were all available in some way. But now they are all zero. Everything is in danger. “

Kakaie’s main focus now is getting his wife, brother, and mother-in-law to Utah. The rest of his family is scattered, with brothers in Europe and Australia and a sister who is now safe in Pakistan. One of his brothers is still in Kabul.

He likes Utah. He says the people are nice, the culture is hospitable and he already has contact with several Afghan families. When he looks west to the Wasatch Mountains, he thinks of the small village where he was born in the Ghazni district of central Afghanistan.

“That’s the only thing I really like,” said Kakaie. “It’s okay in the morning, where am I? Am i in the united states? Or am I still there? ”