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Photographer Omer Khan in front of a Russian tank in Kabul.

(Courtesy of Omer Khan)

On Aug. 24, 2021, Omer Khan, a freelance photographer from Kabul, Afghanistan, grabbed his camera and a few other belongings as he escaped his homeland with his wife, son, and brother, nine days after the Taliban entered Kabul and took control of the capital.

Khan is among the more than 80,000 refugees who were able to evacuate Afghanistan. He navigated chaos and danger at the Kabul airport before making his way onto a crammed U.S. military flight, with the United States as the final destination.

One year later, Khan who has created a new life for himself and his family in El Cajon reflects on what he left behind in Afghanistan and what he hopes for his future in the U.S.

We lost everything. We lost our [identity], home, our life.

Afghan National Army soldiers in Kabul, 2021.

(Courtesy of Omer Khan)

A view of Kabul, a sprawling city of almost 6 million people, 2020.

(Courtesy of Omer Khan)

A man sells balloons in Kabul, 2021.

(Courtesy of Omer Khan)

Khans passion for photography started in 2014, when he enrolled in a journalism program at a private university in Kabul. He worked as a photographer for television stations and NGOs and rented a gallery space with his brother at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, where he sold his photos and Afghan handicrafts.

Khan ventured to all corners of Afghanistan to document the people and landscapes of his country. Two years before fleeing, he published about 250 copies of a photo book titled Hidden Treasure so he could show the positive side of Afghanistan, the unseen face of Afghanistan, to the world.

He was able to bring only one copy on his flight out of Afghanistan.

Omer Khan goes through his photo book, Hidden Treasure on August 22, 2022. It was the only copy he was able to bring with him when he evacuated from Afghanistan. Here, Khan looks at his photos taken in 2018 of Buzkashi, Afghanistans national sport that was banned by the Taliban from 1996-2001.

(Valerie Plesch / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

On August 15, as news spread that the Taliban had taken over Kabul , Khan was at his gallery. His wife, Hasiba, called and told him to come home.

No one could believe that the Taliban would take over Afghanistan again, he said.

Because of his affiliation with the embassy, Khan knew he couldnt stay in Afghanistan. The Taliban was already hunting Afghans who had worked with Americans.

His employer at the embassy told him to expect a signal when it was time to be evacuated.

After waiting for nine days and hearing nothing, Khan decided to head to the airport with his wife, son, and brother.

The move paid off. Khan caught a U.S. military relief flight on August 25.

He left behind his father, mother, sister and brother.

Before evacuating, Khan documented the immediate aftermath of the Taliban takeover, including images of women at a Kabul beauty salon that were defaced. It was the last set of photos he took in Afghanistan.

Left: Omer Khan with his son Umair aboard a U.S. military plane bound for Qatar after evacuating from Afghanistan on August 25, 2021. Right: Images of women from a beauty parlor salon in Kabul that were defaced by the Taliban on August 15, 2021, the day they took control of the capital.

(Courtesy of Omer Khan)

After spending three months at Camp Atterbury in Indiana, which housed thousands of Afghan evacuees, Khan and his family settled in El Cajon.

With the help of Jewish Family Services, a resettlement agency working with Afghan refugees, Khan found a one-bedroom apartment in January thats close to work, as well as markets selling traditional Afghan food..

Omer Khan with his son Umair and wife Hasiba outside their apartment complex in El Cajon on August 22, 2022. A resettlement agency helped Khan find his apartment shortly after he and his family arrived in San Diego, and after spending three months at an army base in Indiana that housed Afghan refugees following the fall of Kabul.

(Valerie Plesch / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Khan also found work at Subway as a Sandwich Artist, which is how Subway describes its workers who prepare sandwiches. He and his older brother send about $400 every month to his family back home. Under Taliban rule, Afghanistans economy has plummeted, and families are struggling to keep afloat.

He hopes to work again as a photographer in San Diego.

Here life is very different than in Afghanistan, he said. But Im happy now being here. Life is good.

Omer Khan cleans up at the end of his shift at Subway on August 21, 2022 in El Cajon. He works as a sandwich artist and sends part of his salary to his family in Kabul.

(Valerie Plesch / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Khan and his family arrived in the U.S. on humanitarian parole, which allows them to live and work for two years. He and tens of thousands of other Afghan refugees who evacuated do not have a clear path to stay in the country.

The Biden administration has asked Congress to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would streamline the process for visa candidates who worked for the U.S government and allow Afghans to get legal status in the U.S.

Khan is currently seeking asylum so he can stay in the country.

Omer Khan drinks tea and eats nuts with his son Umair and wife Hasbia after coming home from work on August 21, 2022 in El Cajon.

(Valerie Plesch / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

During his free time, Khan goes through the three hard drives that he was able to bring with him from Afghanistan, searching for photos that he didnt publish yet on his Instagram or Facebook.

A man on his horse that people can pay to ride at Qargha Lake on the outskirts of Kabul, 2020.

(Courtesy of Omer Khan)

A man sells birds at the Ka Faroshi Bird Market in Kabul, 2021.

(Courtesy of Omer Khan)

The landscape in Samangan province, central Afghanistan, 2020.

(Courtesy of Omer Khan)

Buzkashi, Afghanistans national sport that was banned by the Taliban from 1996-2001, in the Paryan district of Panjshir province, 2018.

(Courtesy of Omer Khan)

A man sells fish on the side of the Kabul-Jalalabad Highway, 2020.

(Courtesy of Omer Khan)

A woman in a burqa walks through the Mandawai market, one of Kabuls biggest and most crowded markets, 2021.

(Courtesy of Omer Khan)

On his Instagram, he continues to post photos of his homeland, along with new photos and videos from San Diego. Khan loves exploring and photographing the region, particularly the architecture of downtown and the beach in La Jolla.

La Jolla beach at sunset, November 2021.

(Courtesy of Omer Khan)

One year after escaping Afghanistan, Khan still has trouble seeing pictures from home.

Its like a dream, everything changed in one night, he said.

Khan remembers thinking about his sons future as he fled Afghanistan.

This will be good for him. I spent all of my childhood in war. It is good for him to spend his life and be raised in a good situation and good area.

San Diego is my home. There is no more life in Afghanistan

Omer Khan photographs surfers in La Jolla on August 22, 2022. Khan enjoys photographing the beach at the La Jolla at sunset. Whenever I come to the beach, when I hear the sound of the ocean, and the waves, it makes me feel comfortable. Just walking from one side of the ocean to the other side of the ocean, taking pictures, it makes me feel more comfortable. When the sun goes down, then I go back home.

(Valerie Plesch / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)

This story was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center.

More:
'There is no more life in Afghanistan.' How one refugee photographer is rebuilding in San Diego - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Before life as he knew it turned upside down with the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Mohammad Fahim Rahmani worked with the Canadian embassy.

Now, he's being told to pack his things,move to a Toronto shelter and apply for social assistance.

That's because, nearly a year after he set foot in Canada,the support he and his family received through the federalResettlement Assistance Programis coming to an end even as his parents' permanent residence paperwork languishin the processing queue with the federal government. The program provides up to a year of direct financial support, temporary accommodation and referrals to community-based services as needed.

"We didn't come from Afghanistan to live in shelters," Rahmani, 30, told CBCTorontooutside the Toronto hotelwhere he's currently staying.

"Everybody wants to get their documents, start their life and their own place and start their job. And the one year of opportunities I lost who's going to pay for that?"

Rahmani doesn't want to be on social assistance. He doesn't want to live in a government-funded hotel. But as long as his parents' papers are outstanding, he says their lives are on hold and that a shelter isn't an option.

His own papers have since been processed, but Rahmani says he hasn't been able to move on and find workbecause his parents don't speak English and need his help day-to-day while they await processing.In the meantime, hefears moving from the government-paid hotel to a shelter could mean falling through the cracks of a system he never should have had to navigate.

"My biggest fear is if we move, unfortunately nobody will help us after that," Rahmani said.

He's not alone.

More than a year after the federal government committed to settle 40,000 Afghan refugees in Canada, it's welcomed less than halfthat. Many still wait for theirpapers to be processed by the federal government. Until then, multiple refugees have told CBC News they have no social insurance numbers and can't get work their lives on hold.

CBCTorontospoke to two different immigration lawyers about the refugees' situation. One said as far as he knew there was no option for Afghan refugees to receive work permits while awaiting processing. Another said it was in fact possible.

To clarify the confusion, CBC Newsasked Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada multiple times about the refugees' claims. The department could not provide a response as to the question of whether the refugees could work while their paperwork was being processed.

As a housekeeping manager for the Canadian embassy in Kabul, Rahmani thought he was one of the lucky ones. He managed to evacuate with his parents and sister in tow before the Kabul airport closed, arriving in Canadaon Aug. 28, 2021.

In the time since, he's been moved from one hotel to another to a third, and back to the first.

Rahmani says he's made multiple inquiries about the status of his parents' permanent residence application, eventually learning there were concerns over his father's past involvement in the Afghan military.

That's despite being cleared to come to Canada in the first place with documents issued by the IRCC, he says.

"My family was not any terrorist. They didn't come illegally," he said.

Rahmani now fears his father could be deported right back to a country run by a group Canada deemsa terrorist organization before the government gets through its processing backlog to consider the 63-year-old's application for permanent residence.

Hikmatullah Barakzai,28, came to Canada with his brother, who was an interpreter for the Canadian army. He arrived on Oct. 10 with his young daughter and pregnant wife, who delivered their baby at the hotel where they were put up.

With his sonnow six months old, the entire family is still living in a single hotel room, now a different hotel. There's no kitchen, no park nearby andno answer as to how long their lives will remain in limbo, he says.

"I have family, I have kids. I want to work. I want to study. My wife wants to study," he said. "Everything is stopped and just waiting. But I don't know for how long."

Barakzai says he asked his government-desginated settlement service provider COSTI Immigrant Services about applying for awork permit, but was told he should simply wait for his permanent residence paperwork to go through.COSTI is a Toronto-based immigrant services agency funded by the IRCC to deliver settlement assistance, language training, job search assistance and other such services to government-assisted refugees and other eligible newcomers.

Rahmani says it was also COSTIthat told him it was time to leave the hotel.

CBC News contacted COSTI for comment, however in a statement, the agency said little more than: "There are no families at the hotel beyond a year."

All other questions were referred to the IRCC.

In an email to CBC News, IRCC spokesperson Nancy Caronsaid the department is "aware that some Afghans in Canada remain temporarily in hotels as we work to finalize their immigrationapplication status."

"For Afghans whose cases are complex, processing will take longer as we work to receive information and work through their application," the statement said, adding it "continues toraise awareness around the current housing challenges that many individuals are facing by working together with our federal and provincial counterparts."

The department did not say why refugees are limited to one year of hotel accommodation if their paperwork is still under review, or address concerns about falling through the cracks if they do as they're told and move to a shelter.

Toronto-based immigration lawyer Robert Blanshay says Canada needs to be more forthcoming about the reasons why so many Afghan refugees are still facing a bureaucratic holdup.

"It's shameful the Canadian government has dropped the ball on the resettlement procedures for these Afghan nationals," he said.

"They've made their way through the most harrowing of circumstances that one could ever imagine, only to finally arrive in Canada and sort of exhale and breathe a sigh of relief to realize that they've got a different set of struggles."

And to those who think living out of hotels might not be so bad, he says, "There's been a lot of nightmare stories."

Meanwhile, as the months pass, Barakzaiis pleading for Canada to act faster so that hislittle ones will soon be able to have a home beyond the four walls of their single hotel room.

"We lefteverything back home," he said. "We lost everything. Now we are here, waiting for your help."

"Pleasepay attention to us."

Read the rest here:
He worked for the Canadian embassy in Afghanistan. Now, he's being told to move into a shelter - CBC.ca

New data published today (Thursday 25 August) shows the UK is fulfilling its obligations to the people of Afghanistan and remains committed to providing protection for them.

The data on the number of Afghans resettled in the UK since April 2021, shows that over 11,300 Afghans have been granted Indefinite Leave to Remain, through the bespoke visa schemes set up for them.

In addition, nearly 21,500 British Nationals and Afghans have been brought to safety prior to, during and following Operation Pitting, the biggest air evacuation since the Second World War.

The situation on the ground both in Afghanistan and in the UK remains complex, while Afghans continue to arrive in the UK and a steady stream of people are moving into settled accommodation each week.

The Home Office is working towards resettling hundreds of Afghan arrivals per month over the next three years through the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) for current and former Locally Employed Staff in Afghanistan, while the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) will welcome up to 20,000 people in need, including women and children, LGBT+, religious and ethnic minorities.

Through ACRS, the government has started receiving its first referrals from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and will bring the first arrivals to the UK as soon as possible. From next year, the government will start working with international partners and NGOs so the UK can welcome wider groups at risk. As a result, in the next year over 3,500 Afghans are expected to arrive in the UK under ACRS.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said:

The evacuation of Afghanistan was a race against time to get people out the stakes had never been higher. The UK has a well-earned reputation for extending the hand of friendship to those in need and I am incredibly proud that nearly 21,500 people have so far made it to safety in the UK thanks to a huge government effort and the determination of the British public to help during very challenging, complex and intense circumstances.

One year on, our work to help Afghans resettled in the UK has not stopped - there are still weekly flights, our resettlement schemes remain open and we will be welcoming thousands more people to our country. We are also doing everything possible to move families into homes and I urge landlords and local authorities to come forward with suitable accommodation.

The two visa schemes set up for Afghans fleeing the Taliban, ARAP and ACRS, will enable Afghans to rebuild their lives in the UK including receiving full access to public services, education and benefits, including Universal Credit, as well as the right to work as soon as they arrive here. In less than a year, almost 7,400 Afghan evacuees have been provided with permanent homes.

The government is working hard to provide accommodation for Afghans, however the data published today shows 9,667 Afghans are living across 66 bridging hotels. As a result, more than 2,000 properties are required, so families can move out of hotels and into homes.

The Home Office and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are reaching out to landlords, property developers and the wider private rented sector, including property website RightMove, to encourage further offers of homes.

In addition, the government is working directly with education bodies to turn student accommodation into long-term housing for Afghan families.

Minister for Refugees Lord Harrington said:

Finding long term housing for Afghans is a very real and complex challenge. While the number of hotels in use has reduced, we are determined to move people out of bridging accommodation as quickly as possible so Afghans can start their new lives in the UK.

We are doing everything in our power to encourage councils and landlords to come forward, while also looking at innovative solutions to source accommodation. The use of hotels is a temporary solution and is not a policy we want to pursue, but in the meantime they do provide safe, clean and secure accommodation.

See original here:
One year on: government's continuing commitment to Afghanistan - GOV.UK

Lawrence Brown| Columnist

One afternoon years ago, one of my school parents dropped by with a gift from Afghanistan.It was a yellow burqa, the traditional covering that Afghani women are being forced to wear again since their Taliban rulers returned to power a year ago.

What I was being given was the top piece of a multi-layered set of garments that stretch to the ground.Under American occupation, Afghan women in the cities might get away with a head scarf, but in the traditional countryside, Taliban or not, this was not an optional fashion statement.Wear one or die.

I wasnt sure what to do with the thing.Then every year when my geography program reached the Middle East, Id pull it out and invite volunteers to try it on.Usually, all the girls and several of the more daring boys would put it on.It would be spring by then and already hot enough that kids would emerge gasping after only a few minutes.

Burqas are claustrophobic. The view out front is reduced to an open window a little bigger than a credit card with a fabric mesh sewn across.Try to walk around and you bang into things andtrip over obstacles you cant see. To make matters worse, many of the burqas are solar-absorbent black.In blistering summer, temperatures inside the burqas soar.Women stagger, sometimes vomit.

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Back in 1999 at the Parliament of the Worlds Religions in South Africa, I met the head of the World Islamic League.We fell into a conversation as we walked through Cape Town. We were in a museum when I asked his thoughts about the Talibans mistreatment of women.This scholarly, soft-spoken man wheeled and shouted at me.

That makes meveryangry! he roared.

I backed away with my palms raised in front of me.Instantly, he put a soft hand on my forearm.

Im so sorry, he said.Im not mad at you; Im mad at them.Understand, he said, there is no sin greater than a sin committed in the name of God.

That from a descendent, if I recall, of the prophet Mohammed.

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A few years ago, our Middle School did a focus day on Malala, the brave Pakistani girl who spoke out for womens rights.Assassins boarded her bus and shot her in the head, leaving her for dead.A huge banner with her face on it was plastered across the wall where the middle schoolers met.More banners with quotes festooned the classrooms.

Let us wage a global struggle against illiteracy, povertyand terrorism, Malala said. Let us pick up our books and pens. They are our most powerful weapons.

Until Sept.11, 2001, nobody really cared what happened to girls in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.Afghani women were beaten if their shoes made a sound walking down the street.Women couldnt work, couldnt teach.The Afghani school systems fell apart. Women couldnt go outdoors without a male escort and could be shot for a second offense.One year after Americas departure, this is all coming back.

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We held the burqa as I explained this to my students.Soccer game halftimes consisted of pickup trucks driving onto the field, each holding wailing women who were dragged to the ground, shotand hauled back onto the trucks to drive away.My kids just sat.Who could possibly want to do this to women?

Thank Pakistan, who set up orphanages for Afghani boys after years of fighting the Russians, then civil war.The schools were, in fact, training camps to radicalize and train young warriors.(Taliban means studentover there.)

Orphaned, they had no mothers … no women at all, in fact.Women, they were told, are temptations put in their way by Satan to rob them of their purity.Women would have to be controlled but God was OK with their being given out as door prizes for righteous warriors.My kids just shook their heads.We had soldiers serving in Afghanistan back then.Maybe they were there to save the women.

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Trouble is, women need saving all over the world.I had a girl ask what a foreign policy would look like if womens rights were a primary objective.I suggested she write one. No one in Washington has ever really tried, and neither did she.She had an excuse, though.She was 12.

As a sort of stand-in for all the global horrors inflicted on women, I had this stupid yellow burqa.I offered extra credit if any of the kids would wear the thing for a whole class day, then write a report on what it was like.I offered for years and there were no takers. Ever.

Lawrence Brown is a columnist for the Cape Cod Times. Email him atcolumnresponse@gmail.com.

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Cape Cod opinion: A burqa, Afghanistan and the oppression of females - Cape Cod Times

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During an interview on "Fox & Friends Weekend," Saturday, mother of Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, one of the 13 U.S. service members killed in Kabul,Shana Chappell, delivered an emotional message to the Biden administration for its reckless military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

SHANA CHAPPELL: It's been a very, very rough year. They say that time heals, but the pain today is just as strong as it was the day I found out. So I'm still waiting for time to heal me. And it's affected my family very strongly, too, especially my oldest son.

Protestors hold a demonstration challenging the evacuation process from Kabul Airport. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

He actually took his life at the park by our house where he used to go with his brothers. When Kareem would come home on the weekends from Pendleton, he and his brothers would hang out, and they would go to the park, and they would swing and play at the park as if they were kids again. And across the street from that park is a permanent memorial, that's for Kareem. And he killed himself across from that.

HEROES OF KABUL: LANCE CPL. KAREEM NIKOUI BELIEVED AMERICA WAS WORTH FIGHTING FOR, FALLEN MARINE'S MOM SAYS

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Mother shares heart-wrenching details on how the US withdrawal from Afghanistan caused her to lose two sons - Fox News