Due to improvised evacuations from Kabul airport

Afghan children become depressed and afraid after arriving in America without their parents

  • Improvised evictions caused children to be separated from their parents.

    archival

  • "Ahmed" and "Mina" with their aunt in America.

    From the source

  • Emal hopes every day to be reunited with his family.

    From the source

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1,450 Afghan children have been evacuated to the United States without their parents since last August, after the Taliban entered the capital, Kabul.

Some have not yet been reunited with his family.

Among these tragedies is an eight-year-old girl who cries every night after her aunt puts her to bed.

Hundreds of children in the care of the US government ask questions that no one can answer.

Months after they arrived there, it is not yet clear if some of their family members will be able to see them.

The large number, first revealed by the media and recently updated, obtained by CNN from the Office of Refugee Resettlement, reveals a tragic truth about the evacuations and their aftermath.

Afghan-born American pediatrician in California, Dr. Sabrina Perino, who hopes to adopt some of these children, says that many children tried to flee Afghanistan with their families, but were scattered amid the chaos, and some lost contact with their parents during the bombing of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. And some of their families did not survive the terrorist attack afterwards.

Officials say the vast majority of the 1,450 children who were brought to the United States without their parents were quickly handed over to live with sponsors, including other family members who fled with them or relatives who were already living in the United States.

Some of them were reunited with their families through a rapid operation organized by the administration of US President Joe Biden, for Afghan children.

But about 250 of these children are still under the care of the US government, according to statistics recently provided by the Office of Refugee Resettlement to CNN.

Officials say most of these children do not have family members in the United States to whom they can join.

Some families who spoke to CNN say the children, already traumatized by what they went through in Afghanistan, are now living in limbo and desperately need some contact with their relatives in Afghanistan.

Video calls with their parents

Two teenage boys sitting on a sofa in their northern Virginia living room, looking lost.

Ramin, 17, and Emal, 16, were not supposed to come to the United States without their parents.

The boys were at the airport with family members about to leave in August, but were separated from family members during the airport attack.

The two sons and only one uncle were able to leave, and the rest of the families were left behind.

When Ramin arrived in the US in September, he was almost madly appalled, says Weda Amir, a board member of the Afghan American Foundation who met him when she was helping translate for evacuees who had finally arrived in the US.

"He used to say, 'Take me back - bring me back,'" Amir recalls.

He feared for the safety of his parents and siblings.

He was in Kabul and had a close relationship with his 18-month-old brother, spending most of the day together, and he couldn't imagine living apart from his brother.

One night, in the Virginia shelter, where he and Emel were taken after they got there, Ramin woke up screaming like a child and calling out his brother's name.

After spending more than a month at the shelter, the two boys went to live with Emal's uncle and his family, who came to the United States nearly five years ago on a special immigrant visa after working with the US Agency for International Development in Afghanistan.

These two teenagers who are in high school say they are trying to focus on building a new life in the United States and are grateful for the chance to live in safety, but their adjustment to the new life seems difficult, as they realize that their families in Afghanistan are still in danger.

strong emotions

The two teens talk to their parents almost every day.

The first video calls were filled with intense emotion.

"We were all crying when we looked at each other's pictures, it was hard at first to complete the conversation," says Emal through an interpreter, describing his interviews with his family.

Now, he says, these calls make him come to terms with his new situation. "If I don't talk to them or see their faces, I can't sleep," he says.

The two teenagers also say they want to be reunited with their parents and siblings in the United States.

But their families are not sure when that will happen.

"It's something I've always wished for," says Emal.

US officials who spoke with CNN say the procedures for reunification with parents who remained in Afghanistan or in other countries remain unclear.

A question looking for an answer

Jennifer Podkoll, vice president of the Policy and Advocacy Council for Children in Need, an organization that helps unaccompanied migrant and refugee children, asks: “Where is the responsibility to reunite these children with their families?

This is a big question that we want to see an answer to.”

The Department of Health and Human Services says the government is doing everything it can to help reunite unaccompanied Afghan minors and their immediate families who remain in Afghanistan.

The ministry adds that leaving Afghanistan still represents a great challenge for the families of these minors, and described the process of family unification as difficult, and indicated that it may take a long time.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met a group of unaccompanied Afghan children in September when he toured Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany.

He said the Americans look forward to welcoming them, and that the United States will try to help their families and friends who remain in Afghanistan.

Some children have difficulty eating because they know their families are hungry, and a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services says the Office of Refugee Resettlement takes the safety and well-being of children "very seriously."

"The mission of the Refugee Resettlement Office is to ensure that the children in its care are safe and healthy, and to work to reunite them with family members or other guardians as quickly and safely as possible," the spokesperson added.

Officials who spoke with children still in government care say many of them are struggling to deal with being separated from their parents, and struggling to deal with the trauma they experienced before fleeing Afghanistan.

Every time the president of the Muslim Women's Resource Center, Sima Qureshi, visits a shelter for Afghan children in Chicago, the children tell her how much they miss their families.

When Qureshi looks at the children, she says she sees herself.

Qureshi was born in Afghanistan and came to the United States as an orphan more than 30 years ago.

She tries to encourage children and give them hope.

But she says it is very difficult.

“The government gives a lot of support if it makes sure that their families are still there and want to take care of their children,” Qureshi adds.

But how long will that take?

None of us know," she says, "we don't even know what will happen to these children."

worsening mental condition

Children who live with relatives in America are also facing hard times.

Aunt Vereshta saw the pain on the faces of her niece and nephew every day.

They live with her in Virginia now, but their minds travel thousands of miles at every moment.

Mina (eight years old) and Ahmed (13 years old) tried to flee Afghanistan with their parents and older brother, but the bombing of the airport separated them.

The two children arrived in America in September with the help of a neighbor who led them to safety.

Ferishta says their mother died in the blast, and family members stayed behind.

The two children were injured in the attack, which killed more than 170 people, and injured at least 200 others.

For several months, family members were afraid to tell the two children of their mother's death.

Fereshta says the child finally found out, and her psychological condition worsened.

Mina continues to ask questions that her aunt does not know how to answer, for example: Why were she and her brother transferred to Germany after the attack and treated there?

Why couldn't her mother come too?

When will her father arrive?

"She starts crying every night until she falls asleep, and sometimes it's hard for her to stop," Fereshta says.

Shocking facts

Inside the Commonwealth Star Emergency Reception for Refugees in Albion, Michigan, Afghan children were talking to lawyers about their anxiety and fear, said Jennifer Vanegas, an official with the Michigan Center for Immigrant Rights, whose team spoke with children held at the shelter. "It's a sight that hurts the heart," she says. "Many of their family members are hiding in Afghanistan for their lives, they don't have enough food, they don't have a way out. We have children who tell us they are having a hard time eating because they know their families are hungry."

Nearly 20 Afghan minors at Bethany Christian Services facilities in Michigan and Pennsylvania are constantly asking what they can do to help their families in Afghanistan, says Nathan Bolt, Senior Vice President of Public and Governmental Affairs. I think more of them don't really know it, and I don't think the United States government does, and that's the hardest thing to say to a child sometimes, it's a shocking truth."

Other children were able to communicate with friends or family on the “WhatsApp” application, and Bolt says: “They know where their parents are, and their parents say we are not safe, and they are trying to escape from (the Taliban).” Bolt adds: “I pray to God that all these children are healed.” their extended family or their immediate families, but there are some children who will never be reunited with their families based on the information we have.”

Officials who spoke with children still in government care say that many are struggling to cope with being separated from their parents, and struggling to deal with the trauma they experienced before fleeing Afghanistan.

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