Malalai, age 10, fled to the United Kingdom with her mother and cousin after three days of waiting at the Kabul airport, where there was no food and people were crushed to death as they attempted to flee.
Yusuf, Malalai’s father, was already extremely apprehensive of the mounting dangers of living in Afghanistan.
He escaped Kabul using the British citizenship he had obtained as an asylum seeker in 2001, during the Taliban’s last reign of terror.
He boarded one of the final commercial flights out of Afghanistan on 14 August 2021, a day before the country’s collapse, with the expectation that his wife Sherbano and daughter Malalai, then nine years old, would soon follow.
The next day, as Taliban forces declared victory, he faced a terrifying wait in a quarantined hotel in London to see if the UK government’s Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme could safely evacuate his family.
Their identities have been changed for safety reasons.
Sherbano, Malalai’s mother, was preparing Sunday lunch when the Taliban seized power.
As a British citizen, she immediately contacted the Home Office but had to wait two agonizing days for a response while gunshots raged outside.
She stated, “They contacted me and said I could go to the airport, but it was late at night because after 10 p.m. we’re not allowed to leave since the situation is unsafe.”
They informed me that only one little piece of carry-on luggage is permitted.
Malalai continues, “I have so many school supplies; since my cousin is a student, I must give her everything. Now that I miss my home, my grandmother was crying and we hugged.”
While we were at the airport, four passed away.
Malalai and her cousin Maiwand were taken to Kabul Airport by Sherbano, where the world witnessed terrifying pictures of people clinging to the outside of planes in an attempt to escape.
They navigated their way to the Baron Hotel, where the British military had established operations for processing.
They spent three days there without food or protection from the hot sun.
And due to the presence of the Islamic State in the city, persistent fears of an imminent suicide strike at the airport existed.
A few hundred feet distant, an explosion in a sewage channel between the Baron Hotel and the Abbey Gate entrance of the airport killed 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. Marines mere days after their departure.
“The crowd was overwhelming,” Sherbano recalls. While we were there, four folks passed away.
Eventually, after two days and three nights, the three of them boarded a military plane to Dubai, from which they transferred to a second plane to London.
Once they were reunited with Yusuf, they were one of many families housed in one of Bristol’s two “bridging hotels.”
A year after the evacuation, thousands of Afghans are still waiting at these hotels, according to official figures.
It is not a house.
Even though they have a roof over their heads and food to eat, living in limbo is frustrating.
Yusuf adds, “The most important thing to me at home is cooking, so I would cook a lot of food. “Here, you do nothing and get sluggish all day, especially if you do not work.”
Sherbano continues, “It is not a house.”
Meanwhile, Malalai begins school and suffers.
“I am new to this. “Everything is so different in terms of culture,” she says.
“I attend school, but I have no friends since I speak so little English.
“In Afghanistan, I had a multitude of pals. I miss it terribly. I dread to break time… In Afghanistan, there are no breaks.”
These cultural differences, according to Donna Curran, a senior support worker for migrants in Bristol, must be taken into account when searching for permanent homes for families.
“There is a great deal of criticism that they never use sofas and prefer floor cushions,” she explains.
They prefer apartments over houses and have no interest in grounds.
Relatives still imprisoned by the Taliban
Out of Afghanistan converses with a second family who has been resettled in Peterhead, north of Aberdeen.
Ali, one of them, says, “It’s quite difficult to converse with locals here since their accents are so diverse.”
He arrived in the United Kingdom through the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) program after serving as a military interpreter for the British military.
Afzal, another refugee, is still concerned about his family members who remain in the country.
He says, “I’m afraid I haven’t spoken to one of my brothers in a month.
“Only two or three times have I heard his voice on my phone. Afghanistan has a deficient internet connection.
“We hope that the Taliban would alter their ways in Afghanistan and cease hurting people.”
