Hundreds of thousands of Afghans became displaced in the aftermath of the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. Since then, almost 80,000 Afghan refugees have been resettled in the United States through the Department of Homeland Security-led Operation Allies Welcome.
Mohammad Ghani Haliqayar, a university lecturer in Afghanistan, was able to get to the Kabul Airport and get out of the country last August.
"It was a very bad time so when the Taliban took over Afghanistan, everything [was] damaged," he said.
He spent two months at a military base in Abu Dhabi, then two months at another base in New Mexico before he finally resettled in National City in December 2021. He is now working at 7-Eleven and says he feels grateful.
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Mohammad Nawab Mangal made it to El Cajon at the end of 2021 after spending months at military facilities in Doha and then Wisconsin. Mangal, who used to be a colonel in the Afghan military, and then a member of Parliament, now works up to 15 hours a day as a security guard and an Uber Eats driver. He hasn't seen his wife and seven kids since he left Afghanistan. They fled and have resettled in Turkey. He is hoping that one day they will all be reunited.
"I want to support my family, be an independent person here in the United States and I want to pay taxes to contribute to the development and improvement of the United States as a whole," he said.
