Fleeing Afghanistan, U.S. Allies Risk Journey Through Darién Gap

Not one of the households had a lawyer or a transparent thought of find out how to survive, a lot much less feed their households again residence in Afghanistan. Most started writing determined messages to migrant assist organizations, however the teams have been overwhelmed, and the Afghans hardly ever heard again.

Mozhgan’s household confronted a distinct terror: She had gone lacking.

She had scaled the primary border fence, then spent three nights between the partitions. Lastly, immigration officers carted her household to detention — however she and an older brother, each over 18, have been handled as single adults and saved in custody, whereas the remainder of the household was launched in California.

They’d fled Afghanistan collectively and spent months trekking by unforgiving terrain, evading bandits and dodging corrupt law enforcement officials — solely to be separated, with none contact, within the nation the place they hoped to seek out refuge.

Her mom, Anisa, was frantic, mentioned Mozhgan’s father, Abdul. “We’d not have the ability to see them once more,” he recalled her saying.

Their kids have been launched a few week later and reunited with the household.

Taiba saved shifting. In early Might, an assist group in New York supplied a spot in a shelter and the household headed east, certain for extra uncertainty. With out asylum, they confronted a life within the shadows, like hundreds of thousands of different undocumented immigrants in the US.

Her husband had at all times assumed the Darién could be the toughest a part of the journey.

“However after I emerged from the jungle, we have now seen, ‘No,’” he mentioned. “The difficulties are without end.”

Federico Rios contributed reporting from Brazil, Mexico and the Darién Hole, and Ruhullah Khapalwak from Vancouver.