Munir Ahmed: Imagine “your country collapsing in front of your eyes.”
The latest news about desperate Afghans seeking to flee the Taliban isn’t an abstract story about strangers for Munir Ahmed. It’s about his parents and brothers.
Ahmed, a civil engineer, resettled in New Haven in 2017 after escaping death threats in his native Khost, where he helped maintain a U.S. military airfield. He has rebuilt a successful life here.
Now that the U.S. military has fled Afghanistan and the Taliban has taken control of the country, he’s praying that his remaining family members, too, can get out. They were in the process of obtaining the same special immigration visa Ahmed had received when the Afghan government collapsed immediately upon the U.S. withdrawal.
“My parents, my siblings, they all worked for the U.S. government. My in-laws. They are all stuck there,” Ahmed, who’s 36, said during an emotional appearance Thursday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” (Click above to watch the episode.)
“They had special immigrant visa cases ongoing but they’re stuck. My mom had a stroke; she could not go to the doctor’s. My dad and my brothers could not take here. They are stuck. Her stroke was six months ago; she needs to be checked out regularly. Every person is in bad condition.
“Not only my family’s lives are in danger. Every person who has helped the U.S. government is at risk” of deadly reprisals.
The family is in hiding, trying to figure out some way to navigate a trek to the Kabul airport and then a spot on a U.S. plane out of the country.
Ahmed has contacted the offices of Connecticut’s U.S. senators appealing for help. He has tried, without success, to get money to his parents through Western Union.
He’s worrying and working frantically to help them. At this point there may not be much he can do.
He’s not alone. New Haven’s Afghan refugee community has grown to over 100 families in recent years. Many have connections to people stuck back in Afghanistan.
Imagine “your country is collapsing in front of your eyes. People are shocked. People are despaired,” Ahmed said.
The local community is about to grow more once Afghan families do make it out of the country.
Many of the new arrivals belong to an informal network. Like many in the group, he has helped New Haven’s Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS) to find jobs and housing for new arrivals.
Ten Afghan families have arrived in New Haven since mid-July, reported IRIS spokesperson Ann O’Brien. “We have been put on 24-hour notice to receive families. Once they arrive in the U.S., they are processed at Fort Lee and then determine that their closest U.S. Afghan family friend or colleague — a “US Tie” — who came before them, lives in New Haven.” Four of the 10 new families were evacuees who arrived over the past two weeks via that 24-hour process.
O’Brien was asked what help IRIS needs now from the community. Her answer: First and foremost, financial donations (donate here) to help with that 24-hour response process for new arrivals. IRIS also anticipates “increased food assistance needs” while new arrivals wait for work permits.
Paying It Forward
Paul Bass Photo
Munir Ahmed Thursday at WNHH FM.
In the process of helping families resettle in New Haven, Ahmed is guiding people on a path he himself walked after leaving Afghanistan.
An educated civil engineer, Ahmed had the job of maintaining the runway at Khost’s FOB (Forward Operating Base) Salerno, a location so often targeted by the Taliban, it was known as “Rocket City.” A practicing Muslim (currently active in New Haven’s George Street masjid), but not a follower of the Taliban, he believed in the U.S.-Afghan government mission.
The death threats began in 2014. His family finally made it out three years later.
In New Haven, Ahmed, his wife and two daughters at first lived in the Quinnipiac Meadows neighborhood, where the Afghan and Pakistani immigrant community is centered. Through community connections, he was able to land two jobs, at a 7/11 as well as a Lyft driver. He also squeezed in studies at a University of New Haven master’s program in construction management.
Today he has bought his own home in the Dwight neighborhood, as well as two other properties with fellow Afghan immigrants. With the master’s degree, he has landed a position as a construction inspector with the state Department of Transportation.
“New Haven is so diverse. Now I feel it’s my birthplace,” he said.
New Haven’s prayers are with Ahmed — that the rest of his family, and many others left behind in Afghanistan, can make it out and feel the same way.
Allan Appel Photo
Munir Ahmed, at left, hosting the Independent’s Allan Appel and fellow Khost refugee Abdul Rahmanfor lunch in 2018.