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Former U.S. translator working to help family escape Afghanistan
An Afghan-American man in the DMV is working around the clock to get help to those in his home country.
WASHINGTON (FOX 5 DC) - An Afghan-American man in the DMV is working around the clock to get help to those in his home country.
Mass evacuation efforts are continuing despite flights out of Kabul being suspended for nearly eight hours Friday.
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Raz Ahmadi, his wife, and four children were fortunate to get out just in time a few days ago and are now here safe with him in DC, but so many of his friends and family are stuck in Kabul and he’s doing all he can for them.
"My day is full of hoplessness. My day is full of tears. My day is just not being able to give an answer to my loved ones that are at the airport as I speak right now," Ahmadi told FOX 5’s Jacqueline Matter.
Ahmadi says he has dozens of people calling him asking for guidance because they think he can do something to help them.
Of the countless images coming out of Kabul of Afghans desperate to find a way out, he says it’s just as bad, if not worse than it looks.
"The situation, I would say, is so chaotic, so hopeless for everyone," Ahmadi said. "They know if they are left in Afghanistan and as soon as the U.S. evacuation mission ends there will be tortures and retaliation and suffering that so many will have to go through just for having worked for the U.S. government."
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Despite all of this, he says he is determined to help those still stuck in the chaos and turmoil on the ground there fearing for their lives. He's been using contacts he has from his time in the Afghan military and the connections he has to U.S. organizations.
"I know for a fact they’re going to come after my family, but that’s not going to stop me. It's not just about my family, it’s about the tens of thousands of families or people who disagreed with them. The millions of people who worked for the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and we feel left behind," said Ahmadi.
The non-profit, "no one left behind" says as many as 100,000 Afghans and their family members are trying to get out of the country after having some sort of affiliation with the U.S. government.
Ahmadi says for those here in the states that want to help these refugees, he suggests reaching out to your local delegates to urge federal action.