It could be said that Bahar Mehr timed his exit from Afghanistan just right, though nothing feels fitting or easy about the twisted turns of fate that landed his family in Atlanta last October.
Mr. Mehr, who first worked as a translator and cultural advisor for the U.S. Army and then as a communications consultant or the Afghanistan’s interior ministry working with the national police force, began fielding death threats from Taliban-aligned elements in mid-2020, leading him to seek safety in the United States.
Now safely resettled here with his wife and two children, 8 and 4 years old, Mr. Mehr looked aghast in recent days on the rapid takeover of his country by the extremist group.
“That is the worst thing that I could have imagined to happen to me,” he said of the prospect of being kept from ever returning home. “Right now I have seen that I cannot get back to Afghanistan for many years to come, and maybe even for my whole life. I call it now an exile.”
The quicker-than-expected Taliban seizure of Kabul, the capital, led to a mass scramble for the exits among thousands of Afghans fearing reprisals for working with U.S. during the 20-year war. It also led to criticism of the Biden administration for pushing ahead with withdrawal plans and downplaying the threat to Kabul even as Taliban forces took major provincial capitals.
Chaos engulfed the city’s international airport this week, forcing the president to send in 6,000 American troops to secure the perimeter and manage a massive civilian airlift. Scenes of desperate Afghans clinging to cargo jets have been seared into Americans’ minds, prompting comparisons to Vietnam. Thousands more Afghans, however, remain trapped in the capital, with many rebuffed at Taliban checkpoints on the roads leading to the airport.
For Mr. Mehr, this is more than an abstract policy issue; it’s deeply personal, as his parents and siblings are among those facing an “imminent threat to their lives” as a result of his work with the United States. He has received messages from contacts who have seen Taliban fighters knock down doors to their homes and search for evidence of relatives’ collaboration with foreign forces.
“The city is in chaos — nobody knows what will happen next,” Mr. Mehr told Global Atlanta, noting a change in tone already in Afghan media coverage, even as the Taliban promise to rule more gently than in the brutal years that led up to 9/11 and the subsequent American invasion. Women and girls, who have enjoyed robust freedoms in the intervening decades, fear a return to repression under the fundamentalist group’s reign.
Republicans and Democrats alike have criticized Mr. Biden for a haphazard execution of the withdrawal, including stalled processing of Special Immigrant Visa applications from those like Mr. Mehr who risked their lives in military offensive led by the U.S. and NATO.
Mr. Mehr stopped short of characterizing it as a betrayal, given how many Americans continue to offer help and assistance. He instead called it a policy failure and suggested the buck stops with Mr. Biden.
“I can’t believe that this is happening in front of our eyes,” he said, a day before the Wall Street Journal published a report outlining State Department memos warning the Biden administration about the need to accelerate evacuation efforts well in advance of its Aug. 31 deadline.
“Who is paying the price right now? Millions of Afghans who embraced democratic values, who stood and fought with us the past two decades, and now we abandon them to the Taliban, to the terrorists, to the people who have no mercy,” he said.
Even Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, not known for his pro-immigration stances, launched a broadside on Mr. Biden and voiced openness to resettling Afghans in Georgia, a position shared by most politicians on both sides of the aisle.
Newly arrived Afghans would join a local community forged through the tumult of war, many of them aided by resettlement agencies like the International Rescue Committee’s Atlanta office, which alone has helped about 300 families and 900 individuals restart their lives in Georgia since 2001.
Even as the Trump administration tamped down refugee quotas, the process never stopped for the IRC, said Justin Howell, director of the IRC’s Atlanta operation.
“We’ve resettled about 230 people in the last four years alone, about 70 families,” he said. As with the Syrian community fleeing civil war, the Afghans here are a mix of SIV holders who worked with the U.S. and professionals that got out as refugees.
While Afghanistan taken over the headlines, the U.S. government has indeed intensified efforts to extricate SIV recipients and refugees since former President Trump agreed on a May withdrawal date as part of a deal with the Taliban.
“I think people noticed that this was coming and things were already in motion,” Mr. Howell said, noting that IRC has worked with a U.S. government facility in Virginia specially set up to receive SIV holders. “I think there’s a both a willingness and an apparatus, I could say in place to be able to continue receiving people from overseas and processing them.”
He welcomed the bipartisan support for Afghan SIV holders, given the politicization of refugee resettlement in the past few years.
“If you go back in the 40 year history of the refugee resettlement program, from the time that Jimmy Carter actually helped create the program, it’s important that we understand that this is a reflection of American values, that we’ve always been — even in the terminology of Ronald Reagan — the city on the hill, the light in the darkness for the world,” Mr. Howell said. “It’s great to see the bipartisan support, and for (politicians) to actually start to understand the purpose and role of the refugee resettlement program.”
When they arrive in Georgia, often landing in the well-known metro Atlanta refugee haven of Clarkston, the IRC helps the new immigrants find housing, schooling and job opportunities while facilitating connections with family or friends already here, all with the goal of helping them achieve self-sufficiency.
For his part, Mr. Mehr came to Georgia to reconnect with cousins and also to take advantage of one particular area of bureaucratic efficiency:
“The main reason why I moved here from New Jersey to Atlanta is the services that the Department of Motor Vehicles provides,” Mr. Mehr said, noting that he could schedule an appointment for the driving test in two days, versus months in some other states.
That ID is a key into the workforce, a nut that Mr. Mehr is still trying to crack with the help of the IRC’s career team. He speaks Dari, Pashto and English and has extensive experience in internal government communications as well as external affairs, but is finding it challenging to translate his resume into a new job.
Mr. Mehr’s children are happy at their new home in Norcross, and he is glad for the safety and opportunity afforded to his family in the U.S.
But he still laments what he views as a preventable crisis created by the country he joined so many years ago to fight a “common enemy” and bring democracy, human rights and a better future to a home he may have left behind for good.
“With the current failure, you may call it anything. You could say that it was all wrong assessments, and that all the sacrifices were in vain, but I can tall you that it’s very complicated. It’s very political. The decision to withdraw the forces from Afghanistan was a mistake. That brought everything unfortunately to nothing.”
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To get in touch with Mr. Mehr and assist with his career search, contact IRC’s Lauren Bowden, career development coordinator, at Lauren.Bowden@rescue.org.
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