An Afghan man and his wife are appealing to President Biden to help them reunite with their son, who had to be left behind with a relative in Afghanistan in the chaos at Kabul airport.
An Afghan man and his wife are appealing to the Biden administration to help them reunite with their son, who had to be left behind with a relative in the chaos at Kabul airport.Dec. 23, 2021, 9:30 AM UTCOn the morning of Aug. 16, Noorulhaq Hadi and his family headed toward Kabul’s airport but soon became trapped in the crush of people trying to flee Afghanistan amid theIn the chaos, he and his 2-year-old son, Hanzala, got separated from the rest of the family.
After handing over the little boy, Hadi made it inside the airport and found his wife and youngest son. His brother tried to bring Hanzala to the entrance several times, he said, but the Marines said the gate was now closed. Hadi’s family reluctantly flew out of the country four days later.Hadi said State Department officials initially gave them reason to be hopeful but they now face a new hurdle: Qatar, which oversees all U.S.
Lois, a former Green Beret who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is trying to help Hadi get his son to the U.S. “I can’t imagine, from father to father, what he is feeling and I feel helpless trying to help him,” he said. Two State Department officials worked at length to try to help him, appealing to the Marines to open the gate for the child, he said. But all their efforts failed. The troops said they had orders to keep the gate closed. Hadi recognized that if his family left the airport, there would be no way to get back in.
Senior officials at the State Department promised to work on the case, according to emails seen by NBC News. U.S. officials asked for a birth certificate and proof of vaccinations. But about a month ago, the officials said there was a new requirement: Hanzala needed a passport to leave the country.