Irmo, sc -Mohammad Sharafoddin, his spouse and little son walked generally for 36 hours in a row for mountain passes after they left Afghanistan as refugees to complete lower than a decade later speaking about their journey in an opulent love seat within the suburban home of three bedrooms of the household.
He and his spouse dreamed of taking their niece to america to share that reward. Perhaps he might research to change into a health care provider after which resolve his personal method.
However that door closed on Monday when america established a prohibition of touring to folks from Afghanistan and a dozen different nations.
“It’s a bit shocking to us once we take heed to Afghanistan, particularly at the moment for affected ladies greater than others with the brand new authorities,” stated Mohammad Sharafoddin. “We do not take into consideration this prohibition of touring.”
President Donald Trump signed the ban on Wednesday. It’s much like one as an alternative throughout its first administration, nevertheless it covers extra nations. Along with Afghanistan, the journey to america is prohibited from Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Trump stated guests who exceed the visas, resembling the person accused in an assault that injured dozens of protesters in Boulder, Colorado, earlier this month, are a hazard to the nation. The suspect within the assault is from Egypt, which isn’t included within the ban.
The nations chosen for the ban have a poor detection of their residents, usually refuse to get well them and have a excessive share of people that stay in america after their visas expire, Trump stated.
The prohibition makes exceptions for Afghanistan folks in particular immigrants visas that typically labored extra carefully with america authorities through the 20 years battle there.
Hundreds of refugees got here from Afghanistan
Afghanistan was additionally one of many largest sources of reappeared refugees, with roughly 14,000 arrivals in a interval of 12 months till September 2024. Trump suspended the resettlement of refugees on his first day in workplace.
It’s a path that Sharafoddin took together with his spouse and son of Afghanistan strolling alongside these mountain roads at the hours of darkness that by Pakistan, Iran and Türkiye. He labored in a manufacturing unit for years in Türkiye, listening to YouTube headphones to study English earlier than being resettled in Irmo, South Carolina, a suburb of Columbia.
His son is now 11 years previous, and he and his spouse had a daughter in america who’s now three years previous. There’s a job in a jewel producer that lets you pay a two -story home and three rooms. The meals was offered at two tables on Saturday for a celebration of the Muslim holidays Eid al-Adha.
Sharafoddin’s spouse, Nuriya, stated she is studying English and driving, two issues she couldn’t do in Afghanistan underneath the Taliban authorities.
“I’m very glad to be right here now, as a result of my son is excellent at college and my daughter too. I believe after 18 years they may work, and my daughter can go to school,” he stated.
The household needs to assist the niece
It’s a life that he additionally wished for his niece. The couple exhibits movies of their cell telephones of their drawing and paint. When the Taliban returned to energy in 2021, their niece might not research. Then they started to plan it to america at the very least to advertise their schooling.
Nuriya Sharafoddin doesn’t know if her niece has heard the information from america but. She has not had her coronary heart to name and say.
“I am not able to name her. This isn’t excellent news. That is very unhappy information as a result of she is frightened and needs to return,” stated Nuriya Sharafoddin.
Whereas the couple spoke, Jim Ray got here. He has helped a collection of refugee households to settle in Columbia and helped the Sharafoddins navigate questions of their second language.
Ray stated that Afghan in Columbia know that the return of the Taliban modified the way in which america offers with their native nation.
However whereas the prohibition permits spouses, youngsters or dad and mom to journey to america, different relations aren’t included. Many Afghas know that their prolonged households starve or endure, and abruptly a path to assist is closed, Ray stated.
“We should wait and see how the prohibition of journeys and particulars actually develop,” Ray stated. “These sorts of issues which can be experiencing the place the household can not meet is definitely the place it hurts.”
Taliban criticize journey ban
The Taliban themselves criticized Trump for the ban, with the chief Hibatullah Akhundada saying that america was now the oppressor of the world.
“Residents from 12 nations are prohibited from coming into their lands, and Afghans aren’t allowed both,” he stated in a shared recording on social networks. “Why? As a result of they declare that the Afghan authorities has no management over its folks and that folks go away the nation. So, oppressor! Is that this what you name friendship with humanity?”
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