They wanted to visit their family in Afghanistan – their “final chance” to do so, Mahdi, who had not seen his parents in years, explained. But like many others, the speed of the Taliban’s advance took them by surprise.
Mahdi arrived as a refugee in Luxembourg back in 2010. In 2013, he received the official status as a refugee. In 2015, he was able to bring his wife and their two children to Luxembourg as well – today, they are a family of five.
In early August, the family travelled to Afghanistan to visit relatives. They had booked their return flight to Europe for 17 August. On 15 August, the Taliban seized Afghanistan’s capital, at a time when even the US intelligence services still expected Kabul to be safe for weeks to come. The situation in the city had changed in a matter of hours.
Ten-year-old Hajar, one of the family’s children, said that they were not able to leave the house because whenever they did they had to wear “a scarf and long clothes”.
For a total of four times, the family tried to access the airport. They were in constant contact with someone in Luxembourg. Military officials from several European countries got in touch with the family to get them out of the country.
On the final evening before they managed to leave, they were contacted by Germany’s Federal Defence Forces, the Bundeswehr, and escorted to the airport. While they were already on the bus, they received a message from the Belgian embassy with a time and a specific meeting point in Kabul.
Hajar remembers that it was “very hot” inside the bus and that “all of the babies were crying”. According to Mahdi, the bus ride to the airport took between three and four hours because of the large number of people gathered in front of the airport.
The family states that they were incredibly relieved when they arrived in Islamabad and then finally, a few hours later, in Brussels.
Once there, a bus from Luxembourg came to pick them up and brought them back home. Hajar said that she was afraid, but now “it is better” and she is “no longer afraid”. The first thing she wanted to do once back in Luxembourg, she recounted, was “go to sleep” because she was “incredibly tired”.
With the help of Luxembourg’s government, they were also able to get Mahdi’s sister out of Kabul. She worked as an engineer for the Afghan government and several US companies. Now, she will apply for international protection in the Grand Duchy.
As Hajar concludes: in Luxembourg at least, it is not “dangerous”.
