A newborn boy, handed over to a soldier in desperation, has been found across the airport wall in the chaos of the US evacuation in Afghanistan and reunited with his relatives in Kabul on Saturday.
The child, Sohail Ahmadi, was just two months old when he went missing on August 19, as thousands rushed to leave Afghanistan as it fell into the hands of the Taliban.
Following an exclusive Reuters story published with his photographs in November, the child was located in Kabul, where a 29-year-old taxi driver named Hamid Safi found him at the airport and took him to his home.
After more than seven weeks of talks and arguments, and eventually a brief detention by Taliban police, Safi finally handed the child back to his happy grandfather and other relatives in Kabul.
They said they would now try to reunite her with her parents and siblings, who had been taken to the United States months ago.
During the turbulent Afghan evacuation in the summer, Mirza Ali Ahmadi – the boy’s father who worked as a security guard at the US embassy – and his wife Surya feared that their son would be crushed into the crowd as they entered the airport gate. were near. A flight to the United States.
Ahmadi told Reuters in his desperation in early November that that day, he handed Sohail to a uniformed soldier on the airport wall, who he believed to be an American, fully hoping he would soon balance it. 5 m (15 ft) to the entrance. retrieve it.
At the same time, Taliban forces pushed the crowd back and it would take another half an hour to get inside Ahmadi, his wife and their four other children.
But till then the child was nowhere to be found.
Ahmadi said he searched extensively for his son inside the airport and officials told him he could be taken out of the country separately and reunited with him later.
The rest of the family were fired – eventually ending up at a military base in Texas. For months he did not know where his son was.
The case highlights the plight of many parents who were separated from their children during the US military’s hasty evacuation attempt from the country after the 20 Years’ War and the US military’s withdrawal from the country.
With no US embassy in Afghanistan and the vast expansion of international organizations, Afghan refugees have had trouble finding answers to the timing, or possibility, of such a complicated reunification.
“We are working to reunite the family,” a State Department official said.
The timing is still unknown, however, said a second US official with knowledge of the situation, as regular evacuation flights are not currently leaving the country. The second official said the US government is in talks with the Qataris as well as parties in Afghanistan about the matter.
alone at the airport
On the same day that Ahmadi and his family were separated from their child, Safi slipped through the gates of Kabul airport after riding his brother’s family, which was also prepared to be evacuated.
Safi said that he found Sohail alone and was crying on the ground. After saying that he tried unsuccessfully to find the child’s parents inside, he took the infant to his wife and children’s home. Safi has three daughters of her own and she said that her mother’s greatest wish before she died was to have a son.
At that point he decided: “I’m keeping this baby. If his family is found, I’ll give it to them. If not, I’ll raise him myself,” he told Reuters in an interview in late November.
Safi told Reuters he took her to the doctor for a check-up after meeting and quickly added the baby to his family. He called the child Mohamed Abed and posted pictures of all the children together on his Facebook page.
After a Reuters story about the missing child surfaced, some of Safdie’s neighbors – who had seen her return from the airport with a child months earlier – recognized the photos and made comments about her whereabouts on a translated version of the article. Posted.
Ahmadi asks his relatives still in Afghanistan to find his father-in-law, Mohammad Qasim Razawi, 67, who lives in the northeastern province of Badakhshan, to search for Safi and to return Sohail to the family.
Razavi said he traveled for two days and two nights for Safi and his family – including a slaughtered sheep, several pounds of walnuts and clothing.
But Safi refuses to release Sohail and insists that he too wants to be deported from Afghanistan along with his family. Safdie’s brother, who was moved to California, said Safdie and his family had no pending applications for admission to the US.
The child’s family sought help from the Red Cross, whose mission is to help reunite people torn apart by the international crisis, but said they had received little information from the organisation. A Red Cross spokesman said it did not comment on individual matters.
Finally, after realizing that he had run out of options, Razavi approached the local Taliban police to report the kidnapping. Safi told Reuters he denied the allegations against police and said he was caring for the child, not kidnapping.
The complaint was investigated and dismissed, and the local police commander told Reuters that he helped arrange a settlement, which included a settlement with thumbprints by both parties. Razavi said the child’s family, in the end, agreed to reimburse Safi about 100,000 afghani ($950) for the cost of caring for her for five months.
Hamid Malang, chief area controller of the local police station, said, “The child’s grandfather complained to us and we found Hamid and we identified the child based on the evidence we had.” “With the consent of both the parties, the child will be handed over to his grandfather,” he said on Saturday.
In the presence of the police and amidst much tears, the child was finally handed over to his family members.
Razavi said that Safi and his family were devastated by the loss of Sohail. Razavi said, “Hamid and his wife were crying, I also cried, but assured them that both of you are young, Allah will give you male children. Not one, but many. I sent them both to rescue the child from the airport.” Thank you.” ,
“We need to bring the child back to his mother and father. This is my sole responsibility,” he said.
The child’s parents told Reuters they were overjoyed because they were able to see the reunion with their own eyes over video chat.
“There are festivals, dancing, singing,” said Razavi. “It’s really like a wedding.”
Now Ahmadi and his wife and other children, who were able to move from a military base to a Michigan apartment in early December, are still finding their feet and focusing on the return of their son.
“I was very sad and always crying for my baby,” said his mother, Surya. “Now I hope he reaches here safely. I didn’t sleep last night because of happiness.”