by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - A family of Christian refugees who escaped Afghanistan after the Taliban took over last August has been speaking about their fear of being murdered before they could flee, and of anxiety about their uncertain future, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. The family’s full name cannot be given for security reasons.
Speaking to MSN, family member Zakariya described how he and his younger sister, and his mother, raced to Kabul airport the day after the Taliban took power, in the hope of getting on a plane to India. Zakariya’s other sister, 24-year-old Esin is already in India and has been granted a short-term visa extension. The family planned to be reunited in India and then apply to go to the US.
At Kabul airport, the family learned all flights were canceled and were told to go home. However, the family considered it too dangerous to return home. “Our neighbors knew about our belief, and it was extremely dangerous to go back, so we changed our place,” Zakariya told MSN. “We thought that if they expose us to the Taliban, they will kill us… The Taliban are very cruel and staunch…I cannot express the terror and fear we felt for our lives each day after the Taliban took over,” Zakariya said.
With the help of other Christians, the family was able to fly to the United Arab Emirates several days later. But they still face anxiety about the future. “While my sister is still in India, my mother has gone into depression worrying about her,” Zakariya said. “She is alone in India, and day-after-day we are waiting to see that our paperwork would progress and that we would be sent to the U.S., and somehow we would reunite with my sister in the U.S.”
Even before the recent Taliban takeover, Afghanistan ranked two on the US Open Doors Watch List 2021 of top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted. The situation for Afghan Christians is all the more perilous now.