The scene at Kabul International Airport in August, 2021.Photo: WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty
An infant lost in the chaos of theAmerican withdrawal from Afghanistanlast year has been found and reunited with family members in Kabul months after he disappeared,Reuters reports.
In November, former U.S. Embassy security guard Mirza Ali Ahmadi explained toReutershow he and his wife, Suraya, were with their five children outside the Kabul airport on Aug. 19 attempting to leave the country inthe wake of the Taliban takeoverat the end of the war.
As Taliban fighters began pushing out potential evacuees, the scene grew tumultuous, Ahmadi said, and the couple handed their 2-month old son, Sohail, over the fence to a U.S. soldier offering to help, they told Reuters.
By the time the family made it to the other side, some 30 minutes later, Sohail wasn’t there.
Ahmadi, his wife and their other children were successfully evacuated and eventually made it to the United States, landing in Fort Bliss in Texas to await resettlement, where they have no relatives.
A spokesperson for the State Department previously told PEOPLE that, due to privacy considerations, they generally do not comment on specific cases. But the official confirmed that the government was aware of the missing child and was attempting to locate him.
“We are committed to ensuring the protection of unaccompanied children,” the spokesperson said at the time, adding, “We are working with our international partners and the international community to explore every avenue to locate the child, which includes an international amber alert that was issued through the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children.”
Word-of-mouth (and old-fashioned journalism) ultimately proved key to uncovering Sohail’s whereabouts.
After the initial Reuters report, some of Safi’s neighbors recognized the boy, and got in contact with Ahmadi’s father-in-law Mohammad Qasem Razawi, who traveled to see Safi in an attempt to persuade him to hand the child back, according to Reuters.
The outlet reports that Safi refused those requests, saying he instead wanted to be evacuated from Afghanistan along with his own family. The child’s grandfather then contacted Taliban police, to report that Safi had kidnapped the infant.
A spokesperson for the State Department tells PEOPLE it is now seeking to reunite the child with his parents and siblings in America.
“While we generally do not comment on specific cases, the U.S. Department of State is aware of this case and the latest developments,” the spokesperson told PEOPLE in a statement. “We are working with international partners to assist in reunifying the family.”
The State Department spokesperson continued: “We are committed to reuniting families, especially parents and minor children, who may have been separated during relocation operations in August 2021, as we have done with individual cases in which we have been able to verify the identity of the child and their family members.”
Meanwhile, the child’s grandfather told Reuters that seeing Sohail alive and well has been cause for celebration. “There are celebrations, dance, singing,” he said. “It is just like a wedding indeed.”
source: people.com
