Afghans who helped American troops arrive at Dulles, find safety in Virginia
ARLINGTON, Va. (7News) — Although some Afghans attempting to flee the Taliban have not yet made it out of Afghanistan, others did make it out and have been arriving in the U.S., including Dulles Airport.
7News spoke with a number of refugees staying at Northern Virginia hotels Wednesday. Although they give different reasons, all express the same fears. Until escaping they feared the Taliban would kill them if they stayed in Afghanistan, and now they fear the Taliban will kill families they left behind.
For that reason, some did not want to be named, but spoke with us on condition we not identify them.
“If I had stayed there maybe the Taliban would have killed me, so that’s why I came here,” one man from a village about 150 miles east of the capital Kabul told us.
He said he fled the country because he had served in the Afghan army and that made him a target. He accuses the Taliban of already breaking their pledge of a peaceful rule.
“The Taliban are not men of their word. What they are promising, they are not doing that,” he said. “Sometimes now the Taliban are coming inside the house of people who worked for the government of Afghanistan. They will kill them and they’re torturing them.”
Several people told us they were only staying in the DC area temporarily until they can move to places like Texas and California. But local groups are helping others who plan to stay in the area for a while.
