Former military interpreter in Afghanistan makes it safely to Colorado
DENVER — “I faced like a lot of ambushes over there ... I have nightmares and depression, PTSD from those missions. So, it was really hard jobs over there. ”
After nine years of waiting and 14 years of working for the U.S. military as interpreter, Siddiq, an Afghan man, is finally able to make a new home in Colorado. Rocky Mountain PBS spoke to Siddiq about life in Afghanistan, his plight to make it to safety and his hopes for the future. For his safety and the safety of his family still in Afghanistan, we are only identifying him by his first name.
Siddiq’s daily job entailed meeting with village elders and Afghan commanders on behalf of the Marines and Army. He also participated in day and overnight missions where he was caught in many ambushes and left dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and nightmares.
“I was denied an SIV approval six or seven times…”
Siddiq first applied for a Special Immigration Visa, or SIV, in 2013. The SIV program started in 2006 to offer visas for interpreters or translators who worked for the U.S. Military in Afghanistan and Iraq and is limited to just 50 visas granted each year.
Siddiq said he was denied an SIV so many times, all hope that he could leave the dangerous conditions in Afghanistan was gone.
“I gave up on America, you know, because they denied my visa like more than seven or six times, and there is no way to get out of this county,” Siddiq told his American friend Anna.
When she heard that news, Anna decided to help Siddiq. She was able to get his information and apply as a Humanitarian Parolee, a process many in Afghanistan applied for after the U.S. Military pulled out of the country.
“Anna helped me within like a month, like a week. So, she called me at midnight ... and she was like, ‘Siddiq, you guys need to get out of Afghanistan,’” Siddiq said.
Siddiq and his family escape
Right after receiving word that his application for humanitarian parole process was approved, Siddiq said he left his house with his one-month-old son, his wife and his mother in the middle of the night. Then, they drove through five Taliban checkpoints to get the airport, and at each checkpoint there was a risk of being found out for his affiliation with the U.S. Siddiq said they could have been killed.
At the first checkpoint, members of the Taliban asked Siddiq where they were going. “I lied to them and told them like, ‘My wife, she is going to the hospital, and she is sick,' you know? Then, the second checkpoint, they stopped us, and they were like, ‘Where are you going,’ you know? And then I told them my wife is going to her parents’ house.”
Thankfully, he and his family made it safely past all the checkpoints and were able to fly to Qatar, then to Germany, then to Washington D.C. and finally to Denver.
Siddiq said during this terrifying time of escaping to the airport, he and his wife feared their one-month-old son wouldn’t make it.
“We thought he was going to die on the way, but I was thanking God, you know, that he’s alive now,” Siddiq said. “It was really difficult times on the way when we left Afghanistan to come to America. So, we faced like a lot of difficulties on the way.”
Each time Siddiq thinks of his journey here, he always thinks of his friend Anna and what a huge difference she made in his life.
"It was an impossible thing too, so because of Anna, I made it here though, and she helped me. She is a really good person,” said Siddiq.
Everyday life in Afghanistan: “This is kind of like hell over there…”
Siddiq shared with Rocky Mountain PBS how dangerous life is right now in Afghanistan. Since the U.S. military withdrew from the country in August 2021, the Taliban took over, instating harsh rules and penalties.
[Related: Follow the latest news on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan here.]
Especially for people like himself, who worked with the U.S. Military, Siddiq said many of his friends and family’s lives are in constant jeopardy.
“My two friends, one of them, he was a special force and the other guy was like an MP, an Afghan national police. So, both of them are hiding right now since the government is corrupted,” said Siddiq.
According to Siddiq, the Taliban is looking to kill anyone associated with the U.S. military. His friends and family still in Afghanistan are leaving their houses to hide elsewhere when they hear that the Taliban are searching homes.
“This is kind of like hell over there, you know? You cannot have the freedom over there. You cannot walk outside like a free man over there. So, it’s really hard over there to hiding yourself forever, you know?" said Siddiq. “I lost my best friends over there. So, they were hit by IEDs, you know? And even they got ambushes over there. And they shot interpreters over there."
Hope for the future
Siddiq and his family arrived in Denver Feb. 11, 2022. Now, they are temporarily living in a hotel where other Afghan families are staying as well, waiting for assigned housing and social security documentation. He said the government is funding everything, from the hotel rooms and food stamps for six months.
“We want to stay here, and we chose to live in Denver from Afghanistan … There are nice people here, and the weather here is nice,” Siddiq said. “We are waiting for housing, so when we are settled, I will get a job probably something to do, you know? So, I’m not familiar with the jobs here, so I will try my best to find a good job here to serve this country too.”
Lindsey Ford is a multimedia journalist with Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach her at lindseyford@rmpbs.org.