GHAZAL MAHER RECALLS, down to the hour, when she and her family landed in Ireland and the nightmare of fleeing their crumbling country was finally over.
As Afghanistan fell piece by piece and then all at once, Maher knew they could no longer stay in Kabul, where she, her husband and their two children once had a nice life with good jobs.
In the days after the Taliban dramatically swept back into power, they packed all they could carry and ran the gauntlet of the chaos at Kabul airport during last year’s large-scale evacuations.
After three days confined to a bus at the airport without food or water – while chaos reigned amid people’s desperate efforts to escape – the family were finally evacuated on a US Air Force plane to Doha.
A day-long layover in Qatar allowed the family to finally get food and avail of shower facilities but they were quickly moved to a centre in Ramstein, Germany, where Maher’s then two-year-old son Rayan became very ill.
Despite escaping the Taliban, Ghazal describes the days in Germany as the most difficult time in her life as her son’s condition deteriorated due to lack of food and water and poor hygiene facilities.
“As soon as we arrived in Germany, my son, who was not even three at that time, fell very, very ill and we had no access to any doctor or medication or anything.
“It was the three most difficult days of my life because we were in a tent. There was little food, water, or toilet access. We were only offered food two times a day and that was just a piece of bread with some jam. And my son was very ill. I thought I was going to lose my son.”
The family had been told in Qatar that they would be able to travel to Ireland so they contacted the Irish embassy in Germany. Embassy staff spent hours searching the facility for them and when the connection was finally made the officials confirmed that they could bring them to Ireland.
“That gave us hope,” Ghazal said.
A short time later they found themselves in Ireland’s Emergency Reception and Orientation Centre in Mosney, Co Meath – their home country no longer safe for them and their lives now on a different trajectory.
But still, immediate concerns were the most pressing.
“As soon as we arrived at home here (in Mosney), I saw that there was some foods in the fridge and I was very happy because after one week of having no food or anything, I was able to cook something for my son and I was able to care for him and he had somewhere to sleep.”
“My son, then there was no need to get him a doctor, within 24 hours after having proper food he just recovered.
That’s how we ended up in Ireland. We reached Ireland late at night, around 11pm, on the 3rd of September last year.
The family remains in Mosney and Ghazal says they are very happy with everything that has been offered in Ireland.
She jokes that even the Maher surname – which is common both in Ireland and across Arabic speaking countries – has helped the family feel at home in their new country.
Her daughter Avid is attending school while her son Rayan is set to start nursery next week.
Education is particularly important for the family as Ghazal, who is a dentist, was a university lecturer and academic in Afghanistan. Her husband Ali is a civil engineer who worked for an international energy company.
Girls are now banned from secondary school education in Afghanistan.
While Ghazal is glad that her family reached safety in Ireland, being forced to flee Afghanistan and the loss of her profession had a profound impact.
“It was very difficult for us. For the first four months, I had no idea where I was and I had no idea who I was. Because I used to be a professional dentist and a university lecturer back in Afghanistan and I had my own clinic, my own home and car and everything.
“But after a few months of nightmares, about the Taliban, our journey, after a few months of that, we just thought that we should make a life here.”
Ali carried out an extensive job hunt and is now working, while Ghazal passed an English language exam and is in the process of getting her qualifications approved in Ireland, so she can secure work in the dentistry field.
Ghazal says that two of the main issues Afghan refugees face in Ireland are that they can’t access third-level education and their qualifications aren’t recognised.
“We have so many people from many fields. They wish to be offered the chance to work in their own field because they want to serve people here and they have the quality, they have the skills, but because we cannot qualify their documents, it’s very difficult,” she said.
While the family are determined to build a life in Ireland, strong ties still bind them to Afghanistan and they have been locked in a lengthy process to enable Ghazal’s father to join them.
“The hardest part of being in Ireland for us was my father being left in Afghanistan. He was the only family member we couldn’t get out on time.
“Through all this year, he was tortured by Taliban, he was beaten by Taliban. He has lost so many things. He has lost his self-confidence.”
“My father used to be a military judge. All his life he was a man of dignity. But now he’s very old, he’s 80 years old, he has lost all his hope.
“He always tells me that Afghanistan has been sold to Pakistan. Afghanistan is officially the fifth province of Pakistan. He always tells me that.
“The people who have remained, the only wish they have is to leave Afghanistan, to have a safe place. He has seen his friends tortured and killed.
“But the good thing is we were able to apply for him for family unification. And we are happy that, just last week, his visa was approved to come and join us here in Ireland.”
Ghazal says they are very happy the process looks set to be successful but the lengthy amount of time it took has left her elderly father vulnerable to attack from the Taliban.
Humanitarian organisations have been critical of the length of time it’s taking Irish officials to process applications to enable Afghans to secure temporary residence in Ireland.
Five months since applications stopped being accepted for Ireland’s special programme to help Afghans, no decisions have yet been issued on over 500 applications from people seeking temporary residence.
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