Ziaullah Qazizada was finally able to embrace his wife and three children in Minnesota on Monday night, after they waited amid hundreds of others for days for a flight out of Kabul, Afghanistan.
The sight of his wife and children, seemingly unharmed from the chaos after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, brought some relief to Qazizada at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The four planned to stay in Afghanistan through September to visit Qazizada's father-in-law, while Qazizada remained back with his youngest daughter because her passport had expired.
"I am very happy that my family safely arrived and reunited with me," he said. "But I'm still worried about my family" back in Afghanistan.
He was concerned for his oldest daughter, who cried at the airport in Kabul hearing gunshots and explosives used by the United States to clear an area on the tarmac of people for takeoff.
On Sunday, the four rushed to the airport in Kabul, frantic to find a flight home to Minnesota after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan's capital city. But once they got there, they encountered a frenzied scene: crowds of people fleeing and pushing to get on planes — any plane — leaving the country.
His parents and his wife's parents are still waiting for a flight out of Kabul.
"I hope they make it and are able to come back."
