After months on army bases in US, Afghans face new uncertainties

Nearly six months after they left Kabul, Sayed* and his family are starting a new life in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Their journey involved repeated attempts to get through Taliban checkpoints and reach the airport in the Afghan capital, a flight to Qatar, another flight to Germany, and then more than five months on a US military base in Wisconsin.

Sayed, who worked with Afghan security forces, says that arduous process offered him a lifeline – and he is now looking to build a future in the United States.

“My number one priority is to take care of my immigration paperwork because we have no place in Afghanistan; we were informally sentenced to death there,” he told Al Jazeera in a phone interview.

Sayed is one of more than 74,000 Afghans now living across the US after being housed on military bases for months following the chaotic Kabul evacuation in August last year.

But while Americans have been welcoming, advocates say efforts to make the Afghan newcomers feel at home are dotted with challenges, from immediate, logistical ones such as finding affordable housing, to structural ones like resolving their immigration status.

“It feels like a milestone, but it’s really just the beginning for people,” said Melanie Nezer, senior vice president for public affairs at HIAS, a refugee resettlement agency.