Ajit Karn
Doha: A toddler from Afghanistan who was evacuated from Kabul in 2021 after her parents were killed by an explosion has been reunited with relatives at an orphanage in Qatar.
The little girl, now believed to be approximately 21 months old and given the name Maryam by the orphanage, saw her uncle Yaar Mohammad Niazi, along with her brother and two sisters, for the first time since they had been separated.
“I did not know if we would ever find her again, and now I am overcome with emotion,” said Niazi, an approximately 40-year-old father of four. “When I held her, I simply thought to myself, ‘She’s alive.'”
The tearful reunion marked the end of a desperate quest for Maryam that had lasted since the tumultuous days of August 2021, when the Taliban seized control of the Afghan capital, prompting a mass exodus.
Maryam’s parents were among those attempting to escape Kabul airport with their four children on August 26 when they were killed in a massive bombing and gun battle that claimed 183 lives.
The infant, whose birth name was Aliza, was only a few weeks old when her parents were killed in the attack claimed by the local chapter of the Islamic State group.
During the chaos, a teenage lad reportedly seized her and carried her onto a US military flight carrying Afghans and stranded expatriates to Doha.
She relocated to the Dreama orphanage in Qatar, while her older brother and two sisters remained in Afghanistan.
Maryam was the youngest of approximately 200 Afghan children who were evacuated alone on flights carrying tens of thousands of Afghans out of the country.
“We took them in and provided them with specialized care,” said the Qatari official, speaking anonymously.
We collaborated with UNICEF to identify any family members.
The UN agency for children was soon inundated with desperate petitions from families in Afghanistan searching for missing relatives.
DNA studies
Niazi and the other three bereft children had returned to Afghanistan, where the Taliban had established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
Six weeks after the catastrophic bombing in Kabul, UN investigators believed they had identified the infant.
The Qatari official stated, “They contacted us to conduct DNA tests.”
Transporting genetic test results between Doha and Kabul to seek a match took longer because Niazi had to wait months to receive a passport from the new Taliban authorities in order to bring his family to Qatar.
Now that he has arrived in the Gulf state, Niazi stated that he would begin the process of relocating to the United States with his wife and their eight children.
He told AFP, “We just want to be somewhere safe.”
Social workers will progressively increase his and his siblings’ access to Maryam so that they can gradually become acquainted.
Niazi stated that the little girl will retain her new appellation because she responds to it.
Other children from the orphanage in Qatar have also been reunited with their families.
A three-year-old boy was reunited with his father in Canada after a Qatari diplomat identified him in a photo of a missing child.
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The majority of the remaining children were at least eight years old, and many have since been adopted by families in the United States, Canada, or Europe.
Thousands of Afghans once resided in impermanent facilities in Doha while they awaited acceptance by other nations. According to a Qatari official, there are now only about 15 remaining.
Hundreds of additional Afghans remain at a US military base in Qatar, the majority of whom are recent arrivals still awaiting the opportunity to relocate abroad.
