Evacuated to Europe during the change in power in 2021, Ozair was lucky to be evacuated from Afghanistan to Italy during the change in power in 2021, but he was devastated to leave his family behind.
Ozair is a 28 year-old man living in Milan, Italy. Originally from northeastern Afghanistan, he has lived in Italy for two years after he was forced to flee his country when the Taliban assumed power in the summer of 2021.
After a long battle to bring his family to join him in Italy, he was finally reunited earlier this year. This is his story.
Ozair’s family was tragically familiar with being displaced from their homes due to regime change. When he was a child in the mid-1990s, his family was forced to flee Afghanistan to shelter in Iran as the Taliban first came to power. They eventually returned in the early 2000s to reestablish themselves in their native Takhar province, in the northeast of the country, where the close-knit family grew in number to four boys and four girls. Ozair was the third oldest.
Afghanistan at this time was an amazing place to live, full of hope for the future, says Ozair:
For my generation it was one of the best experiences we could have known. We were building something, following our dreams, taking the path we wanted, and we had opportunities to do what we wanted that previous generations didn’t have.
In 2006, an Italian journalist visited Takhar province. Ozair accompanied his father and cousin who were supporting the journalist as interpreters. Little did Ozair know that this experience - his first encounter with someone from Italy - would one day potentially save his life.
Ozair was drawn towards the work of humanitarian organisations like the International Rescue Committee (IRC) who were operating in Afghanistan as he grew up. He remembers learning English with help from reading materials provided by the IRC and looking up in a dictionary what the word ‘rescue’ meant. The thought of providing assistance to people in need appealed to him, and he was delighted to finally begin his career as a humanitarian in Kabul.
It was during his time working there with the Norwegian Refugee Council that the early rumblings of a shift in power were heard across the country - the US and its allies were withdrawing their military presence from Afghanistan and it was expected the Taliban would once again emerge in control of the country.
It was a frightening and uncertain time for all Afghans. Ozair’s family agreed that they would stick together as a family - whether they stayed in Afghanistan or fled elsewhere.
One day in early August 2021, Ozair was told to leave his office because it was no longer safe. He stayed in his home for a week, constantly communicating with his parents and siblings up north in distant Takhar, making sure everyone was safe amidst the threat of further conflict.
On the 20th of August around 11 PM, Ozair’s phone rang. It was his cousin living in Germany. Ozair was told that their friend from their past - the Italian journalist - had been following developments in Afghanistan and, through his connections, managed to secure a place on an Italian military plane evacuating people from the country. Living in Kabul, Ozair was the logical choice but it was just a single place - and he was part of a family of 10 people.
Ozair was faced with an impossible decision - his family had committed to stay or leave together. He had never considered the possibility of having to go by himself.
His family was adamant that he must take this opportunity to flee. Wherever he ended up, he could work towards the family being reunited. Two hours later his cousin called him back with instructions: Ozair was to make his way to the airport with his travel documents as soon as possible.
With little time to spare, he stuffed his backpack with a change of clothes and his educational documents. Everything else he left:
Everything else – my entire life – I packed in my head. All that I had achieved so far, my work, everything I had built up, I stuffed it into my memory.
Ozair arrived at the airport in Kabul in the early hours of the morning, and was confronted by the horrific scene of hundreds of people desperately trying to scale the outer gates in an attempt to flee the country. Even after working his way through the crowds he had no idea where he was going - his cousin couldn’t be sure what country the plane would travel to.
He soon found out his flight was confirmed for 7pm that evening - to Italy. He boarded the plane along with many other evacuees - including, to his relief, two cousins and their children. The plane had no seats and was packed to the brim - passengers had to sit on the floor, and Ozair and his cousins took turns standing while the others sat and cared for the young children.
It was the morning of 23 August 2021 when the military plane finally landed in Rome. Ozair felt lucky to get out of Afghanistan, “but in addition to leaving my family behind, I felt like I had left myself behind as well,” he said. “This was not the same Ozair I had known.”
After two weeks of quarantine in Rome, Ozair was transferred to reception facilities for refugees and asylum seekers in Pesaro in eastern Italy.
Ozair was 26 and alone. It was a very difficult period for him as he was coping with his new reality. Foremost on his mind was bringing his parents and siblings from Afghanistan to Italy, but he couldn’t apply for family reunification until he received his residency documents from the Italian state. Faced with a long wait in a remote reception centre, Ozair focused on reading and exercising to help him cope and process his experiences.
Applying for official residency status in Italy was a time-consuming process, and though assisted by a caseworker, Ozair struggled to navigate the Italian immigration system. Information was not easy to find, processes were very complex, and there were no options for assistance in other languages through interpreters which made it particularly difficult.
Once he finally overcame these hurdles and had his residency granted the following year, Ozair eagerly began the family reunification application process in the hope of bringing both his parents and his siblings to Italy. Although the criteria for family reunification applied only to the applicant’s dependent children and elderly parents, he insisted on putting the names of his brothers and sisters on the application too.
Feeling positive and excited about the process, Ozair focused on becoming self-sufficient so he would be in the position to support his family when they arrived. He signed up for Italian language classes and started applying for jobs in his field, hoping to again work for a humanitarian organisation. He was elated to be offered a position in Milan as a finance officer with the IRC, the organisation that inspired him in his youth.
As Ozair settled into his new life in Milan, he was playing a devastating waiting game. But one day he finally received the decision he was waiting for: His mother and father had been approved. But his younger siblings - including his 7 and 13 year-old brothers - had not. There was no way Ozair’s parents could leave them alone in Afghanistan.
Worse, conditions for women in Afghanistan were starting to deteriorate as they faced increasing barriers to education and employment. Ozair worried for his sisters left in Afghanistan.
Desperate, Ozair appealed the decision, but was told again and again the criteria did not apply to siblings - regardless of their age, their level of dependence on other family members, or any danger they might face alone in Afghanistan.
Fortunately, at that moment, the Italian government announced the creation of new ‘humanitarian corridors’ - safe, legal pathways to resettle Afghan refugees in Italy from third countries like Iran and Pakistan. These corridors were developed to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and involved close cooperation between several Italian government bodies, civil society organisations and international organisations.
Having faced insurmountable barriers in bringing his whole family to Italy through the family reunification process, Ozair applied for Italy’s new ‘humanitarian corridor’ programme via the civil society organisations involved.
It was a straightforward process. To be eligible, Ozair’s family had to leave Afghanistan and settle temporarily in a refugee camp in Pakistan. More months passed as their applications were processed and documents verified, before the fantastic news finally came that they had been approved.
Flights from Pakistan to Rome were booked soon thereafter for Ozair’s mother and his younger brothers and sisters, and his father would join them shortly after.
On the 1st of August, 2023, Ozair welcomed his mother and siblings at the airport in Rome and took them to their new home in a small village near Milan. And the family were finally reunited one month later when Ozair’s father arrived in Italy.
Though Ozair still has one older brother and sister living in Afghanistan, he is happy to have his parents and younger siblings together again. He knows they are safe and they can start to build a new life for themselves in Italy.
As he looks back on leaving Afghanistan and the challenges he faced trying to bring his family to Italy for almost two years, he is philosophical about the hurdles he faced:
“It wasn’t meant to happen then – it was meant to happen now.”
It’s been two years since Ozair left Afghanistan, with many ups and downs.
When he first arrived in Italy, Ozair felt as though he left “old Ozair” behind in Afghanistan. But he is “happy and proud” of the new Ozair that he has become, and the brand new life he has built for himself and his family.
It’s always hard to move to a new country, no matter where you are or where you come from. But I feel super lucky. I am now on the path I wanted for myself.
Reflecting on his experiences navigating the Italian immigration system, he would like the Italian state to provide clearer instructions about the process, and communicate these in different languages to make it easier for newly-arrived people on the move to understand the process and start rebuilding their lives:
I want to see newly arrived Afghans and other people settled and integrated into Italian society. I want to see them working to achieve their dreams because those opportunities exist here. There are so many Afghans in Afghanistan who don’t have the same opportunities.
When he watches the news and sees images of devastating shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, he is reminded of his own journey and thankful that his family were not forced to risk their lives on dangerous journeys in search of safety.
While Ozair and his family had access to Italy’s humanitarian corridor scheme, the family reunification process must be improved, Ozair urges: “Make new ways to bring the entire family together.”
With over 2 million refugees around the world in need of resettlement, more needs to be done to bring vulnerable people in need of assistance to countries like Italy, says Ozair:
One of the biggest needs at the moment is to create more safe pathways for people to arrive. We know that people are putting their lives in danger to come here. If the EU and countries create more safe pathways for the people we’d be saving lots of lives.
To learn more about the IRC’s work advocating on this subject, read our explainer article What are safe pathways to protection? and 7 things to know about refugee resettlement in the EU.
