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Azim Kakaie, 34, speaks during an interview Thursday, September 2, 2021 in Salt Lake City. The first Afghan refugee to arrive in Utah since the rapid takeover of the country by the Taliban is a man who built his life as an air traffic controller in Kabul before having to flee the country. Kakaie said his wife had tried to leave the country for days and suffered beatings at Taliban checkpoints before she could board a plane. She is now in Germany. (AP Photo / Rick Bowmer)
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Azim Kakaie, 34, speaks during an interview Thursday, September 2, 2021 in Salt Lake City. The first Afghan refugee to arrive in Utah since the rapid takeover of the country by the Taliban is a man who built his life as an air traffic controller in Kabul before having to flee the country. Kakaie said his wife had tried to leave the country for days and suffered beatings at Taliban checkpoints before she could board a plane. She is now in Germany. (AP Photo / Rick Bowmer)
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Azim Kakaie, 34, speaks during an interview Thursday, September 2, 2021 in Salt Lake City. The first Afghan refugee to arrive in Utah since the rapid takeover of the country by the Taliban is a man who built his life as an air traffic controller in Kabul before having to flee the country. Kakaie said his wife had tried to leave the country for days and suffered beatings at Taliban checkpoints before she could board a plane. She is now in Germany. (AP Photo / Rick Bowmer)
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Azim Kakaie, 34, speaks during an interview Thursday, September 2, 2021 in Salt Lake City. The first Afghan refugee to arrive in Utah since the rapid takeover of the country by the Taliban is a man who built his life as an air traffic controller in Kabul before having to flee the country. Azim Kakaie said his wife had tried to leave the country for days and suffered beatings at Taliban checkpoints before she could board a plane. She is now in Germany. (AP Photo / Rick Bowmer)
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Azim Kakaie, 34, speaks during an interview Thursday, September 2, 2021 in Salt Lake City. The first Afghan refugee to arrive in Utah since the rapid takeover of the country by the Taliban is a man who built his life as an air traffic controller in Kabul before having to flee the country. Kakaie said his wife had tried to leave the country for days and suffered beatings at Taliban checkpoints before she could board a plane. She is now in Germany. (AP Photo / Rick Bowmer)
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Azim Kakaie, 34, speaks during an interview Thursday, September 2, 2021 in Salt Lake City. The first Afghan refugee to arrive in Utah since the rapid takeover of the country by the Taliban is a man who built his life as an air traffic controller in Kabul before having to flee the country. Kakaie said his wife had tried to leave the country for days and suffered beatings at Taliban checkpoints before she could board a plane. She is now in Germany. (AP Photo / Rick Bowmer)
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Azim Kakaie, 34, speaks during an interview Thursday, September 2, 2021 in Salt Lake City. The first Afghan refugee to arrive in Utah since the rapid takeover of the country by the Taliban is a man who built his life as an air traffic controller in Kabul before having to flee the country. Kakaie said his wife had tried to leave the country for days and suffered beatings at Taliban checkpoints before she could board a plane. She is now in Germany. (AP Photo / Rick Bowmer)
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Azim Kakaie, 34, speaks during an interview Thursday, September 2, 2021 in Salt Lake City. The first Afghan refugee to arrive in Utah since the rapid takeover of the country by the Taliban is a man who built his life as an air traffic controller in Kabul before having to flee the country. Azim Kakaie said his wife had tried to leave the country for days and suffered beatings at Taliban checkpoints before she could board a plane. She is now in Germany. (AP Photo / Rick Bowmer)
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – As a member of the Hazara minority in Afghanistan, Azim Kakaie would not have had access to higher education under the Taliban. Instead, over the past two decades, he has turned his love for aviation into an air traffic control job in Kabul, he said on Thursday.
Kakaie was working at the airport as the rapid Taliban takeover engulfed Kabul last week. He had to board an evacuation plane before his family could join him. This week, he became the first Afghan refugee to arrive in Utah since the withdrawal of US troops.
“I had to give up everything I had done in 34 years of my life. Start from scratch, ”he said.
Kakaie boarded a plane quickly because he was already at the airport, but his wife had to try for days, enduring beatings from Taliban fighters at checkpoints that blocked her from the airport. , did he declare. Finally, on day four, she was able to cope with two other family members – barely 30 minutes before a devastating suicide bombing killed more than 160 Afghans and 13 American soldiers. One, Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, was originally from Utah.
“These young American heroes,” he said. “It’s going to be in my heart for the rest of my life. “
She is now in Germany, with her mother and brother, who hope to join him in Salt Lake City. He landed in the Utah capital on Wednesday night, where jagged mountains and desert climate reminded him of his home. He can’t wait to build a life in the United States and find a job, but he is still worried for his family back home, including his mother.
” I am very worried. I can’t tell when I’m alone, how much I’m crying. I don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s the only time I’m under deep pressure, ”he said.
The United States and its coalition partners have evacuated more than 100,000 people from Afghanistan since the airlift began on August 14, including American citizens and many Afghans who assisted the United States during the War of 20 years.
About 200 Afghan refugees are ultimately expected to be resettled in Utah, where there is already an Afghan community of a few thousand people, said Aden Batar, director of migration and refugee services for Catholic Community Services in Utah.
The resettlement effort has the public support of Republican Governor Spencer Cox, who cited the historic migration of members of the predominant faith of the conservative state, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as he asked the Biden administration to send refugees there.
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