{"id":67634,"date":"2023-06-18T14:02:49","date_gmt":"2023-06-18T14:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/06\/18\/hundreds-of-afghans-wait-in-albania-in-a-prolonged-us-visa-process\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T15:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:40:12","slug":"hundreds-of-afghans-wait-in-albania-in-a-prolonged-us-visa-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/flashpoints\/2023\/06\/18\/hundreds-of-afghans-wait-in-albania-in-a-prolonged-us-visa-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Afghans wait in Albania in a prolonged US visa process"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SHENGJIN, Albania \u2014 Almost two years since he fled Afghanistan to escape the Taliban takeover,<\/a> Firooz Mashoof is still haunted by the memory of his last day in Kabul \u2014 the bus that took him to the airport, getting on a packed plane and taking off as gunfire echoed across the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe last thing I saw were the mountains around Kabul and the dreary sunset as the Qatar Airways took off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, thousands of miles from his homeland, the 35-year-old photojournalist and former employee of the Afghan soccer federation, is languishing in warm and sunny Albania. With each passing day, his anxiety grows over the delay in the promised U.S. visa, casting a shadow on his dreams of a new beginning in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Afghan
Afghan men walk at a tourist resort where they are accommodated, in Shengjin, 44 miles northwest of the capital, Tirana, Albania, Tuesday, June 6, 2023. (Llazar Semini\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For hundreds of others like him, it\u2019s an emotional roller coaster. Some try to find work and live with a semblance of normalcy but the concern and fear for families back home permeates their days \u2014 even in welcoming Albania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are hopeful, despite the prolonged bureaucracy, and look to a new life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Shengjin, a town on the Adriatic coast some 70 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of the Albanian capital of Tirana where hundreds of Afghans were given temporary shelter, Mashoof often goes for long walks by the sea. He has found work at a mall, an hour\u2019s bus ride away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The walks stave off panic attacks that he has been forgotten \u2014 or the \u201ccrazy fear\u201d for his family back in western Herat province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was saved, … and now I am to start my new life in America,\u201d he said, \u201cBut when?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final weeks of their withdrawal from the country after two decades of war and as the U.S.-backed Afghan government and military crumbled<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\t