Yes, it is challenging but if you work for it there is opportunity and Afghans are very entrepreneurial.’ My father said that the Afghans would see me with my State Department badge, and they will see that is what their kids can do. “I had a conversation with my father about it and he said ‘son if you think about the Afghans who have been refugees in America, we have been very successful. 31.Īzizi was a bit apprehensive about the task at hand. With the diaspora, I feel there is a sense of duty, obligation, guilt, and I don’t know what else, because we escaped during war time, and we were fortunate enough to do so.”Ī woman comforts her infant while awaiting transportation from Dulles International Airport to the Dulles Expo Center, Aug. “It is hard for me to put into words the connection I feel to these people. Azizi came to America at age four as an Afghan refugee after his family fled the Soviet Invasion in 1979. One of those public servants answering the call was Waseem Azizi, a project manager for the Bureau of Overseas Building Operations’ Program Development, Coordination, and Support office. Together we created ‘Dulles Island,’ one part of this very complex and historic airlift story,” said Deputy Executive Secretary Tressa Finerty who served as the executive director of operations at the Dulles Expo site. “For twenty-one days a mash-up of the very best public servants worked 24/7 to welcome more than 45,500 Afghans in safety and dignity. There, staff from the Department of State, USAID, the Department of Defense (DOD), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) worked with a variety of volunteers from the Red Cross, Save the Children, the Peace Corps, and Hussein for Humanity, and with contractors to create an emergency reception center for all arrivals for the next three weeks. With more inbound flights scheduled to arrive in hours, operations were moved from Dulles West and NOVA to the Dulles Expo Center. A volunteer from HHS administers a COVID-19 vaccine to an arriving evacuee at the Dulles Expo Center, Aug. A Department of State employee (left) assists Afghans onto a transport shuttle outside IAD, Aug. From left: Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials administer nasal swab Covid-19 tests to arriving Afghans at Dulles international Airport (IAD), Aug. As additional Afghans arrived, the Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) in Annandale was used as a temporary shelter while the Afghans waited for buses or flights to their onward safe havens. As the first plane arrived, buses of exhausted families initially were received at an empty office building called Dulles West, which had been transformed into a short-term shelter with 300 green cots and food supplied by the Red Cross. The plan was simple: once evacuees cleared Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and tested negative for COVID-19, those receiving humanitarian parole would be sent to safe havens on eight military bases to complete their processing. 11, a total of 45,521 Afghans passed through the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Va. Most of those planes then landed at Dulles International Airport, and from the early morning hours of Aug. After the planes departed Kabul, many landed on military bases around the world-referred to as lily pads-before departing again for the United States.

Soldiers and diplomats worked tirelessly to fill planes and evacuate as many Americans, colleagues, and allies as possible. The world watched as more than 120,000 people were airlifted from Afghanistan in August 2021.

1, Ambassador Laura Dogu (fourth from left), the director of CONUS Afghanistan Task Force (ATF) operations, looks on as a Department volunteer (right) assists a young evacuee. While leading a tour of the Dulles Expo Center with a delegation of Virginia General Assembly members, Sept.

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