Interview: ‘My Home Was Left Behind. Everything Was Left Behind,’ Says Uyghur Who Fled Afghanistan

After the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on August 15, some Uyghurs were among the sea of people at Kabul’s airport desperate to flee the country. A Uyghur woman from Kabul, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFA that many of the estimated 2,000 Uyghurs in Afghanistan were fearful that they would face repression under Taliban rule or be deported to China because of their legal status as “Chinese migrants.”

The woman and her family boarded a flight for Italy on August 25, one day before a suicide bomber attack on the airport that killed at least 182 people, including 169 Afghan civilians and 13 members of the U.S. military.

The woman and her family have arrived safely in Italy, where they have relatives and are currently in the process of establishing legal status. RFA Uyghur Service’s Gulchera Hoja interviewed the woman by telephone hours after she landed in Italy, following an earlier interview before she fled. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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