1,450 Afghan kids were evacuated to the US without their parents. Some are 'never going to be reunited with family'

CNN

Families and advocates tell CNN that some 250 children remain in government custody. Traumatized by what they went through in Afghanistan, they are lonely and desperate for answers about what comes next.

An 8-year-old sobs every night after her aunt puts her to bed.

A 17-year-old wakes up clutching his pillow and calling out his little brother’s name.

And hundreds of children who remain in US government custody keep asking questions no one knows how to answer.

They’re among the roughly 1,450 Afghan children who’ve been evacuated to the United States without their parents since August.

Months after they arrived, it’s unclear when, how — or even if — some of their families will be able to reunite.

The large number, first reported by Reuters and updated in recent figures CNN obtained from the Office of Refugee Resettlement, reveals a devastating reality of the evacuations and their aftermath.

“It’s shocking…the idea that there are over 1,000 kids without their family right now, and that they’re potentially feeling alone and feeling scared,” says Dr. Sabrina Perrino, an Afghan American pediatrician in California who is hoping to become a foster parent to help.

Many of the children tried to flee Afghanistan with their families but got separated in the chaos, advocates say. Some lost touch with their parents during the bombing at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport. And some of their parents didn’t survive the terror attack.

Whose job is it to reunite the parent and child, and then where do you do that?…That’s a huge question that we’re grappling with.”

Jennifer Podkul, Kids in Need of Defense

Officials say the vast majority of the 1,450 children who were brought to the United States without their parents were quickly released to live with sponsors — including other family members they fled with or relatives who were already living in the United States. Some were reunited with family via an expedited screening process the Biden administration created for the Afghan children.

But about 250 of the children remain in US government custody, according to statistics the Office of Refugee Resettlement recently provided to CNN. And most of those children, advocates say, have no family members to reunite with in the United States.

Families and advocates who spoke with CNN said the children, already traumatized by what they went through in Afghanistan, now are living in limbo and desperate for answers about what’s next.

Video calls with their parents are a lifeline

Two teenage boys sit on a sofa in a living room in Northern Virginia, looking lost.

Ramin, 17, and Emal, 16, weren’t supposed to come to the United States without their parents.

The close friends, who CNN is only identifying by their first names to protect their families’ safety,…