For years the former US soldier Spencer Sullivan fought to save his former interpreter in Afghanistan, Abdulhak Sodais, from the revenge of the Taliban. Now came the redeeming news.
In Afghanistan, both took part in the fight against the Taliban – one with weapons, the other with words. And both risked their lives in the process. Their joint missions almost ten years ago created a special connection between Spencer Sullivan and Abdulhak Sodais, as the (AP) reports. But while the US soldier was able to return to his home country after his service ended, the American authorities refused his interpreter an entry visa.
Since then, Sullivan and Sodais have fought a new struggle together: the struggle for asylum. According to the AP, it was a particular concern of the US soldier to help his former interpreter, as he had already lost a former helper in his unit: Sajed Masud. The translator was waiting for a US visa when he was killed by the Taliban in 2017.
Many veterans try to rescue Afghans themselves
Sodais has now escaped this fate. His asylum application was approved on Wednesday by a court in Germany, where he had fled after receiving death threats for his support for US troops and the US refusing his visa applications several times.
Sullivan, who now lives in Virginia, told the Associated Press that he dropped his phone while reading Sodais’ text message. “I just started crying.” According to the AP, the former soldier is one of many US war veterans who are working on their own to save the Afghans who served by their side.
“Ultimately, it’s just cathartic relief,” the Sullivan news agency quoted as saying. After the good news, he was overwhelmed by his feelings, also because they tore open the war wound that he could not help Masoud. “This long journey is over, but Sayed didn’t make it,” said Sullivan.
In view of the Taliban’s complete takeover of power in Afghanistan, Sodais had hoped all the more to be able to stay in Germany. His father told him that the Islamists in his hometown of Herat went door to door to find people who had worked with the coalition forces, said the former interpreter. “I couldn’t stop crying.”
Thousands of Afghans who have helped US troops have been stuck in an overloaded special visa procedure for local staff for years, the report said. Countless others have been rejected because of minor inconsistencies in their working papers.
Sodais had therefore applied for a US visa for the first time in 2013, which he was denied. He appealed four times without success. After the Taliban beheaded his uncle and shot his neighbor, who also worked for the US military, he finally went to Germany. For seven months he fled through almost half a dozen countries. He was beaten and abandoned by smugglers and locked up and beaten by the police before he reached Germany.
“I made a promise to him”
Sodais was also made in Germany’ Asylum application initially rejected, as AP further reports. Sullivan then sent letters of recommendation, provided photos of the interpreter’s time with the military unit and obtained documents from the US government that showed that Sodais was rejected’ Visa was based on a vague review by a civilian contractor who falsely accused him of checking social media while at work. The US veteran even traveled to Germany himself to help Sodais communicate with the authorities.
“I made a promise to him, just as America promised him to protect him and save his life,” Sullivan told AP about his commitment. “I mean, how can you turn your back on that promise? I don’t think the answer is more complicated than that. I think it’s actually very simple.”
Sodais now told the Associated Press that he believed Sullivan’s letters of recommendation were the decisive factor in his eventual asylum. His case will be re-examined in three years, when he can apply for German citizenship. Sullivan is looking forward to getting his German passport so he can visit Sullivan one day, they can travel together, and he can finally see the United States, he told AP. “I have a feeling that I will have a great future.”
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