At least 32 California students remain stranded in Afghanistan as their school districts urge officials to aid their return to the US
- A school district near Sacramento, San Juan Unified School District, on Tuesday said 29 students remained in Afghanistan
- A second California school district – Cajon Valley Union School District, outside of San Diego – said three of their students, from the same family, were still there
- Both areas have large numbers of Afghan refugees in their communities and the school districts are trying to help the students return to the U.S.
- On Monday the final military evacuation flight left Kabul, ending America’s 20-year war in the country
- The U.S. government have said that they believe the Taliban will allow U.S. citizens out of the country, despite the military evacuations ending
At least 32 California students were stranded in Afghanistan on Tuesday night, as their school districts urged authorities to help them get home.
Twenty nine students were from the San Juan Unified School District, around Sacramento.
Three more were members of another family, from Cajon Valley Union School District, outside of San Diego. Both areas are home to large populations of Afghan refugees.
On Tuesday the San Juan Unified School District, around Sacramento, told Newsweek that at least 29 students from their area remain in the country.
The 29 students come from 19 families, and have not not returned to school campuses for the 2021-2022 school year.
The Sacramento school district is home to over 1,400 Afghan refugee students and previously believed that up to 150 students were stranded in Afghanistan, according to an earlier news report from Sacramento Bee.
Of the more widely reported Cajon Valley students, one family remains in Afghanistan of the eight families that were in the were in the country when Kabul fell to the Taliban on August 15
Sixteen parents and more than 24 students, ranging from preschoolers to high schoolers, had traveled from San Diego to Afghanistan over summer break to visit grandparents and other relatives.
‘One family with three students was left behind in Afghanistan, and we are exploring strategies to rescue and bring them home,’ the school district said on Tuesday.
‘The safe return of our Cajon Valley family … is our focus now.’
Evacuees from Afghanistan are seen boarding one of the final flights out of Kabul on Monday
A U.S. Navy sailor fixes the broken shoe of a young Afghan evacuees after disembarking a flight from Kabul in Spain
Afghan evacuees disembark a flight from Kabul on arrival at Naval Air Station in Rota, Spain, on Monday
Cajon Valley spokesperson Howard Shen told Fox News on Tuesday that the district was ‘exploring alternative strategies’ to get the last family out because ‘the airlift is no longer an avenue.’
The final U.S. military plane left Kabul just before midnight on Monday.
Joe Biden on Tuesday defended the evacuations, stressing that 19 messages had been sent to the Americans in Afghanistan since March, urging them to begin leaving the country.
Darrell Issa, a Republican congressman whose district includes the area around El Cajon, has been working to get the families out of Afghanistan.
‘While we have successfully helped dozens of stranded San Diegans, our work continues in order to bring the remaining families home,’ he said on Tuesday.
Biden on Tuesday insisted that the evacuations of 116,000 people from Kabul had been an ‘extraordinary success’
A spokesperson for Rep. Issa (pictured) says the congressman’s office aided in the successful freeing of San Diego families who were trapped in Kabul
