An orphaned baby bundled onto an evacuation flight from Afghanistan after her parents died in a bomb blast has been reunited with members of her family.
Maryam – now believed to be about aged 21 months – is thought to have been just eight weeks old when her parents took her and her three siblings to Kabul airport to escape the incoming Taliban regime.
But her parents died in a bomb blast that killed 183 people on 26th August 2021.
Baby Maryam was rushed onto a US aid flight by an unnamed teenager while her brother and two sisters remained in Afghanistan with their uncle Yaar Mohammad Niazi.
Since arriving in Doha, Maryam – who was born Aliza – has been growing up in a Qatari orphanage.
Now she is set to start family life again after a heartwarming reunion with her uncle and siblings.
Her uncle Niazi, 40, said: “I did not know if we would ever find her again, and now I am overcome.”
He added: “When I held her, I just told myself, ‘she is alive’.”
The reunion was the result of a desperate search to find the young child after she disappeared at the airport.
A Qatari official told local media: “We worked with UNICEF to see if there were any family members.”
The United Nations’ children’s agency was quickly inundated with requests but after DNA tests were finally carried out they confirmed Maryam’s identity.
But even then, Niazi had to wait months to get a passport.
Now, after arriving in the Gulf state, Niazi has said that he wants to move to the United States, adding: “We just want to be somewhere safe.”
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Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
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