Stranded in Kabul: A U.S. Resident Runs Out of Options

Refugee groups say hundreds, and possibly thousands, of green card holders have been left behind.

WASHINGTON — For more than a week, Samiullah Naderi, a U.S. legal permanent resident, waited days and nights with his wife and son outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, hoping to be let in so that they could leave on one of the dozens of daily flights headed to America. “It’s 50 feet away,” Mr. Naderi, 23, known as Sammy, said Sunday night in a short telephone interview, speaking in halting English, as gunfire crackled in the background. “Maybe the Taliban will let me inside — maybe.” But on Monday, after being told that no more people would be allowed inside the airport gate, Mr. Naderi and his family returned to their apartment in Kabul with no clear path back to Philadelphia, where he has been living since last year.