'The Peak Of This Mountain Is Like A Mirage': Pandemic Leaves Asylum Seekers Stranded

April 2020 was a month Mohammad had yearned for. It was when he was set to fly to the U.S. with his wife and son to start a new life. The Afghan had spent years painstakingly proving he was eligible for a special visa through his work as an interpreter with the U.S. Marine Corps in Afghanistan, and that he posed no danger to the American homeland. "It took almost five years," he says with a sigh, speaking by phone from Afghanistan. He asks that NPR not use his full name because of threats from the Taliban against him. With the help of volunteer American lawyers, he navigated voluminous bureaucracy, gathering glowing testimony from the Marines for whom he worked in 2011, when he was still a teenager. He's now in his late 20s. By November last year, the U.S. visa was finally in his passport. It was valid until April 15, 2020. The International Organization for Migration, which helps with resettlement costs, booked flights for Mohammad and his family for April 6. "I was feeling very