Mexico Welcomes 1st Group of Afghan Refugees Including Some Members of Afghan All-Girls Robotics Team
After the Taliban takeover, Mexico has accepted its first group of refugees from Afghanistan on Tuesday. All five members of the internationally recognized Afghan all-girls robotics team and one man arrived in Mexico City.
According to ABC News, Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard welcomed the group of Afghan refugees. "Welcome to your home," Ebrard said. Ebrard added that Mexico would grant them "whatever legal status they consider best."
The grant includes possibly giving them asylum or refugee status. One member of the robotics group thanked the country of Mexico, saying the country saved their lives.
The young women, who were members of the known all-girls robotics team, traveled across six different countries to reach Mexico. The group has competed in numerous robotics competitions.
They fled their country, Afghanistan, after the Taliban took control of the country earlier this month. They were worried as the Taliban have been hostile to women working or going to school after a certain age.
Scholarships for The Afghan All-Girls Robotics Team
Several members of an internationally recognized all-girl robotics team from Afghanistan received help from a 60-year-old Oklahoma mother who found a way to escape their country. The mother said that the group members were feeling "so grateful" to be out of Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, 10 members of the so-called "Afghan Dreamers," who were at the age 16 to 18, were able to leave the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, via a commercial flight to Doha, Qatar, after several flights failed to leave the country.
One of the individuals who helped the Afghan Dreamers get out was Allyson Reneau, a mother-of-11 from Oklahoma. Reneau first met the girls in May 2019 during the Humans to Mars summit in Washington DC.
"They left everything behind to pursue their dreams and to be free and educated," Reneau told Insider.
Reneau shared that she kept in touch with the team since meeting them at the conference. The 60-year-old mother noted that the girls had been texting her about the situation in Afghanistan already for weeks, and that one early morning in August, she woke up with a feeling that something was really wrong in their situation.
Reneau revealed that she tried to speak to a senator and other local officials in order for them to get out of the situation. However, after hitting many roadblocks in her quest, she decided to take matters into her own hands and traveled to Qatar herself.
When she got the news that some of the girls got out safely earlier this week and received a text from one of the girls that they did it, Reneau said she felt relief after two weeks of work.
READ MORE: Oklahoma Mom Helps 10 Members of All-Girls Robotics Team in Afghanistan to Get Out of the Country
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Written by: Jess Smith
WATCH: Afghan Girls Robotics Team Recounts Escape From Kabul, Desire To Continue Education - From NBC News