Hollywood Casino & Hotel St. Louis provides refuge to newly arrived Afghans

Hollywood Casino & Hotel St. Louis provides refuge to newly arrived Afghans

Article brief provided by St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  • Jesse Bogan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
November 23, 2021 11:28 PM
  • Jesse Bogan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Four children ran through the hotel lobby, playing as if they were in their old neighborhood park in Kabul. One was barefoot. All were smiling.

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They were some of the lucky refugees flown out of Afghanistan in August right before the Taliban officially took control. But the terrain of their joyful excursion was still limited, if not defined, by a lighter reality of winning and losing.

Three days since they landed at St. Louis Lambert International Airport on Tuesday, Nov. 16, their large family was holed up here at Hollywood Casino Hotel. Up on the third floor, in a pair of rooms, were three more siblings and a set of parents with bigger concerns than rambunctious children.