Blog
A few days ago, the press worldwide stated that the Taliban had started taking over the country of Afghanistan. Hundreds of people are trying to leave the country, which includes Afghans and US citizens. But it is a priority to help those citizens who have worked with the United States to fly away from Afghanistan.
Last Monday, it was announced that the US forces decided to temporarily pause to evacuate US citizens and those Afghans who were applying for the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV), from the Kabul airport. However, they can’t be left behind, as we saw in the media how hundreds of Afghans were trying to enter any plane leaving the country.
The SIV program was launched in 2009 to help those Afghans cooperating with the US and fearing for their safety, to leave the country with their families. But the process has been delayed and now there are over 15000 applications.
Immigration rights advocates that it is urgent to help those wanting to leave Afghanistan before the Taliban take over the whole country, as right now they have already reached the city of Kabul.
The policy director at International Refugee Assistance Project, Sunil Varghese, stated that there is still time to evacuate Afghan civilians, but this needs to be fast. He said that the more helicopters or planes leaving the country, the more people can get into them and be safe.
U.S. RESPONSE
The city of Washington DC is expecting around 2500 Afghans to reach the city during the next few weeks. Most of them are applicants for the SIV programme, but they will be treated as refugees instead.
Also, the Pentagon and US State Department promised to help more SIV applicants to leave Afghanistan. They stated that their efforts and troops will focus exclusively on this matter. Although the Pentagon decided to close the airport to all flights after Afghans piled at the airport last Monday and 7 people died, they reopened later that day.
Another decision that the government has announced was to transfer all those applicants that have already passed a “security screening” to the US, and others will be evacuated to other locations.
President Biden also stated that the plan is to not only evacuate those on the SIV programme, but extend the evacuation plan to all Afghans who have worked for the US embassy, NGOs and other Afghans who are at great risk.
CRITICISM ON BIDEN’S ADMINISTRATION
With this last decision, Varghese stated that all applicants must be evacuated regarding their applicant’s application status. He explained that “paroles” can be issued to allow anybody without a visa to enter the country, as they can’t control how Afghans will be treated in other countries.
The US Administration has been criticized because of the delays in taking action as time is crucial before the Taliban take over the whole country. President Biden said that the reason for the delay in evacuating allies is out of Washington’s control.
Politicians like the Progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Alex Padilla or the Democratic Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii have ruled on the matter and other members of Congress called on the Biden administration to urge the evacuation of Afghans. They stated that the first priority is to help those in need and in danger, and recriminations should be left when there will be time.