U.S. plans to relocate those who aided troops
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is preparing to relocate thousands of Afghan interpreters, drivers and others who worked with U.S. forces to other countries in an effort to keep them safe while they apply for entry to the United States, senior administration officials said.
With the U.S. military in the final phases of withdrawing from Afghanistan after 20 years of war, the White House has come under heavy pressure from lawmakers and military officials to protect Afghan allies from revenge attacks by the Taliban, and speed up the lengthy and complex process of providing them special immigrant visas.
On Wednesday, administration officials started notifying lawmakers that they will soon begin what could be a wholesale move of tens of thousands of Afghans. Officials said the Afghans would be moved out of Afghanistan to third countries to await the processing of their visa requests to move to the United States.
The officials declined to say where the Afghans would wait, and it is not clear whether third countries have agreed to take them. The opportunity to move will be given to people who have already begun the application process.
More than 18,000 Afghans who have worked as interpreters, drivers, engineers, security guards, fixers and embassy clerks for the United States during the war have been trapped in bureaucratic limbo after applying for special immigrant visas, available to people who face threats because of work for the U.S. government.
Those applicants have 53,000 family members, officials said.
A senior administration official said that under the plan, family members of applicants would also be moved out of Afghanistan to a third country to await visa processing. Transportation out of Afghanistan will not come with any assurance that a U.S. visa will be granted. It was unclear whether people who somehow do not qualify would be sent back to Afghanistan or left in a third country.
Officials said the administration has been working to streamline the visa process for Afghans who worked with U.S. forces and has added people to handle the applications.