US struggles with Afghan evacuees left in limbo
Screenings found records of crimes or links to militants
WASHINGTON — Two months after the evacuation of 80,000 Afghans fleeing the Taliban takeover, most have cleared subsequent vetting for admission into the United States. Some initially raised possible security issues — such as evacuees who shared a name with terrorism suspects — but were absolved on closer scrutiny.
But several dozen have been red-flagged, despite having helped the United States during its 20-year war in Afghanistan, because screenings uncovered apparent records of crime or links to Islamist militants that follow-up evaluations have not cleared, officials said. The derogatory information has raised the question of what to do with them, leaving them in limbo.
The military transferred most of the still-flagged evacuees — some with relatives — to Camp Bondsteel, a NATO base in Kosovo, which agreed to let Afghans be housed there for up to a year if they stayed on the base. They are designated as requiring further investigation, and no final decision has been made about whether they will receive permission to enter the United States, officials said.
But in an acknowledgment that many are likely to be barred from the United States, the Biden administration’s national security team has been meeting to grapple with how to handle them.
Officials declined to provide a precise number for the group deemed problematic, saying it fluctuates as the assessment work continues. A few of the evacuees sent to Camp Bondsteel were later cleared to travel to the United States after further evaluation, they said.
But several officials said that of the group of evacuees drawing longer-term scrutiny, those who appear to have committed violent crimes number in the single digits, and several dozen have been flagged for apparent links to Islamist militants — mostly the Taliban.
The internal deliberations about the evacuees deemed problematic have centered on two novel questions, the officials said.
One is short term: whether American troops can detain Afghans if they grow fed up with waiting and decide to walk out the gates of Camp Bondsteel, contrary to the agreement the United States struck with Kosovo. It is not clear what legal authority the military has to hold non-Americans who are not wartime detainees indefinitely abroad.
That scenario may never happen: To date, no one has tried to walk off the base, they said. But interviews with several officials suggested that there might not be clear consensus about what guards could or should do in such a situation.
For example, one official said U.S. troops could only tell local police that an Afghan had left the base so that those authorities could arrest the person for violating Kosovo law — the conditions of the evacuees’ temporary admission to the country. But another official insisted the base commander had authority to temporarily detain any such Afghan, pending transfer to local authorities.
The other question is longer term: what to do with evacuees ultimately deemed ineligible to come to the United States if diplomatic efforts fail to persuade other countries to take them in.
In light of that prospect,
officials said, an early assumption that no evacuee would be repatriated to Afghanistan has come under further scrutiny. Under international law — the Convention Against Torture — it is illegal to repatriate people who fled their country if it is more likely than not they would be abused if returned.
Officials are said to be discussing whether that rule would bar returning evacuees who helped the United States in Afghanistan but have been deemed
problematic because of ties to the Taliban. Those evacuees may face less risk from the new Taliban government than evacuees flagged for criminal issues or for links to other militant groups — especially if any turn out to have ties to the Islamic State group, which is fighting the Taliban.
About 76,000 Afghan evacuees have now arrived in the United States after clearing the screening process abroad, officials said. About 4,000 remain overseas, but most them are
said by officials to have been cleared, and they are simply waiting for recent vaccinations to take effect.
The vetting procedures and the deliberations over the fate of the evacuees were described by nearly a dozen officials on condition of anonymity. The discussions are playing out as some Republicans have pivoted from attacking the Biden administration for abandoning allies in the exit from Afghanistan to stoking fears that it is recklessly importing dangerous people.