A’STAN ALLIES STUCK

Plea for US visas

Thousands of Afghans who assisted the United States government and military during the 20-year war against the Taliban are still trapped in the country along with thousands of their family members, advocates told The Post.

The nonprofit volunteer organization No One Left Behind says that it is tracking more than 10,000 Afghans who are either eligible for, applied for or were approved for a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) and have requested help getting out of Taliban-controlled territory.

No One Left Behind also said that it is tracking another 38,000 family members of SIV holders or applicants who remain in Afghanistan and have asked for aid.

“This is likely a limited picture with more that have not reached out to us, but it underscores the significant volume of people in dire need as winter approaches and Taliban control result[s] in food shortages and human-rights abuses, including directly targeting those that helped US forces,” a No One Left Behind director told The Post.

Currently, the US is only evacuating SIV holders who have “completed their process, either having their visas in hand or were [approved and were] just unable to pick them up,” No One Left Behind said.

Task Force Argo cofounder Jesse Jensen told The Post his organization is dealing with a backlog of more than 4,000 people.

‘Out of resources’

But Jensen, a former Army Ranger, noted that the number of Afghans who wish to leave is likely well above that 4,000 figure since Task Force Argo had to stop accepting evacuation requests.

“We have really run out of resources in order to do this,” he said. “We’ve had three flights that are paid for; you know; we’ll likely have to claw back those funds to return to investors if we don’t see a path to getting these folks out of the country.”

On Monday, the State Department crowed that it was in contact with fewer than a dozen US citizens left in Afghanistan who wished to leave and that it had “directly assisted” in transporting 479 Americans and 450 greencard holders, along with their families, back to the US since the official end of the chaotic US evacuation on Aug. 31.

Jensen said it was “beyond disappointing” that groups like his have had to aid in the evacuations.

The State Department did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.