I believed in President Biden at the time and supported his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. However, Biden’s commitment to Afghans who risked their lives as translators, women’s advocates, and civil society leaders has not yet been fulfilled. Nearly a year after leaving the United States, more than 240,000 Afghans are still awaiting special immigrant visas and refugee and humanitarian assistance applications from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. And this delay dishonors the personal risks they have taken on behalf of our nation. For most people, the problem of Afghanistan is long gone. But as a long-time refugee rights activist, this crisis is very personal. My involvement in the evacuations in Afghanistan began last August when I was working to bring Afghan allies to the US Air Force planes evacuated from Kabul. As the United States completed its withdrawal, I realized that we were abandoning thousands of additional Afghans who had put their lives on the line while working alongside the United States for two decades. Afghan lawmakers – such as those who managed to escape to Greece – have been among the most vulnerable to Taliban violence since the withdrawal of US forces last August. Getty Images In September, I organized the evacuation of six women MPs and their families from Afghanistan. As I was trying to find nations that were willing to accept these women, I immediately encountered bureaucratic obstacles from the US authorities. Finally, with grace, our team was able to reach Greece, via Iran. In the following months, I chartered four additional planes full of refugees from Kabul to the West. My team only helped IDPs who had received official documents allowing them to enter U.S. Army evacuation flights – but were unable to reach the airport due to the chaos in Kabul as it fell to the Taliban. Today, more than 300 of these people are stuck in transit countries such as Greece. They were lucky enough to escape certain death at the hands of the Taliban, but now they risk being left for years, unless the US government takes immediate action to find them permanent residence. During their more than two decades in Afghanistan, US troops — such as those in eastern Nangarhar Province — were heavily aided by Afghan comrades, many of whom were left behind after the US withdrawal. AFP / Getty Images There are more than 43,000 people in Afghanistan waiting for their “humanitarian release” (HP) applications to be processed. This would allow them to live, work and study within the US as their resettlement applications make their way to the State Department. With just 270 HP applications approved so far, the US clearly has a long way to go. The system designed to process Afghan HP applications is nothing but Orwellian. To gain approval, these people – whose lives are now at stake because of their work with Americans – must travel to a third country and attend a personal interview at a US consulate or embassy. They then have to pay a processing fee of $ 575 (the average per capita income in Afghanistan is $ 378) and provide evidence of targeted violence against them by the Taliban. This process is not only frighteningly slow, but also incredibly opaque to anyone who tries to help them. As we continue to try to help, we become increasingly frustrated by the lack of clarity and action of our own government. Desperate Afghans pack inside a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III in the final days of the US withdrawal from Kabul. Many on leave could not get to the airport, but they still deserve a way to get to safety.AP Despite this maze-like process, those who manage to reach the West are clearly the lucky ones. The unlucky ones approach me all the time, looking for an escape from the nightmare that many face today. The former principal of one of the largest schools in Afghanistan, for example, is now a refugee in Pakistan, running out of money and worried about her physical safety. Prior to the takeover of the Taliban, she worked with various NGOs in Afghanistan and organized girls’ classes in the most remote parts of the country. Her work, undertaken with the encouragement of the US government, led to the death sentence as soon as the Taliban took over. “THE [Taliban] tell me that “you are an American and that in our villages you taught American culture to our girls and we will not leave you alive”. “Another message from a former USAID official and civil society leader is simply asking, ‘Please help us before they take us and kill us.’ The evacuation of Afghans at risk has won me awards and recognition from human rights groups. But my work is incomplete without the US government living up to its commitment to provide a permanent route to the US for every Afghan who risked his or her life and that of his or her family to educate girls, build Afghan civil society and help employees in US NGOs. , diplomats and soldiers. The war in Afghanistan may have ended in August 2021, but we continue to call on President Biden to honor his commitment to the thousands of brave Afghans left behind. Amed Khan is an American activist, philanthropist, and humanist with a long history of working in conflict zones, including Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq. He is currently doing relief work in Ukraine.
