An estimated 840,000 Afghanistan nationals who aided the war effort and are applying to get special U.S. visas as part of a State Department resettlement program are still waiting in that country, The Associated Press reported.
According to the AP, a State Department inspector general report released Thursday said that more than 840,000 Afghans have applied for the 2009-era program for a special visa to come to the United States but are still in Afghanistan, with only about half likely to get the documents.
The program was initially created to help those Afghans who assisted the U.S. forces during the war against the Taliban in that country and faced significant risks for their efforts.
The report said that program applicants have skyrocketed from less than 30,000 in October 2021 to 155,000 in December 2022.
The United States pulled its military forces out of the country in August 2021, about 20 years after going in to find the terrorists responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., that killed more than 3,000 Americans.
The State Department report estimated that 34,000 visas were issued between January 2021 and Aug. 1 for applicants and their family members.
While the agency has hired more personnel to handle the increased volume of applications and coordinated with the Pentagon to verify the employment of the applicants, there is still frequent turnover in a key position overseeing the visa program's process.
According to the State Department, the program has been extended through the end of 2024 and has streamlined the application process.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, passed in December 2022, provides for an additional 4,000 visas for principal Afghan applicants.
The program is open to Afghans employed by or on behalf of the U.S. for at least one year between Oct. 7, 2001, and Dec. 31, 2023, and have "provided faithful and valuable service to the U.S. government," and have experienced threats because of that employment, according to the agency.
"Every day that our allies spend in Afghanistan is a day they remain in extreme peril," Andrew Sullivan, director of advocacy at No One Left Behind, a charitable organization supporting Afghans and Iraqis who worked for the U.S. military during the past two decades, told Voice of America in June.
According to that report, the average time for an application to be processed through the program was 628 days.
Charles Kim ✉
Charles Kim, a Newsmax general assignment writer, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years in reporting on news and politics.
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