4 in 5 Afghans Who Worked for the US Have Faced Taliban Threats, Poll Finds

DEFENSE ONE

Lawmakers and advocates are working on legislation to make the special immigrant visa program permanent.

BY JACQUELINE FELDSCHER
SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT
AUGUST 12, 2022 12:57 PM ET

Afghan evacuees disembark a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III at Naval Air Station Sigonella, Aug. 22, 2021. U.S. NAVY / MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 1ST CLASS DANIEL YOUNG

More than a quarter of translators who helped the United States military in Afghanistan say they or their family members have faced direct threats from the Taliban within the past month, according to polling data shared with Defense One.

More than 74,000 applicants who worked with the U.S. military or government are in the special immigrant visa pipeline nearly a year after the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, the State Department announced last month. Soren Duggan, the assistant director of advocacy for No One Left Behind, said each Afghan who worked with the U.S. military applies with four-and-a-half family members on average. That means the total number of Afghans who have applied to come to America could be upwards of 300,000 people.

Those people are facing a “grim” security situation, Duggan said. No One Left Behind recently polled 6,500 special immigrant visa applicants who are still outside the United States on what dangers they are facing because of their support of the United States. Just 6.5 percent of respondents in Afghanistan said they are living “securely and safe from harm.” Nearly 64 percent said they are not living safely, and nearly 30 percent they are only safe sometimes.

Applicants and their families are also facing regular direct threats from the Taliban. Nearly 10 percent say they have been directly threatened in the past week, and 26.1 percent have faced threats in the past month. Only about 14 percent say they have never been directly threatened by the Taliban.

Matthew Zeller, senior advisor at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, is also hearing reports of violence first-hand. On Sunday, an applicant texted Zeller to let him know that the Taliban had killed an interpreter he served with.

“This is happening in real time, it’s not an abstract. It’s actual human beings I’m in contact with who are reporting friends and relatives being killed…or they stop writing back and I find out they themselves have been killed,” Zeller said.

Continue reading on Defense One site...