In total, up to 100 thousand citizens of Afghanistan can get the right to leave.
The White House reported on Thursday that about 20,000 Afghans who have worked as interpreters for the US military for the past 20 years and now fear retribution from the Taliban have applied for evacuation from Afghanistan.
As White House press Secretary Jen Psaki reported, the vast majority of applicants in the past worked as interpreters for Americans during the war in Afghanistan. However, according to her, the United States will also consider the applications of the families of the interpreters, without specifying the maximum possible number of relatives to whom Washington is also ready to grant asylum.
According to some estimates, in total, about 100,000 people can get the right to leave. The authorities say that the evacuation will begin in July.
In particular, interpreters who have already submitted applications for special immigration visas for Iraqi and Afghan translators and interpreters to the State Department are preparing for evacuation.
Psaki added that people who have passed the security check can be temporarily stationed at US military bases abroad.
Those who still have to go through the verification process will first be sent either to foreign US military bases or to a third country, “where they will be safe while waiting for the visa application to be processed,” Psaki added.
Meanwhile, two senior senators today called on President Joe Biden to speed up the evacuation and make sure that shelter will also be provided to Afghans who helped the American special services.
“For two decades, thousands of Afghans have risked their lives working with US and other NATO intelligence professionals in the fight against Al-Qaeda, the Haqqani network, ISIS and other terrorist groups,” says a letter sent to President Mark Warner and Marco Rubio, who head the Senate Intelligence Committee.
They called on Biden to speed up the program for issuing special immigration visas and to consider the possibility of temporary evacuation of Afghans to third countries, giving them priority attention within the framework of refugee programs.
