US begins sheltering Afghan refugees at Virginia military base

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Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Fort Lee will briefly host up to 2,500 applicants and their families who have completed the security screening process. Kirby added that while they are in Fort Lee, they will be able to “safely complete the final steps” of the process, including final medical exams and other paperwork. Kirby added that the Defense Department was considering the possibility of housing about 2,500 in separate military facilities, but declined to share additional details.

President Joe Biden announced this month that evacuation flights from Afghanistan would begin in late July. Afghans are seeking asylum in the United States through the Special Immigrant Visa Program, which has enjoyed bipartisan support since its inception for Afghan citizens in 2009.

The group bound for Fort Lee includes 700 eligible for the SIV program; The remainder of the 1,800 Afghans are family members.

Kirby said the US Department of Defense expects Afghan nationals to stay at Fort Lee for only a few days before heading to their final destinations in the United States. During that time, the department will be responsible for providing housing for individuals and families, food and water, and medical care if needed, and “as much as we can provide them in the short period of time they are there,” Kirby said. This will likely include ensuring access to religious facilities .

Kirby said the administration is still working on how the Department of Defense and State Department divide the bill.

The Special Visa Program has seen a significant backlog in recent weeks, adding to the urgency of evacuating and harboring applicants in other countries or in the mainland United States while they await State Department approval of their papers. In all, there are 18,000 applicants in the pipeline.

Lawmakers who have been pressing the Biden administration for a more realistic plan to evacuate Afghan allies welcomed the decision.

“This is welcome news,” said Representative Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), a former Green Army soldier who worked with Afghan interpreters when he served in the country. “But we still need to see details of how the Biden administration is getting SIV applicants and their families out of all of Afghanistan now that we don’t have bases or military transportation.”

The House of Representatives is set to vote this week on legislation that would allow applicants for special visas to be approved more quickly.

The White House said Monday that Biden supports this legislation, adding that it will “help in our efforts to streamline the application process by removing or reviewing certain legal requirements that the administration has found unnecessary and burdensome, while maintaining appropriate security screening, and by increasing The total number of visas available to help meet the request.”

Politico reported last week that the Biden administration is in talks with the government of Uzbekistan to temporarily house applicants. The United States was also discussing this with the government of Tajikistan, but a congressional source familiar with the matter said that the country was “forbidden.”

The US withdrawal from Afghanistan is coming to an end. US Central Command said last week it had completed 95 percent of the withdrawal.

Over the weekend, representatives from the Afghan government and the Taliban met in Doha as fighting escalated between Afghan forces and Taliban members. On Monday, Price said the US “welcomes” the talks, adding: “Only a negotiated settlement can bring a permanent end to more than 40 years of conflict in Afghanistan.”

Quint Forge and Lara Seligman contributed to this report.

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