Refugee aid groups slam Biden for tripping over evacuation of ‘desperate’ Afghans

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WASHINGTON (RNS) – As most Americans absorbed the brunt of the Taliban’s total takeover of Afghanistan over the weekend, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service officials resignedly followed the rapid deterioration of the situation, knowing that it could have turned out differently.

In May, leaders of LIRS, one of several faith-based agencies contracted with the US government to resettle refugees in the United States, sent a letter to the Biden administration asking it to remove Afghan civilians (and their families ) who have worked with the United States. before the planned withdrawal of its troops.

Anyone familiar with the “bureaucratic maze” of the country’s special immigrant visa process knew that the State Department’s visa office would not be agile enough to meet the urgent need for evacuations, Krish O ‘said Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of LIRS.

“We have been screaming from the rooftops for months that we must bring these allies to Guam or some other American territory,” Vignarajah said.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Religion News Service.

LIRS is just one of the faith-based agencies that have called for the evacuation of Afghan allies as a moral imperative and are now working to help bring these people to the United States amid the Taliban takeover of the country. , the militant group that previously ruled Afghanistan under a harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

“We are convinced that these Afghan allies have fought alongside us for 20 years, and we can surely go side by side,” Vignarajah said.

RELATED: Faith Groups Press Biden to Evacuate US Affiliated Afghans Alongside Troops

The United States began evacuating Afghans in the later stages of the SIV process about a month ago before canceling additional flights from Kabul for security reasons, according to Jenny Yang, senior vice president of the SIV. advocacy and policies at World Relief, another from Faith. -organizations based in partnership with the US government on refugee resettlement.

As of June, most of these organizations – including LIRS, World Relief, Church World Service, the Episcopal Church (which resettles refugees through episcopal migration ministries) and HIAS (founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) – urged President Joe Biden to implement plans to evacuate translators, soldiers, cultural advisers, embassy workers and other Afghan people who have worked with the US military, media or nonprofit organizations and their allies and allow as many SIVs as needed for this to be possible.

But as the Taliban invaded the presidential palace in Kabul over the weekend, two decades after it was ousted from the Afghan capital by the US military, many who remain in the country fear being targeted by the Taliban. if it is discovered that they have helped the us

It is not only “devastating” to see, Yang said, but also “disappointing how many people are being left in a very vulnerable state due to the rapid control of Afghanistan by the Taliban and the limited capacities at our disposal. as a government to be able to evacuate our allies.

She said about 18,000 Afghans are still in the middle of the SIV process.

So far, around 2,000 Afghans eligible for such visas and their families have been evacuated via US Operation Allies Rescue, Biden said on Monday afternoon (Aug. 16).

U.S. personnel were evacuated from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, the Afghan capital, as Taliban insurgents crossed the city’s defensive line on August 15, 2021 (AP Photo / Rahmat Gul)

In his address to the nation, the president said he was aware of concerns that the United States had not started evacuating Afghan civilians earlier.

“Part of the answer is that some Afghans did not want to leave sooner, still hopeful for their country. And in part because the Afghan government and its supporters discouraged us from organizing a mass exodus to avoid triggering, as they said, a crisis of confidence, ”he said.

In a subsequent email to RNS, LIRS’s Vignarajah called the claim that Afghans did not want to leave the country “misleading at best.”

“We have been in contact with countless SIV beneficiaries who have been desperate to leave Afghanistan for months and have not been able to do so due to insufficient financial resources and inadequate accessibility of flights through international organizations “she said.

Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, expressed similar frustration at Biden’s explanation.

“He blames the victim,” Hetfield told RNS by text Monday. “Most SIVs couldn’t get through the 14-step bureaucratic journey that took years for SIVs. The process appears to have been designed to prevent people from entering the United States, not to save them. And the (United States government) has had a long time to put in place systems to facilitate the resettlement of refugees without triggering an exodus. They did not make the effort and it is inexcusable.

In a separate interview, Hetfield said he was “sickened” by the situation in Kabul and suggested there was a lot of blame to be passed around.

“It should have been planned 20 years ago,” he said. “It was three successive administrations – then a fourth – that failed to put in place a plan to rescue the vulnerable because of their associations with allied forces. To me, it’s sickening and heartbreaking.

Even so, the HIAS chairman noted that he did not think the Biden administration should have “rushed” with a troop withdrawal without first developing a robust refugee evacuation plan. Further, he argued that while the White House has taken steps to help Afghan refugees in recent weeks, their efforts have been strewn with obstacles.

State Department officials announced in early August that the agency would expand access for Afghans to the United States beyond SIV program restrictions, he said, creating a “priority 2” designation or “P2” which could – at least on paper – include thousands of Afghans who have worked for US-funded projects, US-based non-government groups and media. But the program doesn’t offer evacuation flights: to access them, applicants must leave Afghanistan on their own before applying for U.S. refugee status, a process that can take at least 12 to 14 months.

Hetfield said getting out of Afghanistan was difficult two weeks ago, and even if the refugees made it through, they could end up in Iran – a country that has hosted many Afghan refugees over the years but where states United have no visa processing capacity. complaints.

“It was impractical when it was first introduced – impractical is a nice word for that – and now it’s impossible,” he said.

RELATED: Biden Reverses Refugee Ceiling After Faith Groups Express Outrage

Erol Kekic, senior vice president of Church World Service’s immigration and refugee program, agreed. He likened the program to “telling someone there is another way out, but it will take you forever to get there.”

Kekic added that it is important to keep the P2 program in place, but that these are some “realistic opportunities” for those looking to leave Afghanistan and enter the United States.

Challenges remain for faith-based communities eager to help as well: Some Church World Service sites have been “overwhelmed” by SIVs that have arrived all at once, in part because the US refugee resettlement apparatus has been overwhelmed. decimated under the previous Trump administration, he said.

Yet support for refugees among these communities is strong, according to Kekic.

Bill Canny, executive director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration and Refugee Service office, said his group has already helped resettle some 1,000 Afghans with SIVs in the United States this year.

In addition, representatives from his group, LIRS, CWS and others have spent the past few weeks helping Afghan refugees in Fort Lee, Virginia, providing them with legal aid and medical assistance. World Relief has stepped up its efforts to welcome Afghans arriving at its offices in Sacramento, Seattle and elsewhere.

And Bethany Christian Services, which is resettling refugees across the country in partnership with a number of faith-based agencies, said in a written statement that she was “ready and able” to take in more Afghan refugees and beneficiaries. IF V.

Meanwhile, planes abruptly stopped arriving at Fort Lee over the weekend, and as part of the visa processing work shifted to Kabul, refugee groups say they are not. do not know when flights to Fort Lee will resume.

Biden said the US mission is now to get its people and allies out of Afghanistan as quickly and safely as possible, ending the country’s military withdrawal and its longest war.

But, said Canny, “we don’t know who is going to be able to go out – with what status, if you will – since the embassy is closed. We’re still on call at Fort Lee hopefully waiting for more flights.

Emily McFarlan Miller reported from Chicago.

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