Thousands of Afghan Allies And Their Families Still Stranded In Afghanistan

Thousands of Afghans who helped the United States government and military are still stranded in the Taliban-controlled country, according to a new report from the New York Post.

“The non-profit volunteer organization No One Left Behind says that it is tracking more than 10,000 Afghans who are either eligible for, applied for, or were approved for a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) and have requested help getting out of Taliban-controlled territory,” the New York Post reported. “No One Left Behind also said that it is tracking another 38,000 family members of SIV holders or applicants who remain in Afghanistan and have asked for aid.”

“This is likely a limited picture with more that have not reached out to us, but it underscores the significant volume of people in dire need as winter approaches and Taliban control result[s] in food shortages and human rights abuses, including directly targeting those that helped US forces,” a director at No One Left Behind told the New York Post.

“We are working tirelessly to make sure these people are not left behind, and we will continue to advocate to the [US Government] that they expand the scope of their evacuations to include these American allies,” the director added.

According to the New York Post, Task Force Argo co-founder Jesse Jensen said that his organization is “dealing with a backlog of more than 4,000 people, including family members, who are looking to leave Afghanistan.”

Jensen, a former Army Ranger, stated that that the number of Afghans who want to leave the country is likely far above 4,000 since Task Force Argo had to stop accepting evacuation requests.

“We have really run out of resources in order to do this,” Jensen said. “We’ve had three flights that are paid for, you know we’ll likely have to claw back those funds to return to investors if we don’t see a path to getting these folks out of the country.”

The report comes just the Biden administration admitted that it left hundreds more Americans stranded in Afghanistan after the withdrawal than it previously claimed.

“[W]e believe that about 100 to 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan with some intention to leave,” President Biden said on August 31. “Most of those who remain are dual citizens, long-time residents who had earlier decided to stay because of their family roots in Afghanistan.”

However, since August 31, “the United States has directly assisted 479 American Citizens and 450 lawful permanent residents [in addition to their immediate families] to depart Afghanistan and relocate to the United States,” the State Department admitted in a press release.

According to the State Department, there are less than a dozen U.S. citizens left in Afghanistan who want to leave the terrorist-controlled country, are ready to depart, and have the necessary travel documents.

Last month, a report found that there were still 14,000 U.S. legal permanent residents stranded in Afghanistan at the time and at least 289 U.S. citizens.
Foreign Policy reported, “The State Department believes as many as 14,000 U.S. legal permanent residents remain in Afghanistan, Foreign Policy has learned, as the agency faces increasing scrutiny from Congress about the status of U.S. citizens and green card holders that are still stranded in the Taliban-controlled country.”