Americans are easing visa requirements while making arrangements to relocate some of their Afghan “friends” in Kuwait and Qatar.
US forces are scheduled to leave Afghanistan by September, ending the country’s longest war in its history.
Alongside the exit of US forces from Afghanistan, the White House decided to resettle some of its Afghan employees, including translators, drivers and others, in a third country until their US visas come through.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the White House is planning to relocate up to 35,000 Afghan interpreters and their families at Camp Buehring in Kuwait and Camp As -Sayliyah in Qatar.
Neither country has yet agreed to host America’s Afghani “friends”.
Local employees, who fear retribution for working with US forces against the Afghan Taliban militants, have been promised to receive Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) by the White House.
The SIV, when issued, will grant the Afghan employees safe passage to America and a pathway to citizenship.
However, housing the Afghans until the visas come through, has turned into a major problem for US officials.
Housing the Afghans will cost the US tax payers several hundred million dollars, according to the WSJ citing an anonymous source.
A US base in Virginia, or US bases in Guam or other US territories have been suggested to house to Afghans until their visa applications would be reviewed.
US lawmakers on Thursday approved a bill that would increase the number of SIVs by 8,000, in addition to speeding up the application process by removing a requirement that makes Afghan employees requesting the US visa of providing evidence to prove that they are under threat of Taliban retribution.
“The phrase life and death gets tossed around a lot in this chamber, but this bill is truly that for thousands of our Afghan friends,” Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., a former Army Ranger who served in Afghanistan and who introduced the…