Kabul, Aug 6 (Newswire): Thousands of Afghans who have worked with American troops and diplomats here, often at great risk, have become stranded for years in a murky wait to emigrate to the United States, despite government efforts to speed them from potential threats in Afghanistan.
One American initiative to substantially increase the number of visas available to Afghan workers, the Afghan Allies program, has fallen especially short of its goals. Since the program began in 2009, about 2,300 Afghans have applied for those visas, but the American Embassy in Kabul has finished reviewing only two cases. One was rejected.
"The record is not great," said David D. Pearce, assistant chief of mission at the embassy. He said that officials had asked Washington for more resources and that the new ambassador, Ryan C. Crocker, had placed a renewed focus on resolving the backlog.
"We're going to break this logjam," Mr. Pearce said. "It's going to move."
The long, uneasy wait has frustrated many Afghans employed by the United States, who said they felt neglected after risking their safety and that of their families to work with Americans in war-torn sections of the country. The Taliban have brazenly killed Afghan civilians, even children, with ties to coalition forces.
Some applicants said their paperwork had been lost, or that interviews had been promised but never scheduled. Many echoed a similar complaint: They had simply heard nothing and had no idea whether their applications had been approved or rejected.
"They don't care about us, or they forgot us, or they don't want us to go there," said Mubarak Shah, an interpreter in Helmand Province who said he applied for a visa a year ago. "I'm still waiting."
The complaints are mounting. Two weeks ago, a group of unnamed Afghan visa applicants sent an open letter to American officials criticizing the delays and urging the embassy to speed up the process.
Seven United States senators recently sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security asking for information about the delays, a US media report said.
"I am very concerned and frustrated that it has taken so long to implement this critical program to help Afghans who have risked their lives to help the United States," Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, Democrat of Maryland, who has worked on refugee issues, said in a statement.
American officials say the problems with the Afghan Allies visa program occurred largely because the embassy lacked enough staff members to scrutinize each case and run background checks. After the program was created in early 2009, officials spent more than a year deciding exactly how to screen each applicant.
Bureaucratic delays increase the risk for Afghans like Raaz Mohamad Ahmadi, who worked for six years as an interpreter at a military base near the capital.
Mr. Ahmadi said he had tried to keep his job a secret to protect himself and his family, but he accidentally wore his uniform home from the base a few times. Three years ago, he received a so-called night letter, a written threat dropped off in the dark, signed by "one of the Taliban brothers" and warning him to quit his job "if you like your life."
He moved his family, telling almost no one where he had gone, but said he had noticed ominous signs in the past few weeks. Someone recently tried to break into his new home, and cars full of men have slowed to look at him as he leaves his house, Mr. Ahmadi said.
Such fears may be well grounded. The Taliban have threatened for years to kill any Afghans who work with the American-led coalition, and while there are no specific tallies available, they have carried out those threats countless times.
In February 2009, Mr. Ahmadi applied for one of 50 visas allotted annually for Iraqi and Afghan interpreters. He said he had received no response from American officials, except for a notice from a visa-processing center in Nebraska assigning him a case number. They also confirmed that his $375 application fee had been received.
"They are not taking care of us," he said. "I see my life threatened. Everyone in the family is worried."
The problems facing resettlement efforts here resemble, on a smaller scale, the troubles that have long plagued American efforts to take in Iraqis who worked alongside the American government during the war there. In both countries, American forces relied on thousands of local employees to decode languages and bridge cultural gaps, while local construction workers and laborers helped build, supply and maintain military bases.
The United States carved out slots for 25,000 Iraqis and their families to emigrate over five years. For Afghans, it allotted 7,500 spaces under the Afghan Allies program.
But terrorism fears about Iraqis, especially after two Iraqi immigrants were arrested in Kentucky on suspicion of ties to an insurgent group, have virtually dried up visas for Iraqis in the twilight of America's war there.
The number of Afghans arriving under the special immigrant visa program, the broader program that includes Afghan Allies, has also dwindled. A total of 108 Afghans arrived under that umbrella in the 2010 fiscal year, down from 775 a year earlier, according to State Department figures. This year, they continue to trickle in: 18 in March, 17 in April and none in May, the latest month for which figures were available.
Those numbers are bleak to Ahmad Jawaid Sarhal, 26, an adviser to the NATO mission that trains Afghan security forces.
Mr. Sarhal said he had no faith in Afghan leaders, and he worried that security would crumble without Western forces. He said his year-old application to emigrate to the United States, still awaiting approval, represented his best hope for educating his family and keeping it safe. "We need to guarantee our future," he said.
