Three years after the devastating and chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, many displaced people and allies remain in limbo.
Thousands of people who have been flown out of the country are now caught in immigration backlogs with no way to stay in the U.S. permanently.
Those who served in Afghanistan, which is now under Taliban control, face significant obstacles and strict timelines to obtain a visa to the United States.
“Today is Groundhog Day. What was important three years ago is important now. People still haven't been able to evacuate. No one has permanent residency here. … There's no money. The little nonprofits that have popped up all of a sudden are running out of money,” Joseph Azam, president of the Afghan American Foundation, told The Hill.
The withdrawal marked the successful evacuation of some 80,000 troops serving with the United States in Afghanistan, making it the largest such operation since the U.S. withdrew from Vietnam.
But when the last flight took off on August 30, 2021, an estimated 100,000 people were left behind, including former military translators, people involved in the US democracy and civil rights movements, and people who were vulnerable under the Taliban regime.
The various constituencies are united in the same sentiment: The U.S. is not living up to its promises to its Afghan allies.
For the evacuees
Most of the Afghans who braved dangerous conditions to reach Hamid Karzai International Airport and catch the limited number of flights to the United States believed they could stay permanently.
But comprehensive legislation to ensure that happens has yet to be passed by Congress, leaving many Afghans feeling disillusioned compared with other groups the U.S. has helped, such as those fleeing Vietnam or Cuba.
“I think our situation was handled very exceptionally, not exceptionally well. I'm a bit disappointed,” said Naheed Sarabi, a displaced person and former deputy minister for policy in Afghanistan's finance ministry.
Sarabi was finally granted asylum in April, two and a half years after arriving in the US, and was able to remain in the country, but he noted that many Afghans put off applying for asylum because they cannot afford the legal costs of the asylum process.
The United States has had some success with those who can afford it, processing 19,000 of the 21,000 asylum applications from people who left the country during the flight.
Additionally, of the 35,000 people who had helped the United States during the war and arrived in the United States on so-called Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs), 21,000 were granted permanent residence.
But there remain about 20,000 Afghans who were displaced but remain in some sort of temporary program.
Precarious immigration status is just one of the obstacles faced by people trying to adapt to a new country.
Sarabi was educated in the United States and has worked as a research fellow at the Brookings Institution and started her own development consultancy, but she said people with less advanced English skills and whose professional qualifications are not recognised in the US struggle to earn a living.
“I only found out a week ago that I was going to a new country, with no plans to get on a plane and head to the US the following week. I came here with a backpack. It's really hard to build a life with a backpack,” she said.
She said many people still mourn their past lives.
“For people like us who have been in leadership roles, it's not about the comfortable life we have here. We are very grateful for it, but it's also a burden of what we lost in our country. For me, it's heavier than the challenges in the U.S., honestly,” Sarabi said of her long career in development work.
“Every day I think about my impact in Afghanistan. I think, what impact am I making here? It's not about having power or status. It's about the impact you're making in your daily life.”
Many suffer from the pressure of hearing about the dire situations their friends and relatives are facing.
“every day, [you’re] “I hear about my country, about my relatives in need, about the poverty level. Every day I get calls and emails from former colleagues saying they need help, they need money. To be honest, there's a limit to how much I can help personally,” she said.
“So it's a huge trauma and strain on them to function while they're trying to settle in a country they don't know.”
For those left behind
Under the Taliban, quality of life in Afghanistan has plummeted across the board, but the impact has been particularly severe for women.
a United Nations Report A report last year concluded that the Taliban regime “ushered in a new era marked by rapid economic decline, increased risk of hunger and malnutrition, inflation due to soaring global commodity prices, a sharp increase in urban and rural poverty, the near collapse of the national public health system, the repression of the media and civil society sector, and the almost complete exclusion of half the population – women and girls – from public life.”
People who helped the U.S. during its time in Afghanistan, including former translators, military contractors and people involved in democracy and civil rights movements, face challenges traveling to the U.S. even if they are eligible.
While there are procedures in place to process visas for allied countries, more than 135,000 people who may be eligible face decades-long delays.
Some are fleeing: When the process resumed last September, about 14,600 Afghans arrived in the United States and applied for temporary protected status, which bars them from being deported.
But the U.S. has dealt with just under 2,000 SIVs from its allies remaining in Afghanistan so far this year, he said. The most recent data available That's scheduled to end at the end of March, but advocates say it's too slow given demand: The average visa processing time is 569 days, according to the report.
Much of this is being done under the jurisdiction of the State Department's Office of the Coordinator for Afghanistan Relocation Activities (CARE), which is dealing with the complex issues of arranging relocation from a country where the United States no longer has an embassy.
“The CARE team deserves credit. They're really trying. They've done a good job. They've put something in place that's working. But overall, nobody has a right to win in this. And there are a lot of people right now who are trying to win a little victory, but it's not something they deserve. It's definitely not something they deserve,” said Kim Staffieri, executive director of the Association of Wartime Allies.
Staffieri said that by his own estimates, at the current processing rate, it would take the government at least 15 years to provide SIVs to people who helped the U.S. during the war.
Obtaining an SIV requires a complicated process that requires getting employment verification from your boss and going through a series of government red tape and approval steps. Staffieri said the slow process leaves most applicants unsure whether they'll ultimately qualify. Meanwhile, rejection rates have been sky-high recently, leaving him to wonder if the government is taking the time to verify each applicant's employment eligibility.
“We can't get everyone here who is supposed to be here. We can't deliver on our commitments in time. That's what keeps me up at night. We can't deliver on our commitments in time. Things are getting worse over there and we're going to lose people. This is wrong,” Staffieri said. “It's just wrong.”
Staffieri said it's clear the government needs to invest more in the program, something that was evident long before the evacuations, when government watchdogs expressed concerns about the slow process.
“They know what they need to do: They need to staff up, they need to get the budget in place and they need to get the job done,” she said.
“That's all.”
For Advocates
Perhaps the greatest obstacle to Afghan safety is congressional inaction.
Advocates are organizing around the Afghanistan Adjustment Act, which would allow displaced people to remain in the United States.
The bill is modeled on past legislation that helped groups undergoing mass displacement begin a path to U.S. citizenship.
“Initially it was said that the bill would be approved and pave the way for everyone to get residency. But the bill was not passed,” Sarabi said.
At various times, Congress has failed to move the bill forward or attach it to the legislative body where it must pass.
Several lawmakers oppose the bill over concerns about vetting, even though allowing Afghans to apply for citizenship would trigger additional security screening for a group of people already in the United States.
But much of the Republican attention on Afghanistan has focused on investigating the withdrawal itself. Republican lawmakers have long used the issue to attack President Biden, and more recently, the Trump campaign has used it to attack Vice President Harris. While the attacks have focused on Democratic leadership, it was the Trump administration that first agreed to withdraw troops from the country.
That has frustrated some Afghan refugees and their allied supporters.
“Congress wants to blame all of these problems on Biden, and certainly many of the problems we face now are the result of the withdrawal, and the blame should be spread,” said Chris Purdy, founder of the Chamberlain Network, a veterans group that previously lobbied for improved procedures for Afghan refugees.
“But policies shouldn't just be about blaming the administration. You've got to solve problems, right? Sometimes you've got to solve problems you didn't create. That's being an adult. And hopefully we have adults in Congress,” Purdy said. “There are actual bills in Congress that could make things much better, and they don't do it. They don't do it for a variety of reasons.”
As a result, the future of Afghans will rest largely in the hands of the next presidential administration.
“We want to see Congress act on statute, so whoever the next administration is, they can't just say, 'We're going to ignore all the good things we've done over the last three years,'” Purdy said.
But he added that he is concerned the Trump administration will not act to help people in asylum limbo.
“What we know is that the people they're putting in office on immigration are not immigrant friendly. … It's hard to imagine that Stephen Miller would want to continue these efficiency policies.”
