Washington (Kubha News) Democratic and Republican members of the US Senate have introduced a bill to Congress, calling for the approval of 20,000 Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) for Afghans who have worked with the US military and in projects of the State Department in Afghanistan over the past twenty years.
Jane Shaheen, a Democratic senator, wrote on her X page, We must help our Afghan allies and keep our promise.That’s why I secured an additional 20,000 SIVs in the bipartisan Senate appropriations bill that passed the full committee and I’ll continue fighting to get those visas included in the final package.’
The US State Department announced last week that only one thousand special immigrant visas remain, and with their depletion, thousands of American allies awaiting evacuation from Afghanistan will be deprived of these visas.
Shahpour Zmarak, a former employee of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) who has been in Pakistan for four months, told Kubha News that he was also informed that the visas had run out and he had to wait. ‘Two weeks ago, my family and I underwent medical tests and submitted our passports to the embassy to obtain visas, but last Thursday, the US Embassy in Islamabad returned our passports and informed me that the SIV visas had run out, and I should wait for further notice.’
A letter, copy of which was also received by the Associated Press, American senators ask the congressmen to approve the twenty thousand requested visas for the current fiscal year until March 22.
John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council, also said in a press conference on Thursday that the Biden administration is also concerned about the depletion of Special Immigrant Visas. “Although our war in Afghanistan has ended, our commitment to Afghans and those who helped with us in this war is not over.”
The special visa program for Afghans began in 2009, and thousands of American military interpreters and Department of State project employees, along with their families, have come to the United States using these visas.
The demand for Special Immigrant Visas increased when the United States left Afghanistan in August 2021, and the lives of former American collaborators in Afghanistan became more threatened.