Threatened By Taliban, DPR Approves Addition Of 8 Thousand Special Visas For Pro-US Afghans

Illustration of Afghans. (Wikimedia Commons/Fahim Parwani)

JAKARTA - The United States House of Representatives approved the addition of 8,000 special visas for Afghans who assist the United States, facing the risk of retaliation following the withdrawal of international coalition troops from the country.

In approval Thursday, July 22 local time, the bipartisan bill, passed by a vote of 407 to 16, will then be considered by the US Senate. It also aims to speed up visa processing.

Democratic lawmaker Jason Crow, who leads a group supporting the bill, said the additional visas would cover all potentially eligible applicants in the process.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken previously acknowledged that last month there were about 18,000 potential applicants for this visa.

The Special Immigrant Visa Program is available to Afghans working with the US Government or the US military. The United States has granted 26,500 such visas since December 2014.

President Joe Biden's administration is under pressure from lawmakers and advocacy groups to begin evacuating thousands of applicants and their families, after President Biden said the US military mission in Afghanistan would officially end on August 31.

"For far too long, there has been no sense of urgency needed to ensure the safety of those who are risking their lives to help Americans in these difficult circumstances," said US House Democrat Earl Blumenauer.

The concerns for applicants have also been fueled by increased fighting between US-backed Afghan forces and the Taliban in recent weeks, with militants gaining territory and seizing border crossings.

The plan is that the United States will start evacuating applicants for special immigration visas from Afghanistan this month. The first batch will be taken to a military base in Virginia pending the completion of the process.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said about 2,500 Afghans could be stationed at Fort Lee, a US Army base about 48 km south of Richmond, Virginia.

Kirby opened up the possibility that some of them could be placed in different facilities, but declined to specify what other facilities, if any, were being considered.

He said around 700 people were those who had signed up for the program and the rest were their family members. Kirby added they were in the final stages of the process and would only be at base for a few days.