United States of America
Press release on US policy towards Afghans who worked with the United States
The infamous outcome of Washington's longest military campaign continues to have a negative impact on the lives of tens of thousands of Afghan citizens. The US administration has effectively abandoned those who cooperated with the US and NATO and their families to their fate instead of taking decisive steps to support their former allies.
In the course of the chaotic evacuation operation from Kabul, which will be remembered for the gruesome images of desperate people dying in the stampede, the United States has removed some 124,000 Afghans from the country. According to the State Department, over 60,000 more people who were promised permission to stay in the United States are still in Afghanistan, waiting to leave. Several thousand refugees are camped out in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Spain, Italy and Germany, waiting for their "American dream". Meanwhile, the US has the audacity, through human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch that report to it, to accuse the UAE authorities, for example, of inappropriate treatment of 2,700 Afghans whom the Americans themselves do not allow to leave for third countries.
It is worth noting that not all of the “rescued” Afghans in the US are enjoying a happy new life. Of the nearly 82,000 people, only 4,500 received official refugee status. The rest of the evacuees, by a recent decision of the Congress, were allowed only a two-year stay in the United States, which, incidentally, expires in just six months. What will happen to these tens of thousands of people next?
Washington hushes up the problem of Afghan children removed to the United States: 234 Afghan children have been separated from their parents, and 42 of them were placed in foster care without any approval.
It is truly bewildering that the US administration is pursuing a policy of blatant blackmail of the incumbent Afghan leadership – imposing sanctions, blocking national reserves, threatening to cut off international humanitarian aid, demanding strict observance of human rights along Western lines, while treacherously trampling on them.