CNN: There are tens of thousands of Afghans who have applied for Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) whose applications are still being processed nearly a year after the botched US withdrawal from Afghanistan, a senior administration official said Monday, adding that the process will now be entirely overseen by the State Department. Click here to read
CBS News: Since July 2021, USCIS has received over 46,000 applications from Afghans hoping to come to the U.S. through the parole process. But most parole applications from Afghans remain unresolved — and over 90% of fewer than 5,000 fully adjudicated requests have been denied, USCIS statistics shared with CBS News show. Click here to
AP: For some Afghans who were evacuated as their country fell to the Taliban last summer, the journey to the United States has stalled, and perhaps ended, at a sun-baked cluster of tents and temporary housing on an American base in the Balkans. Click here to read more (external link). Related Health Care, Settlement Prospects
Bloomberg: There’s a straightforward way to resolve the Afghans’ immigration status: Congress could pass an “adjustment act” that would allow them to apply for permanent status in the US after a year. The US has previously offered such adjustments to refugees from Vietnam, Cuba and Iraq. Click here to read more (external link).
ESPNcricinfo: Two out of four Afghanistan team members from the 2022 Under-19 World Cup touring party returned to the country three months after staying back in England with a view to seeking asylum in the wake of the Taliban takeover of the country. ESPNcricinfo understands both have been accepted back by the Afghanistan Cricket Board
Carolyn Presutti VOA News May 12, 2022 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — They started falling from the above and it took a second for Najeebullah to realize what they were. U.S. dollar bills. Coming from above his head in the baggage claim area of the Seattle, Washington, airport. Then he realized his friends were showering him with cash,
Ayaz Gul VOA News May 6, 2022 ISLAMABAD — The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan has deteriorated economic and humanitarian conditions in the war-torn nation, prompting tens of thousands of people to cross into Pakistan seeking asylum and a resettled status abroad. Pakistani officials say that since the Taliban regained power in Kabul last August more than
Des Moines Register: Safi said his experience as a refugee has left him feeling deeply insulted, given the time and effort he dedicated to helping U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The Taliban burned down his house, he said, and his family is suffering in exile. “We’ve been very stupid standing with America. We trusted everyone,” Safi
Reuters: The grant of so-called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will be available to 72,500 Afghans who entered on what is known as “humanitarian parole,” another temporary status, as part of the U.S. evacuation of at-risk Afghans last summer, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Wednesday. Click here to read more (external link).
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty February 10, 2022 Afghan refugees have staged a protest at a facility in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), demanding that they be sent to the United States. Thousands of Afghans were evacuated to the U.A.E. and have been housed at tightly controlled sites in the Persian