An update on the Afghan interpreters.

It began in 2001 when US and allied forces battled the Taliban for control of Afghanistan. Thousands of local Afghan interpreters and guides played a key role in supporting the US military’s operations in the War in Afghanistan. Interpreters helped US personnel to navigate unfamiliar communities and terrain, all the while putting their own lives at risk.

Not only could the work be dangerous. It was what came afterwards too, causing many former interpreters to fear for their lives. Even now, the Taliban continues to target and threaten Afghans who worked with the US and allied forces, and even the Afghan government. At least one interpreter was beheaded by the Taliban.

In recognition of this grim reality, in 2008 the US began to administer Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) programs for Afghan interpreters and Afghans who worked for the US military. A number of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle believed, and still believe, that it’s essential to help the US’s Afghan allies, to reward their work and offer them and their families a safe haven in the US, if they want it. But the pace of bureaucracy has been frustratingly slow, with many applicants waiting years for the chance at safe passage.

Now 20 years on, the US is officially withdrawing its troops. And as that happens, the Taliban is expected to make swifter and swifter territorial gains, putting the US’s Afghan allies in even greater danger.

Which is why President Biden launched Operation Allies Refuge. The operation is expediting the relocation of Special Immigrant Visa applicants and recipients and their families, to the United States and other safer locations. The operation’s first group of 200 visa recipients and their family members reached Fort Lee in Virginia last week, after some of them had waited several years for their visas.

We’ve been following the plight of the Afghan interpreters for several years now. While it’s great that the US is now speeding up the effort to get them to safety, it’s a shame that it has to be in these circumstances and that this didn’t happen years earlier. It would have saved some interpreters’ families a whole lot of pain.

If you’d like to know more about translators and interpreters in high-risk situations, and what you can do to help, please join us in supporting Red-T.