BY BASBIBI KAKAR
Letting down their best allies
Behind the Special Immigrant Visa program lies a powerful story of loyalty, risk and promises betrayed, for the tens of thousands of people who risked their lives to help the United States during its invasion of Afghanistan – Afghan civilians employed as welders, mechanics, clerks, and interpreters who worked for the U.S. Embassy and military mission in Afghanistan.
I spoke with four Afghan men who worked for the U.S. government during the period the U.S. military was deployed in Kabul. Each one believed that in exchange for their service, they would get financial and physical security. Each man theoretically was qualified to be considered a special immigrant by the U.S. government. Zelgai was the winner, Zabih and Naeem remain in limbo, and Sami has lost.
According to the U.S. Department of State-Bureau of Consular Affairs, a special immigrant is a person who qualifies for lawful permanent residence under one of several programs. The U.S. Congress, at the request of the Department of State, created the Afghan Allies Protection Act in 2009, to create a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) for Afghan nationals who worked for the U.S. government and were experiencing an ongoing serious threat as a consequence of their employment. The Department of State in a report about the program stated that the U.S. government has “the highest respect for the men and women who take enormous risks to help our military and civilian personnel. We are committed to helping those who have helped us.”
Therefore, the Special Immigrant Visa Program was developed to protect Afghans who were being threatened by the Taliban with death, simply because they were working for the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. military mission. But it might not be working as intended. In fact, it might be failing to protect those most at risk, while at the same time raising false hopes because many die while waiting for their applications to be processed in order to qualify for a special immigrant visa.
When Afghan nationals were threatened during their employment, they had to report the threats to their supervisors. The supervisors then had to agree to proceed with recommending their applications. However, each supervisor had a limit of writing 500 recommendations. Clearly, this required documentation and paperwork, not to mention time. Meanwhile, the threats would continue.
By 2012, there were 14,000 applicants each year. That volume continues to this day. The majority of applicants are unsuccessful; only 4,500 applications are accepted in any single year, about one in three applicants. Of the other 10,000, a few are rejected but most are held over until the next year. Meanwhile, the applicants are left in limbo not knowing if they are accepted, rejected, or pending. The application process can drag on for years before applicants are finally able to leave the country – or the queue.
Zelgai won the lottery
I met Zelgai (his real name) when I was working as a translator with a refugee resettlement program in the New York metropolitan area, right after he had arrived in the United States. Zelgai is an Afghan who decided to work as a welder for the U.S. military in Kabul in 2007. He had young children who needed to go to school and he wanted to provide the best opportunities for his kids. The salary promises were too good to pass up for a man with very little education and children to feed and send to school. Because of his decision, Zelgai became a target of the Taliban.
Zelgai told me, in Dari, “I was attacked three times, was kidnapped once along with my 180 colleagues, saw two of my friends shot by the Taliban right in front of me, and was tortured, just because I worked for the American troops as a welder. And then I barely escaped with my life. When I was kidnapped, the Taliban guards separated 40 of us because they thought we had US dollars and our families would pay this as a ransom. They threatened to beat us to death.”
“Since I had nothing to lose, I told the guard that I needed to go to the bathroom. After I got to the woods and relieved myself, I just kept going until I was miles away. I walked for three days through Taliban-controlled territory until I returned to Kabul, ” Zelgai said. He then decided he had had enough and that he must leave Afghanistan. In 2015, he applied for a Special Immigrant Visa while continuing to work as a welder for the U.S. military. He and his wife worried constantly that something else might happen and he might not be so lucky to escape. After more than three years of waiting, Zelgai received his visa, and in 2018 he came to the United States with his family.
Zelgai, migrated from Afghanistan in 2018 and is living in the U.S.
Zelgai’s is a traditional family where his wife takes care of the children and he works. The oldest girl is Madina 15; next, his sons Faisal 14, and Raihan 12; daughters Khadija 8, and Fariha 6. Omran, 2, the youngest son in the family was only seven months old when the family arrived in the U.S. The family feels safe in this country but Zelgai has been struggling with learning the culture and difficulty communicating with his colleagues in the company where he works as a welder. He hopes his children will learn English faster than he has.
Zabih and Naeem in limbo
I met Zabih – he asked that I use a pseudonym to protect his identity – at my job in Kabul in 2012. We quickly became friends and have remained in contact. I knew he had applied for a special immigrant visa and asked if he would share the details with me. He agreed, and also told me about his friends Naeem and Sami.
“I decided to work for the U.S. military mission in 2009. Over the next five years, I was attacked, received threats from the Taliban, and was afraid they would kill me,” Zabih said, “so I decided to apply for a Special Immigrant Visa.” It has now been more than 18 months since Zabih first applied for his visa, His case was initially rejected — but not because of any fault of Zabih’s; the U.S. bureaucracy refused to consider Zabih’s first application on its merits because the American official who recommended Zabih had exceeded the number of Afghans he was allowed to endorse. Zabih had the misfortune of being applicant number 501 to work under the same supervisor.
Zabih is now searching for another supervisor who can resubmit his application. Meanwhile, he has fled Afghanistan because he has no place in his own country anymore. It is not only he who is in danger, but also his family. If anything happens to him, his entire family would be left without anyone to protect and financially support them.
According to Zabih, Naeem, whose real name I do not use to protect his identity, decided to work for the U.S. embassy in 2010. After five years, Naeem applied for Special Immigrant Visa status, and was soon forced to flee and leave his family behind because of threats from the Taliban. Theoretically, he and his family have been accepted for Special Immigrant Visas. However, Naeem does not know when he will finally come to the United States. Until he receives a visa to get out of Afghanistan, he has to wait; the worry and stress are very difficult for both Naeem and his wife, but they remain hopeful. Naeem does not understand why he has not received a visa even though his SIV application has been accepted.
Sami lost the lottery – and with it, everything else
Sami (an alias) age 27, was a software engineer for the US military who applied for a Special Immigrant Visa three years ago. After waiting for a year, he realized that his life was in imminent danger because the Taliban found out who he was working for, and he was forced to flee the country. He traveled to India to get his master’s degree, which took two years. After completing his program, he returned to Afghanistan to see his family, hoping that by then the danger had passed, and he would finally receive his visa.
Neither happened; Sami was killed by the Taliban, leaving behind a wife and three young daughters. Sami’s wife has no education, so she is unable to support her three daughters and create futures for them. And because Sami is dead, his family has no chance of receiving a Special Immigrant Visa.
Unfair bureaucracy
The visa program is a lottery – everyone risks something, to varying degrees, but only the few win. Zelgai was the lucky one. The other three men are just a small sample of the approximately 14,000 who apply for a Special Immigrant Visa each year. The majority of these applicants are unsuccessful but not because they don’t deserve a visa. Only 4,500 applications are accepted in any single year, about one in three. Of the other 10,000, a few are rejected but most of them are held over until the following year, another example of bureaucracy at its worst. Meanwhile the applicants are left in limbo not knowing if they are accepted, rejected, or still pending. So they wait. The application process can drag on for years before applicants are finally able to leave.
Both Zelgai and Zabih think the whole process is flawed because they have lost so many friends who were waiting for visas. “I feel lucky to receive my visa and the opportunity to bring my family to the U.S.,” Zelgai told me. “But I feel sad at the same time because the process is so unfair to all my friends who are still in Afghanistan and in danger.”
I hope these stories have put a human face on a well-intentioned program that isn’t delivering on its promises. In the game of life, everyone should be able to win.