The Joe Biden administration on Monday expanded its efforts to evacuate at-risk Afghan citizens from Afghanistan as Taliban violence increases ahead there of the US military pullout at the end of the month.
The State Department said it is widening the scope of Afghans eligible for refugee status in United States to include current and former employees of US-based news organizations, US-based aid and development agencies and other relief groups that receive US funding. Current and former employees of the US government and the Nato military operation who don't meet the criteria for a dedicated programme for such workers are also covered.
However, the move comes with a major caveat: Applicants must leave Afghanistan to begin the adjudication process that may take 12-14 months in a third country, and the US does not intend to support their departures or stays there.
Nevertheless, the State Department said the move will mean that “many thousands” of Afghans and their immediate families will now have the opportunity to be permanently resettled in the US as refugees.
Afghan president hits out at US
The Afghan president blamed the American troops’ speedy pullout for the worsening violence in his country and said that his administration would now focus on protecting provincial capitals and major urban areas in the face of the rapidly advancing Taliban.
Ashraf Ghani also urged lawmakers to back a national mobilisation drive against the Taliban amid an intensifying war between the Taliban and Afghan government forces over the past few months.
“An imported, hasty” peace process — a reference to Washington’s push for negotiations between Kabul and the Taliban — “not only failed to bring peace but created doubt and ambiguity” among Afghans, Ghani said in his address to Parliament.
 "Afghanistan, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani")