Special Event | Against the Clock: Saving America's Afghan Partners

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With the Taliban now in control of Afghanistan, thousands of Afghans who aided the U.S. war effort as local translators, fixers, drivers, guides, security guards, and many other critical roles, have been left in an increasingly dangerous situation.

This is not the first time the U.S. has been faced with this challenge: in 1975 the Ford administration evacuated more than 100,000 Vietnamese refugees to the U.S. via Guam; and the U.S. similarly airlifted thousands of Iraqis and Kosovar Albanians to safety in 1996 and 1999, respectively.

With no embassy in Kabul and a difficult bureaucratic process to navigate with few resources, what must happen next for Afghans left in limbo? On Thursday, August 19th, the Center for a New American Security hosted an urgent discussion on the status of U.S. efforts to relocate nearly twenty thousand special immigrant visa (SIV) applicants and their families, and lessons learned from past experiences.