April 5, 2021 - [PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, BROWN UNIVERSITY] - The United States’ Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) Program was designed to help Afghans and Iraqis in danger as a result of their service to the U.S. government, yet fails to properly support those who need it most. A new report released today by the Costs of War Project tells the stories of Afghans who served as translators or other civilian supporters of the U.S. military, and are now facing imminent danger as they navigate the broken SIV Program, seeking to immigrate to the United States.
The report is featured in today’s exclusive with Stars and Stripes, Visa Program for Afghan Military Translators Needs to be Overhauled, Brown University Report Says:
The study’s findings are particularly timely, as a new CBS sitcom, “The United States of Al,” is drawing attention to the issue by featuring a fictional Afghan character who has immigrated to the United States after serving as an interpreter for the U.S. military. The new study, “The Costs of Working with the Americans in Afghanistan,” finds that in reality, Afghans who face threats as a result of aligning themselves with the U.S. are often ill-served by the program and forced to flee to neighboring countries through illicit channels. They are threatened by anti-government fighters and criminal groups, who have killed hundreds of these applicants already; the lives of thousands of others are at risk. The SIV Program has issued 18,000 U.S. visas to Afghan workers since its inception, but has an equal number of applications currently backlogged. Further, even those who receive a visa through the program often do not receive the support they need to successfully resettle in the United States.
Noah Coburn, lead researcher for this report, says, “As the Biden administration conducts its review of the Special Immigrant Visa Program, it must grapple with the true human costs documented in this report. Mere bureaucratic tinkering will not suffice - there must be a program overhaul based on a reconceptualization of how to best support those who put their lives at risk to assist the United States government.”
Stephanie Savell, co-director of the Costs of War Project, says, “The precarity of Afghans who worked with the U.S. military is a frequently overlooked human cost of the post-9/11 wars. It is vital that these stories be told as part of the process of reckoning with the last twenty years of war and determining where we go from here.”
This report is the latest resource from the Costs of War project, housed at Brown University’s Watson Institute and Boston University’s Pardee Center. The project was launched by a group of scholars and experts to document the unacknowledged costs of the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.