美国国务院周一宣布，拜登政府正在扩大可能获得难民身份并逃到美国的阿富汗人群体，以逃避阿富汗各地塔利班日益增长的威胁。
随着这个饱受战争蹂躏的国家危险地摇摇欲坠，陷入全面内战，这个激进组织越来越多地控制了全国各地的地区。
但是当乔·拜登总统致力于帮助阿富汗人，他们在过去20年里帮助了美国在该国的军事和外交使团根据国务院高级官员的说法，新政策将只适用于已经离开该国的阿富汗人，他们的案件至少需要一年多的时间才能得到处理，尽管这些阿富汗人面临的风险非常紧迫。
据美国国务院发言人说，拜登政府已经为成千上万名阿富汗人启动了重新安置航班，这些人担任翻译、导游和其他承包商，并申请了特别移民签证——总共约有2万名申请人，尽管其中只有一小部分人将被美国撤离。
对于没有达到特殊移民签证要求的两年服务期的口译员和其他承包商，国务院现在将允许他们申请难民身份。他们还将潜在难民扩大到为美国媒体、美国政府资助的项目或美国政府支持的项目工作的任何阿富汗人。
经过20年全国范围的人道主义发展，这是一个广泛的阿富汗人类别，以及他们合格的家庭成员。国务院高级官员拒绝提供估计数字，但表示总数可能有数万人。
美国政府一直面临压力，特别是来自共和党和民主党议员以及美国退伍军人团体的压力，要求他们做更多的事情来帮助在20年的战争和发展中与美国合作或为美国工作的阿富汗人，因此他们可能面临更大的塔利班报复性袭击的风险。
虽然该激进组织的政治领导人表示阿富汗人不会受到伤害，但在过去一年里，发生了一系列针对记者、女权活动人士、少数民族领袖以及军方和警方负责人的高调暗杀事件。据“不让一个人掉队”倡导组织称，自2014年以来，至少有300名翻译被塔利班武装分子杀害。
“美国的目标仍然是一个和平、安全的阿富汗。然而，鉴于塔利班暴力活动的增加，美国政府正在努力为某些阿富汗人，包括那些曾与美国合作的人，提供在美国重新安置难民的机会，”美国国务院在一份声明中说。
但是，根据国务院高级官员的说法，难民重新安置过程需要几个月，如果不是几年的话，包括密集的安全审查，并且该过程将要求阿富汗申请人离开该国——这是许多人负担不起、无法冒险或无法管理的事情。
“这个项目旨在扩大那些有机会在SIV之外的美国重新定居的人的范围。这是我们试图给人们提供一种选择的尝试，”美国国务院一名高级官员表示。
美国国务院表示，将疏散近5000名“SIV”或特殊移民签证申请人，以及他们符合条件的家庭成员，如配偶和子女。
大约750人和他们的家属——总共2500人——已经获得美国驻喀布尔大使馆的批准，并通过了安全审查，他们将被转移到弗吉尼亚州中部的美国陆军基地李堡。其中第一架飞机于上周五抵达，第二架飞机于周一早些时候抵达，目前有200多架飞机抵达Ft。据一名美国官员称，李。
此外，4000名已获大使馆批准但正在等待安全审查的申请人将被转移到安全的第三国。根据美国官员的说法，连同他们的家庭成员，该团体的总人数可能约为2万人，在他们等待几个月的申请得到处理之际，与科威特、卡塔尔和哈萨克斯坦等几个国家关于将他们安置在哪里的外交讨论仍在进行。
但是美国国务院的一名高级官员说，政府不打算重新安置任何现在有资格获得难民身份的阿富汗人，这种新的身份被称为第二优先，即P2。相反，他们的雇主将在喀布尔的大使馆立案，一旦美国政府确认准备开始处理他们的案件，他们必须找到自己去第三国的路，并宣布自己是难民。
这位高级官员说:“不幸的是，在这个时候，我们预计不会搬迁他们，但我们将继续审查所有选项，以保护那些为我们服务的人，我们将审查当地的局势，我们的规划将继续发展。
这位高级官员表示，一旦离开阿富汗，他们的案件可能需要至少12至14个月才能得到裁决。
由于新的指认可能导致数千名阿富汗人逃离该国并寻求难民身份，另一名高级官员表示，美国政府已经与阿富汗的一些邻国，如巴基斯坦，就准备难民潮和保持边境对难民开放进行了对话。
US to offer refugee status to Afghans at risk because of American ties amid growing Taliban threat
The Biden administration is expanding the group of Afghans who could be granted refugee status and flee to the United States to escape the growing threat of the Taliban across Afghanistan, the State Department announced Monday.
The militant group is increasingly gaining control of districts across the country, as the war-torn country teeters dangerously towards collapse into all-out civil war.
But while President Joe Biden hascommitted to helping Afghans who helped the U.S. military and diplomatic mission in the country for the last 20 years, the new policy will apply only to Afghans who have left the country and will take at least over a year for their cases to be processed, according to senior State Department officials -- even as the risk to these Afghans is urgent.
The Biden administration has launched relocation flights for thousands of Afghans who worked as interpreters, guides, and other contractors and applied for Special Immigrant Visas - some 20,000 applicants in total, according to a State Department spokesperson, although only a fraction of them will be evacuated by the U.S.
For interpreters and other contractors who did not meet the required two years of service for a Special Immigrant Visa, the State Department will now allow them to apply for refugee status instead. They're also expanding the pool of potential refugees to any Afghan who worked for a U.S.-based media outlet, for a U.S. government-funded program, or for a U.S. government-supported project.
After 20 years of humanitarian development across the country, that's a wide category of Afghans, along with their eligible family members. Senior State Department officials declined to provide an estimate, but said it was likely in the tens of thousands in total.
The administration has been under pressure, especially from Republican and Democrat lawmakers and U.S. veterans' groups, to do more to help Afghans who worked with or for the U.S. during two decades of war and development - and who therefore may be at greater risk of retaliatory attacks by the Taliban.
While the militant group's political leaders have said Afghans will not be harmed, the last year has seen a string of high-profile assassinations against journalists, women's rights activists, minority leaders, and military and police chiefs. At least 300 interpreters have been killed by Taliban fighters since 2014, according to the advocacy group No One Left Behind.
"The U.S. objective remains a peaceful, secure Afghanistan. However, in light of increased levels of Taliban violence, the U.S. government is working to provide certain Afghans, including those who worked with the United States, the opportunity for refugee resettlement to the United States," the State Department said in a statement.
But the refugee resettlement process takes several months, if not years, including intensive security vetting, and the process will require Afghan applicants to leave the country, according to senior State Department officials - something that many cannot afford, cannot risk, or cannot manage.
"This program is meant to expand the aperture of people who have an opportunity to be resettled in the United States beyond the SIVs. It is our attempt to try to offer an option to people," said a senior State Department official.
The State Department has said it will evacuate nearly 5,000 of those "SIV's," or Special Immigrant Visa applicants, along with their eligible family members like spouses and children.
Some 750 and their dependents - 2,500 in total - who have been granted approval by the U.S. embassy in Kabul and cleared security vetting will be moved to Fort Lee, a U.S. Army base in central Virginia. The first of them arrived last Friday, with a second flight with 200 more arriving early Monday and now at Ft. Lee, according to a U.S. official.
In addition, 4,000 applicants who have been approved by the embassy, but are awaiting security clearances, will be moved to safe third countries. Along with their family members, the group could total approximately 20,000, and diplomatic discussions on where to house them all as they wait months for their applications to be processed remain underway with several countries, including Kuwait, Qatar, and Kazakhstan, according to U.S. officials.
But a senior State Department official said the administration does not plan to relocate any of the Afghans who now qualify for refugee status under this new designation, known as Priority 2, or P2. Instead, their employer will open a case with the embassy in Kabul, and once the U.S. government confirms it is ready to begin processing their case, they must find their own way to a third country and declare themselves a refugee.
"At this point in time, unfortunately, we do not anticipate relocating them, but we will continue to examine all the options to protect those who have served with or for us, and we will review the situation on the ground, and our planning will continue to evolve," said the senior official.
Once outside of Afghanistan, it could take at least 12 to 14 months for their case to be adjudicated, per the senior official.
As the new designations could lead to thousands of Afghans fleeing the country and seeking refugee status, a second senior official said the U.S. government has had conversations with some of Afghanistan's neighbors, like Pakistan, about preparing for refugee flows and keeping their borders open to refugees.
