Dozens of Afghan refugees have arrived at Dulles International Airport just outside Washington, D.C., more than a week after the Taliban swept through the country and established themselves as the new power in Kabul ahead of a U.S. troop withdrawal.
The United States has evacuated more than 80,000 people on military and coalition flights from Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport since Aug. 14, one day before the Taliban took the capital of Afghanistan and overran the former government. Approximately 4,000 U.S. citizens have been evacuated, while thousands more are Afghans holding Special Immigrant Visas or others who qualified for resettlement.
It is not immediately clear how many Afghans will arrive in the U.S. following the planned troop withdrawal from the region. The U.S. had admitted 5,300 immigrants under the SIV this fiscal year, according to federal data shared with CBS News.
As of Aug. 16, around 20,000 Afghans were in the pipeline waiting for an SIV, while up to 70,000 are eligible to apply, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
US ALLIES SET TO END KABUL EVACUATIONS AHEAD OF WITHDRAWAL DEADLINE
Afghans entering the U.S. under SIV status will be allowed to use government-funded social programs for a limited time, which are designed to facilitate integration into U.S. society. Benefits may include cash and medical assistance, case management, and educational resources to learn English, according to the Administration for Children and Families.
States including California, Utah, Texas, Virginia, and Washington have received the most special immigrants from Afghanistan since October 2020, State Department figures show.
Two weeks before the fall of Kabul, the U.S. began “Operation Allies Refuge,” a mission to airlift SIV applicants and their families from Afghanistan. The State Department said “we welcomed our first group of Afghan special immigrant applicants to the United States” on July 30, noting the unspecified number of migrants joined “70,000 Afghan special immigrants who have become permanent residents and started new lives in the United States since 2008.”
The United Kingdom and Canada have also announced they would take up to 20,000 Afghan nationals as refugees after the fall of Kabul.
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Allied nations to the U.S. announced plans this week to end evacuation efforts in Kabul ahead of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, as the Taliban have underscored their intent to uphold a strict Aug. 31 deadline for foreign personnel to leave the region.
