Fault Lines - Left Behind: America's Afghan Translators
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- Опубликовано: 29 мар 2016
- During more than a decade of the US occupation of Afghanistan, tens of thousands of Afghan civilians signed up to work with the American military as translators. They often took these jobs despite fears of Taliban reprisal, including death threats.
In exchange, the US government promised a degree of protection through a visa programme that would provide safe passage to the United States when the tasks were complete.
The visas, however, are never guaranteed. More than 10,000 Afghans who risked their lives to work with the United States over the past 15 years are in limbo, as their applications for Special Immigrant Visas to the US remain in process.
According to US law, the process should not take longer than nine months, but many Afghans end up waiting far longer for their paperwork to go through.
Some 13,000 translators have been given visas and relocated to the US. But building a new life has not been easy and many are confronted with a different sort of struggle to survive.
Government support beyond the visa is often sorely lacking, making access to employment, housing, and medical service in the US difficult or impossible to attain. Often, there is no one to even welcome the translators upon arrival at the airport.
As a result, some translators who made it to the US end up returning to Afghanistan, despite the security concerns they may face.
As US troops have left Afghanistan, Fault Lines investigates why so many translators have been left behind. We follow Afghan translators struggling to survive in the US and those facing death threats from the Taliban at home.
Thanks Al Jazeera for bringing up this story to us.. We really appreciate it. Very touching!
It’s tough at first, hang in there! It will get better!!
The main thing I got from this, they we looking for american dream working as translators but then got to see that money does not fall from the sky as they imagined and now they have nothing because they exchanged their safety for dream.
So so soooooo sad! 💔
They are no different than our brothers, sister, moms, dads, aunts, uncles, cousins, husbands, wife, son or daughter.
Hasten to do good deeds before...
If Sakhidad was not a minority Hazara, the Taliban would not kill him. Many Taliban themselves work at U.S bases but they only target minorities.
America needs to know that it is dangerous for minority Afghans, Taliban will use any excuse to kill them. While the Taliban will not kill their own Pashtoon tribe the minorities will not be spared.
My brother Sakhi Afghan far but still love you
I'm his small Brother can anyone do something for us please 🙏
Honestly I can't help but feel that many of these guys are exaggerating their situation and using their service as an excuse to get into the US because they think that they'll have a much better life in the states. I mean come on, Afghanistan is a big country and even Kabul is a big city. You can change jobs, you can hide, you can disguise yourself, change your appearance, etc Many of these guys, having learned the English language and having been exposed to the American culture through their interactions with army soldiers and exposure to Hollywood films, music videos, etc come to the conclusion that America is some kind of dream come true, heaven on earth kind of paradise. Nothing could be further from the truth.