{"id":1210733,"date":"2023-09-13T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=444457"},"modified":"2023-09-13T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T11:00:00","slug":"the-biden-administration-is-keeping-thousands-of-afghans-in-limbo-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/09\/13\/the-biden-administration-is-keeping-thousands-of-afghans-in-limbo-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"The Biden Administration Is Keeping Thousands of Afghans in Limbo Abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"
Thousands of Afghans<\/u> who fled their homes two years ago are stuck at processing sites in the Middle East and the Balkans that are \u201ccoordinated, facilitated, or under the control of the U.S. government\u201d \u2014 yet the Biden administration refuses to disclose basic information about their status, according to<\/a> human rights advocates who sued the administration last month.<\/p>\n As the U.S. and its allies airlifted people out of Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Taliban\u2019s return to power in August 2021, they helped set up what were supposed to be temporary processing sites in third countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Kosovo. Two years later, thousands of Afghans are in effective detention at those sites, which are largely closed off to visitors, according to human rights lawyers, amid deteriorating conditions and with no updates about their refugee, humanitarian parole, or other pending applications for entry to the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s extremely concerning that people have just been waiting in limbo for two years now, and it is extremely difficult to receive further information, because there is a denial of access to visitors,\u201d Sadaf Doost, an attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, or CCR, told The Intercept. \u201cThat creates a situation where much of the information that we’re relying on depends on those who are able to provide a sneak peek of what’s going on in the camps.\u201d<\/p>\n CCR and Muslim Advocates, another legal nonprofit, sued<\/a> the U.S. Departments of State, Defense, and Homeland Security on August 30 over the agencies\u2019 failure to comply with Freedom of Information Act laws. Earlier this year, the groups had filed public records requests with each agency seeking to establish the exact number of Afghans awaiting resettlement to the U.S., as well as the terms of their confinement and the exact role played by the U.S. government in running the sites where they are being held. According to the lawsuit, the Departments of State and Homeland Security did not respond to the records requests at all. The Department of Defense, meanwhile, agreed to release some of the records but has so far failed to do so.<\/p>\n The lawsuit also raises humanitarian and human rights concerns at three of the processing sites: Camp Liya, in Kosovo, which is inside a U.S. Army base; Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar, which is on a former U.S. Army base; and Humanitarian City, in the UAE, which U.S. officials say is \u201csolely<\/a>\u201d controlled by the Emirati government, though State Department representatives reportedly<\/a> visit the camp twice a week.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on pending litigation, while a spokesperson for the State Department did not answer questions about the lawsuit or the status of Afghans awaiting resettlement at processing sites abroad. The Pentagon did not respond to The Intercept’s request for comment. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThere’s just no information as to how much longer these Afghan civilians have to wait.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n Advocates say that the Biden administration has a responsibility to provide an accounting of the conditions facing the Afghan evacuees \u2014 and the status of their applications \u2014 rather than forcing the public to rely on information that is leaked out of the camps in a piecemeal way. \u201cThere’s just no information as to how much longer these Afghan civilians have to wait,\u201d Doost said. \u201cAnd there’s no oversight, really, because of the lack of information.\u201d<\/p>\n Mursel Sabir, a co-founder of the community organization Afghans Empowered, works with several groups supporting Afghan refugees that have also been trying to get information about the camps \u2014 and are frustrated with the lack of transparency by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n \u201cThey’ve been very quick to move on from the situation in Afghanistan,\u201d she told The Intercept. As for the Afghans who are stuck at the processing sites, she said, \u201cthey’re at the hands and mercy of United States government and Western powers essentially, that are trying to pick who is loyal and who is worthy of coming to this country.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n