How US employers can support the evacuation of Afghan staff

More than two months since the collapse of the Afghan government, many U.S.-based development employers are still working to secure visas and a safe route out for their local staff. Concerns are growing as bureaucratic processes and a backlog of applications continue to slow these efforts.

Based on conversations with implementing partners, Paul Foldi, vice president of international development affairs at the Professional Services Council, estimates that a minimum of 10,000 aid staff and their family members are still trapped in the country.

Katie LaRoque, senior manager for democracy, rights, and governance at InterAction, told Devex that even before the Taliban took power, there was “a sense of urgency” and many employers were looking to get their local staff out of the country through the special immigrant visa, or SIV.

But “the entire NGO community was left behind” amid the chaotic evacuation efforts, she said, and while a small number of InterAction’s member organizations have been able to get people out, it’s thought that around 95% of their staff are stuck there.

The challenges

SIV is designed for Afghan individuals employed by or on behalf of the United States government but applicants must be able to verify at least one year of service with a relevant employer and provide a letter from their human resources department. Among other forms and records, SIV applicants must also hold a valid passport.

But many at-risk Afghans destroyed these documents for security reasons when the Taliban took control. One U.S.-based implementing organization told Devex that it was dealing with a huge volume and sharp increase in document requests from Afghan colleagues. It added that the SIV process was “overloaded and slow both for applications and for the organizations providing verification.”

SIV is also only available to individuals who worked on contracts — not those who served on cooperative agreements or grants. “That's a very arbitrary delineation,” LaRoque said, “[because] to the Taliban, it doesn't matter whether you worked on a grant or a contract; at the end of the day you worked on behalf of the United States government.”

Those who don’t qualify for SIV can be referred to the Priority 2 program (P-2) which falls under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Programme and requires applicants to apply from a third country. For other groups, such as subcontractors, there are even fewer options. “Every project worth its salt has a number of subs on it [but] all those folks are just absolutely disqualified from either SIV or P-2,” LaRoque said.

While processes differ depending on which visa an individual is eligible for, there are some ways employers can support the evacuation of their current and former local staff in Afghanistan. 

Provide verification documents

Under normal circumstances, the SIV application process can take anywhere from three months to three years, according to Francisco Quinones, managing director of Arcis International, a risk management and crisis response consulting firm and one of the original members of the #AfghanEvac coalition supporting Afghan evacuations. 

There is currently a backlog of 30,000 people looking to leave the country on SIV, although not all will be eligible, Quinones added. The best thing that NGOs and other employers can do is to help identify their people by providing the proper verification letters and documents. “The cleaner [someone’s] manifest is, the cleaner the explanation is, the cleaner someone's paperwork, the quicker the manifest is going to get verified,” he said.

In the meantime, employers can consider getting their staff to safe houses or a safe place to stay, such as a hotel in the main cities of Kabul or Mazar-e Sharif. With costs varying from $30-$50 per person per day and the visa process potentially taking months, this can become expensive. There hasn’t been much resistance, however, to people getting on planes and leaving if they are on an approved manifest, Quinones said.

Following approval of an individual’s SIV, flights and landing permission must be secured for recipient countries, such as Qatar, and there is then a 30-day inoculation period before the individual can board a flight to the U.S.

Prepare for internet shutdowns

Unless international help arrives, “it’s a matter of time” before Afghanistan will see country-wide energy blackouts and communication will be an issue, according to Quinones. The Taliban may also shut down the internet at any time. He advised teams to start reverting to regular phone calls instead of WhatsApp, Signal, or emails.

LaRoque also encouraged organizations to plan for power outages and shared a recently published list of digital security tools, many of which are free, that can help bypass internet censorship and intentional shutdowns if downloaded in advance. The #AfghanEvac coalition has also published resources and tips for communicating without a cellphone and improving internet security.

Work together

A number of working groups are forming to help organizations find and share solutions. InterAction has already created a task force for its members, while Society for International Development-Washington, an international membership organization that includes individuals and institutions working in the development space, will launch an affinity group in the coming weeks.

Katherine Raphaelson, president of the organization, said “I don't know that SID-Washington is going to have the answers but we can bring together people to share [challenges] and maybe come up with ways to seek answers together.” She encouraged members to continue to reach out with questions and requests for connections.

Advocate for the prioritization of staff

According to LaRoque, the Biden Administration has a lot of goodwill to help but “has fallen short.” It’s critical therefore that the global development community keeps “pounding at the door for answers,” she said.

InterAction, along with the Alliance for Peacebuilding, has already sent a letter to the U.S. House and Senate asking, among other things, that the administration provide travel documents, diplomatic notes, letters of support, and other documents to allow at-risk Afghans to evacuate, even without a valid passport or visa.