Daily Archives: August 18, 2021

AFSA Urges USG Move Quickly on Aghanistan, Members Offer to Help With Processing/Hosting New Arrivals

August 18, 2021 By in Chaos, Evacuations, Hotspots, Refugees, State Department, Trends, US Embassy Kabul Tags: , , ,

 

AFSA is the professional association and exclusive representative for the U.S. Foreign Service. Its membership includes retirees and almost 80 percent of the active Service. AFSA President Eric Rubin released the following statement on Afghanistan:

The fall of Kabul was a painful and wrenching day for all of us, especially for our Foreign Service colleagues, members of other U.S. government agencies, non-governmental organizations and members of the U.S. and allied militaries who served their country under difficult and at times perilous circumstances in the two-decade long war in Afghanistan. We lost treasured Foreign Service and Foreign Service National colleagues and remember with deep respect and appreciation the several thousand U.S. servicemembers who lost their lives and many more who came home grievously injured, physically and emotionally.

Now is the time to support our colleagues and the servicemembers who remain behind in Afghanistan or are in the process of returning to protect and assist with evacuation efforts. We hope and pray that many of the Afghan citizens who assisted us and the multilateral coalition in our efforts will be able to reach safe-haven and begin their lives anew. We recognize and deeply regret that some will almost certainly be left behind. We urge the U.S and allied governments to do everything possible to help those who wish to leave, and to insist on the safety of all those who remain.

We urge our government to continue to move quickly to bring as many Afghans to safety as is humanly possible, and to admit as many as possible to the United States as refugees or parolees. The administration has already waived medical exams for entry. Security vetting is obviously essential, but other clearances such as financial arrangements can wait. Many of our members, including retired members with years of experience rescuing refugees from earlier wars, have contacted us to offer help with processing and hosting new arrivals. We hope such offers will be accepted quickly.

In the meantime, our thoughts are with our fallen colleagues and servicemembers and with the long-suffering people of Afghanistan. They must not be forgotten.

This is a welcome statement. The anti-refugee voices are starting to fill the airwaves and social media with fear mongering. You can view some here, here, here, and here. The hashtag #refugeesNOTwelcome is also trending this morning.
No one wants to be forcibly displaced from one’s community and home country. Please help if you can.

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Snapshot: Number of Afghan SIVs Allocated by Fiscal Year and Authorizing Legislation

August 18, 2021 By in Congress, Consular Work, Snapshots, State Department, Trends, U.S. Missions, US Embassy Kabul, Visas Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

 

Related:

 

 

@StateDept Sends M Nominee John Bass to Kabul to Leverage “Logistics Experience” in Evacuation

August 18, 2021 By in Chaos, Consular Work, Evacuations, FSOs, Hotspots, Locally Employed Staff, Realities of the FS, State Department, Top Ranks, Trends, U.S. Missions, US Embassy Kabul Tags: , , ,

 

 

Via State Department, August 17:

— We’ve now completed our drawdown to the core diplomatic presence we need, and at this time we will no longer – at this time no longer need to facilitate departures for our embassy personnel.

— All remaining embassy staff will be assisting departures from Afghanistan, and the department is surging resources and Consular Affairs personnel to augment the relocation of American citizens and Afghan special immigrants – special immigrants, and elsewhere adding personnel to assist with P-1/P-2 adjudication processing.

— We’ve successfully relocated many of our locally employed staff and are in direct contact with the remainder to determine who is interested in relocation and the process for doing so.

— Ambassador John Bass – a seasoned career diplomat and former ambassador to Afghanistan, Turkey, and Georgia – is heading to Kabul today to lead logistics coordination and consular efforts. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Ambassador Bass brings decades of experience from service at seven U.S. missions overseas and in leadership positions, including executive secretary, here in Washington. Ambassador Wilson, who has remained in Kabul, will continue to lead our diplomatic engagement.

— So this is a massive logistical undertaking. The – our presence, our diplomatic presence in Kabul, this is a focus of theirs. Obviously, there is a lot of other important business that needs to get done from management to engagements with the – with Afghans. And so what Ambassador Bass will be doing is overseeing the logistics of this rather large, rather ambitious, expansive operation. He’ll be using and leveraging his managerial expertise and logistics experience to help Ambassador Wilson and the broader Embassy Kabul management team with this challenge.

— He is going there to work on the nuts and bolts of this, just given how logistically challenging this is.

In July, President Biden nominated Ambassador Bass, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service to be the next Under Secretary of State (Management). If confirmed, he would succeed Pompeo BFF Brian J. Bulatao. The nomination is pending in the SFRC as of this writing.

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