For Immediate Release  
Contact: Dan Gordon, 617-651-0841 
Aug. 15, 2021 

Situation in Afghanistan Underscores Humanitarian Crisis for our Afghan Allies

WASHINGTON, D.C. — News of the collapse of Afghanistan's government today underscores the urgent situation Afghan allies face – and the fact that slow-moving U.S. efforts to rescue our Afghan allies, who have assisted the United States over the past twenty years in Afghanistan, has turned into a full-blown humanitarian crisis.

"The Biden administration’s blind eye to Afghan nationals is a stain on the United States," said Ali Noorani, President and CEO of the National Immigration Forum. "What is astonishing is the utter lack of planning by the administration to develop and execute a plan to protect the tens of thousands of Afghan nationals who worked with our military. Men, women, children whose only crime was to help our troops will be killed as a result. The administration needs to immediately evacuate as many SIV applicants as possible — as well as their families and others eligible for protection — to Guam, to the U.S. or to another U.S. territory.

"Furthermore, the U.S. needs to rally the international community to prepare for what will likely be a massive surge of Afghan refugees. It is past time to see, with both eyes, what has happened as a result of this failure."

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