Congress to vote on visa program for Afghan interpreters By Kevin Sieff,June 13, 2013 KABUL — For years, Afghan interpreters who risk their lives working with the American military have been promised safe haven in the form of U.S. visas that would allow them to escape from the Taliban insurgency’s cross hairs. Now, a narrow interpretation of the relevant visa program and a lack of commitment to it in Congress are threatening to deprive longtime U.S. government employees and some of the Taliban’s top targets of the prospect of that escape route. Legislation to be voted on this week will determine whether thousands of current and former interpreters will actually receive the promised visas. The program, already hobbled by bureaucratic delays, hit another roadblock recently when the State Department ruled that many U.S. military interpreters are ineligible for visas because they were hired by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) rather than directly through the U.S. government.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 15:04:03 +0000
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