Aman Khalili (third from the right) and his family.Photo: Human First Coalition
An Afghan interpreter who helped rescueJoe Bidenin 2008 andpleaded for his own escape13 years later has successfully left his country, according to multiple news outlets.
On the very day that thelast U.S. plane left Afghanistan— following nearly 20 years of war, asometimes chaotic withdrawaland the evacuation of 122,000 from the countrynow in Taliban control— an Afghan man pleaded with the American president.
“Save me and my family. Don’t forget me here,” the man, known only as Mohammed,said in aWall Street Journalreport.
The man who spoke directly to the president on Sept. 1 had helped a then-Sen. Biden in 2008 when a helicopter carrying him and two other senators, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel, made an emergency landing during a snowstorm in a remote Afghan valley. Mohammed, a 36-year-old interpreter for the U.S. Army at the time, was part of a team of rescuers who drove hours through the snow in Humvees to find the helicopters carrying the senators.
Now using his full name, Aman Khalili has left Afghanistan with his family, according to a State Department spokesperson.
“We can confirm that this individual and his family safely departed Afghanistan and subsequently initiated onward travel from Pakistan,” the spokesperson told PEOPLE. “They did so with extensive and high-level engagement and coordination among the US Government, private U.S. citizen groups, and many others who also supported him along the way.”
According to CNN, the State Department worked withHuman First Coalitionto get Khalili — whose Special Immigrant Visa had gotten stuck due to lost paperwork — out of the country along with about 200 others considered “at risk.”
People wait to board a plane at Kabul International Airport in August, 2021.MSgt Donald R Allen/AP/Shutterstock
In a statement, the Coalition thanked Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan and others “for evacuating the family of Aman Khalili, President Joe Biden’s interpreter from Islamabad, and their promise to evacuate the remaining 200 people that remain in Islamabad.”
Khalili and his family’s post-Pakistan destination has not been disclosed.
“I would not want to speak to his onward travel but we have worked to arrange it,” a State Department official told CNN, adding, “We’re gratified that he’ll be on his way to safety.”
Afghan translators and interpreters who worked alongside U.S. troops are eligible for Special Immigrant Visas but the 14-step application process can be a “a bureaucratic challenge,” according to Bill Canny, the Executive Director of Migration and Refugee Services for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“There’s a lot of paperwork,” Canny recently told PEOPLE. “It just takes some time to do it.”
Paula Bronstein/Getty
“We provide them with some legal assistance for their paperwork, we also help stabilize them, help with some activities for the children, help them with general orientation to the U.S.,” Canny said.
An estimated 70,000 Afghans are eligible for the special visas; the process usually takes 13 months, but advocates have urged the Biden administration to make the requests a priority.
That appears to be what’s happening now with Khalili and his family, according to the State Department official who spoke with CNN about his evacuation.
Though the official confirmed Khalili’s visa had been rejected years ago, he said the U.S. is now working to “expedite that reprocessing.”
source: people.com
