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Afghan refugees at a U.S. military base in Wisconsin, U.S., September 30, 2021.People’s Vision Data Map

A few days ago, data showed that Afghan refugees sought to enter the United States through the “humanitarian parole” program, but the US government rejected more than 90% of their applications.

Since July 2021, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has received more than 46,000 applications from Afghan refugees looking to enter through the “humanitarian parole” program, CBS reported on June 20. U.S. However, the agency only processed more than 4,500 of those applications. As of June 2 this year, the agency had approved only 297 of those applications and rejected 4,246, the data showed. Under Humanitarian Parole, the U.S. grants temporary legal permission to enter the country in exceptional circumstances to those who do not meet other legal entry requirements, but does not provide those individuals with permanent status in the United States.

In a denial letter, USCIS said the agency would only rely on a beneficiary if it finds that the beneficiary faces a serious threat in their country or is at risk of being vulnerable if they return to their country. Protection requires parole and evidence to determine eligibility for “humanitarian parole”.

The report pointed out that the U.S. government had invoked the “Humanitarian Parole Program” to admit some asylum seekers and Ukrainian refugees at the border between the U.S. and Mexico, but the U.S. government used stricter review rules to process applications from Afghan refugees, triggering support for refugees. dissatisfaction. In response, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Afghans would be granted “humanitarian parole” in “certain limited circumstances”, such as applicants with immediate family members in the United States or those facing “serious and targeted circumstances”. sexual harm”. The DHS added that the reason most applications are not processed is that USCIS typically processes about 2,000 applications a year, not tens of thousands. In addition, 70% of applicants are currently still in Afghanistan and cannot be interviewed as required because there is no U.S. embassy there. Applicants deemed eligible for “humanitarian parole” need to travel to a third country and complete the appropriate procedures before they can be granted. “This complicates the entire application process,” DHS told CBS.

According to Xinhua News Agency, in August 2021, the U.S. Central Command announced that the U.S. military had completed the task of withdrawing from Afghanistan, officially ending nearly 20 years of military operations in Afghanistan. At the end of the same month, the US embassy in Afghanistan issued an announcement saying that the embassy had suspended operations. “Capitol Hill” reported that during the war in Afghanistan, a total of more than 30,000 innocent civilians were killed by the US military or lost due to the war, and about 11 million people became refugees.