More than a year after the United States’ chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, one Afghan interpreter says he fears death at the hands of the Taliban after his applications for a U.S. visa were denied. Ahmad Ehsan accompanied the U.S. Army in 2018, serving as an interpreter and cultural advisor in Kabul, Afghanistan, until January 2021. Mr. Ehsan is one of an estimated 62,000 Afghan interpreters and others who, by the end of 2021, had worked alongside U.S. forces in America’s longest war with the hope of evacuating the war-torn country. Hiding from the Taliban, Mr. Ehsan told The Epoch Times in October, “After August 2021, while our government collapsed and the U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan and Taliban took back to power, I actually lost everything—my reputation, my freedom, my future, my achievements, and my hope.” Even so, he said, “I have no regrets for working with the U.S. Army in their fight against the Taliban.” “I was fighting for my democratic Afghanistan,” he added. “I fought for my country’s freedom.”
According to U.S. Department of State requirements, Mr. Ehsan should be eligible for the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program to escape the country where there is “essentially a price on [his] head” for assisting the U.S. military. He is a national of Afghanistan and has worked over 12 months as an interpreter with favorable written recommendations from those in his chain of command. Mr. Ehsan applied for SIV status in January 2020 for the first time. With encouragement and support from an immediate supervisor, Mr. Ehsan appealed the decision, which was subsequently denied eight months later. In January, Mr. Ehsan applied for SIV status for a second time. In July, he received another denial letter. After these two unsuccessful attempts, Mr. Ehsan finally admitted their decision is attributed to a failed polygraph test.
Mr. Ehsan said he is growing tired and increasingly fearful that he will not be saved from death. “If the Taliban finds me, there is no forgiveness for those who worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Army,” he said. “If they find interpreters like me, they’ll first torture us, and then they’ll kill us and behead us.” “I’m asking kindly from great American people and the U.S. government to keep their promise to save their allies’ lives,” he said. “I am asking the Department of State to please evacuate any combat linguist who was wrongfully terminated from their job and had their SIV case also denied.” “If not, the Taliban will kill us,” Mr. Ehsan reemphasized. “So, I am asking for the American people to hear our voices. We…”