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After Afghan airlift, tens of thousands entered US unvetted, says congressional memo  

WION Web Team
WashingtonUpdated: Nov 25, 2021, 08:39 AM IST
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Numerous Afghans could not get UK’s help after Taliban took over Kabul due to sorry state of affairs at the foreign office (representative image). Photograph:(AFP)

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In a revelation made by a congressional memo, almost none of the 82,000 people, who were airlifted from Afghanistan, were vetted before being admitted to the United States. The memo summarised interviews with federal officials, who oversaw the evacuation of people at domestic and international military bases from war-torn country

In a striking revelation made by a congressional memo, almost none of the 82,000 people, who were airlifted from Afghanistan, were vetted before being admitted to the United States.  

The memo summarised interviews with federal officials, who oversaw the evacuation of people at domestic and international military bases from war-torn country in August after the takeover by Taliban.  

This comes despite the contrary claims of the Biden administration.   

In the memo drafted by Senate Republicans in October, senior officials from the departments of state, homeland security, defence and justice described it a disastrous screening and vetting process.  

According to the memo, the Biden administration failed to vet the information that tens of thousands of Afghans provided through in-person interviews and just relied on criminal and terrorist databases to flag bad actors.   

It called the process merely screening and not vetting.  

The tens of thousands of Afghans brought into the US by the administration were not qualified, it said.   

Around 75% evacuated were not US citizens, Afghan Special Immigrant Visa holders, green card holders, or applicants for the visa, a report by the Washington Examiner cited three sources familiar with the interviews done in the memo.  

(With inputs from agencies)