Over the weekend, Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed Australia had resettled around 400 locally-engaged Afghan employees and their families since April. But with a military evacuation flight belatedly set to land in Kabul today, hours after the Taliban took control of the country’s capital, there are hundreds of others who are waiting for the Australian government to give them clarity about their future. 

The local staff

Australia’s slow, opaque process for offering visas to Afghans prioritises Locally-Engaged Employees (LEEs) for a fast-track visa. But there are hundreds of people who are waiting for their applications to be approved, some who have been in limbo for years.

Afghanistan veteran and military lawyer Glenn Kolomeitz, who represents Afghan LEEs, says he is in touch with 196 interpreters, 50 guards, and two journalists who have applied for a visa and haven’t heard back. Of that group, just 12 guards had the first step of the visa approved.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade then advised them to submit paperwork for the second step, Kolomeitz said, but offered them no guidance about how to do this, given the embassy in Kabul has been closed since May.

Those are just the people Kolomeitz knows of in Kabul. There could be several more in provinces like Uruzgan who haven’t been able to get legal help in Australia.

As Crikey has reported, there’s an arbitrariness to the LEE visa, and some Afghans who had long work histories with the ADF waited up to seven years to get approved.

The contractors

The Morrison government has hinted throughout the last few months that Afghans who were employed as contractors on ADF projects are ineligible for fast-track LEE visas, but could apply for regular refugee visas. It’s a distinction that former Prime Minister John Howard criticised as “narrow legalism.”

There are no solid figures on how many contractors worked with Australia, or have applied for a visa, but Kolomeitz estimates it would be a few hundred on top of the people already waiting for a LEE visa.

The UN workers

Former United Nations officials told Crikey Afghans who worked with international organisations should be offered the same protection from Western governments as interpreters. Countries like the United States and Canada are expanding their evacuation missions to include people in these groups. Margie Cook, a former UN Chief Electoral Adviser in Afghanistan estimated there could be thousands in this situation, who could be repatriated to different countries. So far, they haven’t included in Australia’s evacuation plans.