This is the fourth installment in a Washington Examiner series detailing the struggles of Afghan activists and allies affected by the August 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Fazal, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, had lived in a prominent evacuation organization’s safe house for five months. Then he received word the group was folding and could no longer guarantee his safety.
For four years, the special immigrant visa applicant worked alongside elite Afghan military and intelligence units. Concerned the Taliban would find him and act on the death threats that initially forced his family of six into hiding, Fazal sent an email to evacuation organization Operation 620.
Concerned about his situation, Operation 620 Deputy Director Sean Conner and Executive Director Navy Lt. Cdr. Doug Ramsdell began putting Fazal through the organization’s stringent intake protocol.
Though Ramsdell says “a handful” of evacuation groups have been forced to close shop in the months since the August U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Operation 620 has doubled in size. Ramsdell attributes this growth to the group’s ability to scale early successes with logistics and security. He and Conner have taken special care that building out operations to serve roughly 1,200 Afghans does not risk the security of the 620 Afghans who have been on the manifest since Aug. 16.
Operation 620 supports activists, government workers, and former intelligence, police, military, or contract personnel who fall into one of three threat levels. High-risk personnel would likely be killed if the Taliban discovered them. Medium-risk personnel include Afghans who might be arrested and assaulted by the Taliban but would likely be released. Low-threat personnel include workers who can no longer go to their jobs. Women who advocated for girls’ education or other causes reviled by the Taliban are at particular risk, as are women whose spouses have been killed by the Taliban and cannot work to support their families.
All of the Afghans on Operation 620’s manifest “are essentially exiles in their own country,” Connor said. With Afghanistan’s declining economy and exchange rate and increasing safe house rent and food costs, most now live in total poverty.
Ramsdell and Conner expect the evacuation will be a multi-year process. New requirements that humanitarian parole visa applicants provide “documentation from a credible third-party source” of the threats they face are “a prime example” of their challenges, according to Ramsdell.
“As soon as you get the magic formula down, the goalposts move,” he said.
Operation 620 receives requests from around 10 stranded Afghans every day. With only 20 volunteers currently managing the group’s caseload, Operation 620 is in tremendous need of dedicated U.S.-based volunteers from any background who can learn to manage cases and support Afghans.
Operation 620 also hopes to build partnerships with established international humanitarian groups such as the United Nations World Food Program or the International Organization for Migration. Ramsdell believes Operation 620’s logistics network would be an ideal conduit to distribute humanitarian aid packages to Afghans who cannot make it to international aid distribution events, often attended by the Taliban.
The “real distinction for us,” Conner said, is that “we have already vetted [the recipients so] we can guarantee that [aid is] not going to the Haqqani Network or the Taliban.”
Evacuation work can be grueling. Afghans on Operation 620’s manifest have disappeared by the Taliban. Some who are at great risk will inevitably be rejected for visas or do not meet visa requirements. Ramsdell says success stories and the “sliver of hope that one government is going to acquiesce and open the floodgates” for Afghan refugees keep Operation 620 “motivated and in the fight.”
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance writer in the Detroit area. While writing this piece, she decided to volunteer with Operation 620.
