US planning to evacuate Afghan interpreters, contractors ahead of withdrawal

The U.S. is planning to evacuate Afghan interpreters, contractors to a safe location as the U.S. military withdraws and the Taliban threatens a takeover.

The Biden administration is planning to move interpreters and other Afghans who have worked for the U.S., along with their families, to a safe location amid growing fears of a Taliban takeover after the U.S. military withdrawal, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News Thursday. The destination is not yet clear, but the plan is to move these Afghans to a safe location as they wait for their U.S. visa applications to be processed, the official said. The plans should be underway "in a few days -- at the most, a week," the official added, but the U.S. is not yet executing it. There are approximately 18,000 Afghans who have applied for a Special Immigrant Visa -- an enormous backlog that will take months to sort through, with U.S. lawmakers and advocates saying it puts their lives at risk.