Washington, Feb 14: Diplomats at Afghanistan’s embassy in Washington, as well as Afghan consulates in New York and Los Angeles, are living largely on savings and loans as they have not been paid for several months, The New York Times reports.
The Afghan Embassy in Washington continues to process consular requests and collects about $2,000 to $3,000 in fees each month, which is enough to pay for utilities but not enough to pay salaries to the Afghan staff, the newspaper said on Sunday.
The Afghan diplomats have not been paid since October 2021, when US banks froze accounts to prevent the Taliban from gaining access to the embassy’s funds, officials told The New York Times.
If the embassy building shuts down, the Afghans will be able to take advantage of diplomatic immunity and residency for 30 days only, the newspaper said citing a State Department memo referred to by several officials.
If the Afghan diplomats are not granted asylum or other legal residency in due time, they will have little to no ability to remain in the United States. Matthew Bourke, a spokesman for US Citizenship and Immigration Services, told The New York Times that 31 Afghans, including diplomats and their family members, have so far applied to change their status to permanent residency.
Abdul Hadi Nejrabi, the Afghan Embassy’s deputy chief of mission, told the newspaper that around 55 Afghan diplomats and their family members in the US are seeking asylum.
On Friday, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order to allow $7 billion in Afghan Central Bank funds deposited in the US to be split between a humanitarian trust and compensation to terror victims.
The Taliban sees the US decision to freeze Afghan funds held in US banks as a showcase of theft and the moral decline of the United States, Mohammad Naeem, a spokesman for the Taliban political office said. (UNI)
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