Shawn VanDiver, Founder, AfghanEvac:
Sure. Thank you for having me on.
I want to add some clarity to that number. About 2,000 was the number that we expected to travel over three months, what we thought the pause was going to be, but it’s indefinite. So, people are being pulled off flights now. Flights are being canceled, but the truth is there are more than 10,000 Afghans who are fully vetted, security vetted, medically cleared, and ready to go.
And now they don’t know what’s coming next. We have asked the State Department to give very clear guidance to them, that we hope they’re going to do that. They haven’t affirmatively confirmed that yet.
But, look, the truth is, is, these people who have been waiting for 3.5 years in many cases are now stuck in limbo yet again. And it feels very much like August of 2021. We’re getting frantic text messages. People are begging for help. My e-mail inbox is just buzzing over and over and over again. My phone is draining so fast. And people are terrified.
