KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- A special visa program was promised to interpreters for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, but hundreds of applicants have been waiting for years, they say.
The program to allow interpreters, who took on jobs for the military that exposed them to bombings and battles at work and retaliation if their actions were revealed, to emigrate to the United States has been slowed, in part, because the U.S. State Department believes there is no serious threat against the lives of many of them, the British newspaper The Guardian reported Friday.
Americans have also expresses a sense of injustice at the immigration process keeping them apart from loved ones in Afghanistan.
The newspaper noted Utah National Guard member Mary Ann Rollins, 33, fell in love with her interpreter, identified as "Zia," 30, and married him after her tour of duty ended. She returned to the United States, pregnant after a brief honeymoon in Kabul, and with a stack of her husband's immigration papers.
"Zia" still works on a military base as in interpreter, and their son Rhyan is now 15 months old, she said.
A decade of loyal service to the U.S. military has not sped up his immigration case, the newspaper noted.
"I wasn't happy about not having my husband here for the birth, but I didn't expect he would miss the whole first year of our son's life," Rollins said.
