U.S. residents seeking to escape the Taliban will be charged up to $2,000 for evacuation. For a family of 5 U.S. citizens that runs $10,000.
State Dept's Overseas Security Advisory Council said Aug. 14: "Repatriation flights are not free, & passengers will be required to sign a promissory loan agreement & may not be eligible to renew their U.S. passports til the loan is repaid. Cost may be $2,000 or more per person." https://t.co/K9bb3xtoYE pic.twitter.com/2pPo3n64dJ
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) August 19, 2021
The U.S. government is correct that “repatriation flights aren’t free.” However in terms of spending priorities, protecting Americans as the U.S. retreats strikes me as higher priority than much of what was tucked into the series of Covid-19 relief packages or what’s nominally considered ‘infrastructure’ in the trillion dollar package currently sitting in the House (including $1 billion for the Appalachian Regional Commission, co-chaired by Senator Joe Manchin’s wife, a crucial Senate vote).
I would tell State "I paid for the Kabul embassy. Should have negotiated a better sale price."
— CMD09 (@shyunodoslucky) August 19, 2021
I hope they get free cocktails on the flight. That is if they live through the trip to the airport.
— CatLvr5303 (@CatLvr5303) August 19, 2021
This is, of course, standard policy. But there’s very little about the withdrawal from Afghanistan that’s been standard. To be sure, it was clear that the U.S. was leaving Afghanistan and there were warnings, but it was also official policy not to sound alarms about what might happen so as not to undermine confidence in the Afghan regime. Choosing not to collect these funds wouldn’t be the first emergency waiver an administration has granted in the past 18 months…
(HT: @crucker)
Update: Amidst backlash the State Department now says they won’t charge for evacuating Americans from Afghanistan
Must get COVID-19 Test in Afghanistan before allowed to travel to US!!!
Good luck!
Clickbait.
Evacuation/Repatriation flights are never free. The US always bills you.
So will SIV applicants and the various other unvetted “friendlys” have to pay this or is this just for Legal American Citizens? The next time I get pulled over or stopped at CBP, I’m just going to tell them I’m an illegal alien with no ID….
I mean this is capitalism at work right? We were told by the GOP that we don’t want freeloaders, so pay up or stay in that shitty country.
@CHRIS u don’t compruhind werds gud do’s ya?
Any Afghanis and their families that qualify for SIV status have been vetted. That’s literally the point.
Read up on the global vetting systems for refugees instead of just regurgitating what tha Breitbart tells ya.
This is literally just stirring controversy for the sake of it. This was the norm under President Trump for COVID reparation flights as well.
Why didn’t they keave when Trump signed the order in early 2020? They waited until the last minute and now tax payers have to pay the bill? I don’t think so. They had plenty of time to get out!
I’m not American, but I have to make this obvious (to me) observation:
Isn’t it kind of crazy that America’s own citizens have to pay to get out of Afghanistan in a hurry due to it’s own governments miscalculations (being gentle here), while non-citizens – such as the Afghans we saw on that overcrowded plane get airlifted out of there for free…?
Seems like upside-down logic.
@TDS (TheDonald)
Mr. Potatohead said that APPLICANTS for SIV are also being evac’d. Yes, APPLICANTS….not fully vetted APPROVED. Wonder how many Taliban sympathisizers were in that crowd of 600+ on the C-17s? Wonder how many will make it here and on to Ft. Bliss?
This senile idiot has moved this country YEARS closer to another terrorist attack….quite possible involving some evacuees. Hopefully Harris finds some good Bánh mì while she’s over in Vietnam later this month.
If it is true that the US is now evacuating citizens (and others) that it had already warned weeks ago, they should have to pay. They would have had to pay had they left in any event. Same for the idiots who have to be rescued after ignoring warnings that a hurricane or forest fire is heading their way.
Compared to other Western consulates, the US does the least for its nationals overseas.
The US makes it difficult to come home too – you have to be interrogated by an immigration officer – sometimes even if you have Global Entry. Americans can enter the UK using automatic gates and not talk to any official, and EU nationals can enter EU countries with automated gates and also avoid an interview.
And I almost forgot – the US is the only country in the world that makes its nationals pay taxws even if they live and work abroad.
I’d think those Americans working in Afghanistan’s through NGOs or the govt would have their employer pay for their evacuation.
But they get a free seat out if they use the promo code: ILHANOMAR
Yea this is clickbait. This fee is reserved for contractors and other private-sector employees. That fee is covered by the employer and is a cost of doing business. Why should the government have to pay for a flight for a contractor from Raytheon, or a journalist from CNN to get back to the US?
It’s not like military personnel and diplomats have to pay to go home and there are no tourists there. Posting this when you don’t know how the system works is just wasting people’s time.
Sounds like a bargain to me. $2k or die.
In reality, I doubt the collect the money if you can’t pay it.
The State Dept. has said that it will not charge for evacuation flights for US citizens.
Funny that The Hill and NY Post got the right info at the same time that VFTW published its article
How much was a commercial one-way plane ticket from Kabul to the US a few weeks ago? I just searched one way from Dushanbe to DC for this weekend and best I could find was $1,850. $2,000 doesn’t seem that overpriced?
Free is only for illegal immigrant invaders
Wow — that’s very cheap. Trump would have made much more money for the US government — these are people who are literally willing to pay anything, and Trump knows the art of the deal. Such a waste of taxpayer money by those libtards in government! Can’t wait for Trump to finally be reinstated as President on August 13!
And the govmint pays them if they use the code “Chriscantseebeyondhisdemigod”
@VFTW – is the repatriation fee eligible for credit card credits and rewards, or covered by credit card or other travel insurance coverages?
Best 2000 you’ll ever spend
Let’s try and see how many Americans the US fails to evacuate in the days and weeks ahead. Given how Pakistan and Iran have been restricting travel from Afghanistan in the past several days — and ironically both have been playing nicely at the same time with the Taliban since Trump made his 2019 and 2020 deals with the Taliban and the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani terrorist network — and how the US and allies have been exiting while Russia and China play nice with the Taliban too, it seems like just about everybody in the great game there has been willing to sacrifice the Afghan general public in exchange for a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan premised on the Taliban also keeping Afghans locked up at home and prevent foreign terrorist organizations from setting up training camps in Afghanistan. Is it any surprise that the Taliban is choking off and controlling access to Kabul Airport’s civilian side and it’s foreign military side? The Taliban are there to limit the number of people exiting the country, and they are on the roads to and around the airport and outside around the airport perimeter in order to keep Afghan-looking persons from getting into the airport and exiting in droves.
When it comes to Afghanistan, there seems to be a lot of ultra-“real politik” wishful thinking going on in the heads of the powerful international state system players, and they are going to end up finding out what kind of nasty dog the Taliban still is no matter what comes of the Trump deal with the Taliban under Biden.
UPDATE: This was suspended after the media got wind and hammered them over this.
Now, Americans fly free.
For those with dual afghan/us citizenship and currently in Afghanistan for non-essential trip, such as visit family, then yes the fee is justified.
The Taliban has tried to transform Afghanistan into its pet project the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and as part of that transformation “IEA” dual-citizenship is prohibited by the Taliban. And so how can an Afghan with a US passport be a dual Afghan-US citizen at this point?
The US State Dept issued an alert on April 27, 2021 (almost 4 months ago!) advising US citizens to leave Afghanistan because the Taliban was gaining control over more and more of the country.
The mad dash for the exits at this late date suggests a lot of hubris on the part of those who remained. Where’s the “personal responsibility”?
Not hubris from the civilians seeking an escape; more like the consequence of trusting in the more re-assuring US and foreign government-speak that was being provided to people in Afghanistan despite the Trump deal being delivered on to deliver Afghanistan to the Taliban. Also, once the May 1st date passed, more people were taking that as a sign that the US (and the Biden Admin) wasn’t as committed to delivering Afghanistan to the Taliban per the Trump deal with its spring handover.
FWIW, the US and some European countries today have been said to be flying helicopters to fly people — speaking of some who were sheltering outside of Kabul airport and Kabul — into Kabul airport to get those people onto flights out of the country.
I take it as a sign that Qatar facilitated another deal with the Taliban, perhaps as a way to ease off pressure for Qatar’s saying it would take in no more Afghan refugees.
Update: Aug. 19: Yes, State Dept. CAN charge for evacuation flights but will NOT do so
State Department spokesman Ned Price said,
“In these unique circumstances, we have no intention of seeking any reimbursement from those fleeing Afghanistan.”
https://nypost.com/2021/08/19/state-dept-scraps-plan-to-bill-kabul-evacuees-2k-for-flights/
Can you say Socialism, wanting some thing for free, I can’t believe it, must be a bunch of democrats over there, did they pay to go over there, did the us government pay? We all know that American is not a socialist country!