U.S.-Trained Afghan Pilots Leave Tajikistan
By RFE/RL's Tajik Service November 09, 2021
A plane carrying U.S.-trained Afghan pilots and other Afghan refugees to be relocated in the United States has taken off from Dushanbe airport in Tajikistan.
The 143 pilots and about 50 other Afghans, including journalists, had been waiting at the airport in the Tajik capital for a flight organized by the U.S. government, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reported on November 9.
A U.S. Embassy representative told RFE/RL that the group would be taken to a third country for processing before being granted immigration rights in the United States.
The Afghan Air Force pilots fled to Tajikistan in military planes when the Taliban seized power in Kabul in mid-August, only to be detained at a sanatorium on the outskirts of Dushanbe.
The English-speaking pilots trained by the U.S. Air Force have been waiting for their documents to be processed to eventually be relocated in the United States.
RFE/RL reported in October that the Taliban has pressured some of the pilots to return to Afghanistan by threatening to kill their relatives.
Source: https://gandhara.rferl.org/a/afghan-pilots-tajikistan -leaving-flight/31553409.html
Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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