Report: Over 500 U.S. Government Media Staffers, Family Left Behind in Afghanistan

Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe (RFE) confirmed on Friday that over a hundred of their staffers were left behind in Afghanistan during President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal. Adding family members means a total of over 500 people need to be rescued.

“The media staffers, who aren’t U.S. citizens, are contractors, unlike their colleagues in the U.S., who work directly for the U.S. government,” the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) explained on Friday.

The U.S. State Department said it suspended efforts to evacuate the VOA and RFL staffers and their families after the suicide bomb attack at the Kabul airport last Thursday that killed some 200 people, including 13 U.S. servicemembers. 

State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Thursday that the U.S. government still has “a commitment to these individuals.”

VOA and RFE operate under the auspices of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) along with Radio and TV Marti in Cuba, Radio Free Asia, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.

According to the WSJ, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are calling on the Biden administration to help the stranded staffers get out of Afghanistan, fearing they are ripe targets for abuse by the Taliban.

“It is absolutely disgraceful that the U.S. State Department claimed they evacuated their local employees when in reality they abandoned hundreds of USAGM journalists and their families. Some of these journalists were given express assurances by the Biden administration that they would be treated as locally employed staff – but were not,” said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“The U.S. government left its own journalists behind in Afghanistan,” Josh Rogin marveled at the Washington Post on Tuesday.

Rogin noted the Biden administration was “warned early and often” about the dangers facing USAGM employees, four of whom were killed in suicide bomb attacks by the Taliban over the past five years. 

Rogin quoted Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) saying it was “disheartening that so many professional journalists employed by American-funded news organizations have now been left behind, with their families.”

RFE President Jamie Fly complained:

You would have expected that the United States government, which helped create the space for journalism and civil society in Afghanistan over the last 20 years, would have tried to do more over the last several weeks to assist journalists who made a decision that it was best for them to leave the country. But they consistently failed to do that.

Fly told Rogin that even “top level officials” could not “overcome the utter dysfunction and lack of communication between Washington and Kabul.” USAGM journalists and their families were repeatedly turned back from the Kabul airport gates, even as U.S. military officials were on the phone assuring Fly they would be allowed inside.

Acting VOA Director Yolanda Lopez said on Thursday her agency was “incredibly disappointed” that its colleagues were not granted safe passage out of Afghanistan.

“We have been working day and night, pursuing every available option, only to hit countless obstacles and roadblocks. These men and women are part of our VOA family and we will not be deterred by these setbacks. We remain committed to continuing to do everything we can to help all of our journalists and their families who wish to leave the country and get them to safety,” Lopez said.