PITTSBURGH — Volunteers at the University of Pittsburgh are working to help Afghan civilians who fear they’re in danger because of their prior work in the United States.
As the Taliban takes control of Afghanistan after the withdrawal of U.S. troops, Pitt’s hotline has been inundated with requests from Afghan civilians for help and assistance.
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A group of graduate students is working to find proof that the civilians reaching out via emails, texts and phone calls previously worked in the United States so they can help get them to safety.
Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, the director of Pitt’s Center for Governance and Markets and a former adviser to the Department of Defense and United Nations, said that the Afghan civilians made up a wide range of workers, including construction employees, janitors and policymakers.
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“It’s a very, very simple thing, but you wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find these people, and many organizations are actually making it very hard to make these connections,” Murtazashvili said. “Some of the larger contractors have done a really good job. They’ve created websites, they’ve created web pages to make it very easy for Afghans to find them, but others have not done such a good job.”
Murtazashvili said the civilians are concerned that the Taliban might target them and their loved ones because they helped America.
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