A safe pathway to resettlement for migrants and refugees | Becca Heller

let me warn you our main story tonight is going to end with you getting extremely angry at a donkey that might not make sense right now but it is going to so let's let's begin translation we've all seen the comic ways in which it can go wrong the Chinese signs that say things like do drunken driving or vegetables to be fair yes that's a silly sign but at the same time maybe you've seen the YouTube videos where people put songs like let it go into Google Translate then translate them back into English and sing the results [Music] [Applause] [Music] I've got to say that would be an amazing tone for the frozen sequel a bitter woman warbling about two feet in a radioactive ice castle I am bad translation can be a lot of fun when the stakes are low but if you're in a war zone accurate translation can be the difference between life and death and over the last decade good local interpreters in Afghanistan and Iraq have saved countless American lives let me show you an Afghani man at named Sirach translating a warning about some IEDs to infidel means people know commencement he says that there's I did someone told me that there is IDs in this way I'm very attached to the burial energy the ability to see the real predetermined idea particularly okay thank you you see that is a good message to get exactly right you don't want someone saying oh to be honest Maya patch toes a little shaky but there's either an AED or an Ikea behind those rocks somewhere also I think he said something about vegetables something ask any veteran and they will tell you that translators risked their own lives working for us and because they did that they are permanent targets for insurgents here's what the translator you just saw Sirach has been up to lately my relatives told me that hey Josh be careful the bad people looking for you and please run away I'm afraid of that Bay which donato leave Afghanistan the United States forces to leave Afghanistan it means we are done they're going to catch me they're going to probably cut my head off probably you know you're probably thinking right now well we need to move heaven and earth to get that man and his family and bring them to safety and the fact that we are not is what this story is about because Sirach like a shocking number of interpreters has applied for a visa but is stuck in bureaucratic limbo and the crazy thing is there was absolutely no good reason for that Congress passed bills in 2008 and 2009 providing thousands of special immigrant visas for local nationals who worked with the US military but despite huge demand very few were issued for instance through the Afghanistan bill we could have given out up to 1,500 visas a year guess how many we gave out in 2011 it was three the number of visas for Afghan EES who risked their lives for us should not be so low that relatively stupid toddlers can count up to it relatively intelligent horses one - shouldn't it be more than this three now now to be fair things have improved slightly recently thanks in part to pressure from groups like the list project and I wrap but it is still not moving nearly fast enough help us understand just how difficult it is for Afghans who worked with US forces to get these special visas it's next to impossible I would say it to Kindle it literally winning the lottery yep it should not be like a lottery where the odds are terrible these people risk their lives for us it should be more like a little league award ceremony where everyone's a winner because they're all an important part of the team there are currently thousands of interpreters with visa applications pending and if you're wondering whose focuses the State Department has a surprising answer Jarett Blanc is a deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the State Department he blamed some of the delays on the applicants themselves a lot of those people are actually maybe not quite half of them are control their own timing essentially so they've started the application or perhaps they've gotten through the first step but they need to finish their own paperwork before we can take the next step with them oh that is some first-class victim-blaming you are on the edge of saying well look maybe the Taliban wouldn't be following them around if these translators weren't dressed so have you thought about that but but since he brings up the paperwork let's just take a look at it because applying for a special immigrant visa is a fourteen step process which is a lot bear in mind that even getting off heroin only takes 12 are you ready for this let's do it because first you've got your DS 157 form this contains all your basic information it also needs to come with a verification of employment letter from an HR director as well as a letter of recommendation from a direct supervisor now if you can't find your former supervisor which is entirely possible don't worry you just need a D s 158 supervisor locator form although that will only work if your supervisor was directly employed by the military if they were a contractor which they probably were you're out of luck you will also need to submit a proof of nationality form and a copy of your employee badge because no one has ever lost one of those and once you've filled all of this in you simply submit it for approval and then wait for anything between a few months and a few years and if you're approved then congratulations because you are at the petition stage for this you are going to need your a 364 which is basically the D s 157 form all over again or and remember to bring that to your interview at the US Embassy although in Afghanistan funny story they're not scheduling those at the moment partly because the system so backed up and partly because this whole program is set to expire at the end of the year for no reason whatsoever at this stage as a translator may feel a little like this but don't don't because there is light at the end of the tunnel well well not light so much as the ds2 64 and this little beauty contains such questions as are you coming to the u.s. to practice polygamy to which I'm guessing your answer is to be honest my main plan was to not get killed by the Taliban I hadn't really worked out a plan of attack for my sex life yet because after all this paperwork plus of course a visa interview and medical examination security clearance and paying out of pocket for passports vaccinations and your own plane tickets you get to come to America or as one translator discovered not I'm a proof from the SIV that the passport everything is done after that they just give me this this card you will be not really interviewed you will be received in a several months you'll release it and this is nine months ago so what what's the problem they denied my visa what love but now the ghost of Franz Kafka is thinking don't you dare call this Kafka risk I don't want my name anywhere near this waking up as a cockroach is normal this whole process makes no sense and I understand the need for security screenings but America has done this quicker before after the Vietnam War the u.s. resettled a hundred and forty thousand refugees in just four months we did it perfectly at the end of the Vietnam War and there is a sentence you don't often get to say out loud but what we did was we took everyone to Guam and process them there in safety so why are we just doing that again what else are we gonna do with Guam its quad its it's 200 square miles of palm trees and storage space its Guam and while the US government may have doubts about some of these translators the troops who've served alongside them certainly don't because you remember Sirach well the Marines he served we've created a crowdfunding page to finance his medical exams well you can recommend such as thanks brother for helping us survive and return to our families alive and thanks for saving our ass so many times time to get you stateside and it is both inspiring and horrifying that the life of a man who saved Americans is in the hands of the same process through which we finance Zach Braff's shitty movies let me show you just one more place Muhammad an Afghani translator who started his application in September 2010 and finally made it to America three years and four months later so at least he's here there is that but this was the atmosphere in which he had to do that waiting the people who they're trying to hurt me first they killed me dead and at the next day of their tried to kill my brothers the they took my letter brother which I love him more than everyone they once they talked him and they told me to pay almost $35,000 that's right they kidnapped his three-year-old brother and he spent his entire life savings to get him back and at that point it was already two and a half years into his application process and having gone through all that when Mohammed finally got his visa a clerical error resulted in his name being officially changed to F nu Mohammed which is an acronym for first name unknown meaning that on official documents to all intents and purposes his name is now for knew and for knew is for not a for knocking for name I know we can do this quicker not just because of Guam because there is at least one other documented case of an evacuation Iraq who did get processed faster smoked the Iraqi donkey is in the u.s. smoke the donkey wandered onto a military base in 2008 and was Brooke friend befriended by some US Marines they have brought the donkey to the United States smoke is now an American it was a long process I want to say that we started this probably back in September of 2010 remember who else started his application in September of 2010 Mohammed it took smoke the donkey eight months to get to America it took Mohammed nearly three and a half years see I told you this story was going to end with you getting pissed off at a donkey [Applause] I'm sorry it's not your fault smokey just emblematical about much larger problem you he hawing piece of listen we have to fix this system but before we can even do that we have to extend it in Iraq the visa program expired at the end of last month which I guess is fine it's not like we're gonna need translators again there anytime soon and in Afghanistan they're scheduled to stop issuing visas altogether on December the 31st meaning that any translator like Mohammed will be forced to find a friend and invest in a very good two-piece pantomime donkey costume to have any hope of getting into this country I'm honored to say that we are actually joined by Mohammed's this evening ladies gentlemen please welcome to habits first thank you so much for being here and for everything you've done having fanuc sorry for nothing it's for know what would you prefer Mohammed or for knew which is which is better well now it's it's for knew what for knew I have a few questions for you know we've just seen how crazy the visa process is as a translator I'm interested what is the Pashto word for bureaucratic the Posada data what is the facade adhara or get word a okay nice that's good so at least we've all learned a bit of useful pastel this evening nothing else look I want a couple of things just about your situation because working with the US military you were shot at twice and survived an ID explosion so I already guess my first one was why did you choose to do that job I was working with British forces and during that time I met with one of American contractor he recruited me and it came into me like come work with other the translator we need people to help us and I was not by my own I was i okay how much talk to my family so I went talk to my family I talked to my dad he was glad he was a really excited he's like it's a great opportunity you're gonna be helping your country and you're supporting the US troop that they're here for your country to rebuild your country so the next day I signed a contract and stand up for being a translator to support the US troop or the coalition forces and help my country and let's talk a little about your family now your mom and your siblings I have left Afghanistan is that correct yes what why did they leave because whence they the Taliban they kidnapped my little brother one time they killed my dad in the second time when they kidnapped my little brother so it's too much we didn't want to take the third time risk I have to pay them they left me a note ransom letter it says I have to pay $35,000 I paid him their money and they released my dad and my brother I wish I could that could have happened to my dad to I could have by him too but that didn't happen so now they're hiding and there they're hiding and they're in the they haven't involved in this Hail Mary humanitarian visa application now on that where this bureaucracy gets even crazier is if you had been an Iraqi interpreter your family would have been eligible to come here under category five of the direct access program but Afghanistan does not have a similar program for no reason whatsoever my family got because they got hurt because of me I lost my dad because of me because of my job so the process that they have for us is just a single man that I work for them here this is the reason s you come to the United States and I guess I have one final question is there a word in Pashto to convey deep gratitude for someone service but also profound shame and how they've been treated now really there isn't really an English either I can't thank you enough for being here Mohammed and everything Mohammad ladies and gentlemen you