lengthy process, 14 steps, multiple agencies involved. we work to try to stream line that. i think there is more work we d like to do going forward to do that. but the bottom line is we did significantly surge our resources to that particularly to the chief admission approval process, quad rupingle them and we went from 10 to 50 to now i believe 61 or 62 working on that stage of things. we doubled the resources we had in kabul. all in an effort to expedite and we did. we went if 100 to 1,000 visas a week. what was not anticipated was 11 days in the afghan government and the afghan military. let me ask you this, there has been numerous press reports about a new or refined process for the state department to lead efforts in coordination with the department of defense to work with outside groups to evacuate american citizens and allies left behind in afghanistan. could you tell us exactly what
committee, senator shaheen and others, by may, we had reduced the average processing time by a year. even amid a covid surge in kabul, we continued to issue visas. 100 per week in march to more than 1000 per week in march when our relocation effort began. that march evacuation was sparked by the collapse of the afghan security forces and government. throughout the year, we were constantly assessing their staying power and considering multiple scenarios. even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict that the government forces in kabul would collapse while u.s. forces remained. they were focused on what would happen after the united states withdrew. from september onward. as general milley has said, nothing i or anyone else saw indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11
31st, and they re still at it. in the midst of this, an isis-k attack killed 13 service members. wounded 30 others. our service members gave their lives so others could continue to live theirs. in the end, we completed one o f the biggest air lifts in history with 124,000 people evacuated to safety and on august 31st in kabul, the military mission in afghanistan officially ended and a new diplomatic mission began. i want to acknowledge the more than two dozen countries that have helped with the relocation effort. some serving as transit hubs. some welcoming afghan evacuees for longer periods of time. and as the 9/11 report suggested, it is essential that we accelerate the appointment process for national security
reverse the hard earned rights of afghan women and minorities and a safe haven for terrorists. many who wish to attack the united states. the biden administration left afghanistan in total disarray and single handedly created a humanitarian crisis with thousands of refugees and internally displaced afghans in need of immediate emergency assistance. secretary blinken you characterize the evacuation as an extraordinary effort. you have touted over 124,000 evacuees. the department s efforts were plagued by lack of basic planning. failure to identify americans and energize the siv process and a failure to recognize the taliban for what it is, a terrorist organization. the numbers are telling. you evacuated 6,000 40 americans and say only a couple hundred remain. your own department told this
dana: joy, tell us about your group s efforts. our group is working with the u.s. government finally starting coordination effort with general milley and we re proud he did that to insure we bring all our afghan allies home as well as american citizens. we re focused on making sure activists, women and journalist and who stood for american ideals don t get left behind. some don t have a contract with the u.s. government. the 20,000 number is greater than what we think. human first is working in collaboration with project dynamo, and others. we quickly became the hail mary button for the ground game and when people were running into issues with paperwork, emergency medical, food, water, transit they called us. so far we ve dispatched over 30,000 calls to safety.