Dozens of Afghan Refugees Sent to U.S. After Pullout Went Missing: Report

A new report found that dozens of Afghan refugees out of nearly 80,000 evacuees who came to the U.S. were not fully vetted when they arrived and can't be located in the U.S.

The Department of Defense's Inspector General report released February 15 revealed that the missing Afghans have "derogatory information," which it identifies as information "that potentially justifies an unfavorable fitness or access determination." This is a case that then requires further investigation.

The report stated that the National Counter-Terrorism Center didn't vet Afghan evacuees using all the Defense Department data before they have arrived.

"This occurred because Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) enrollments were compared against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) data, which did not initially include all biometric data located in the DoD Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) database," the report stated.

Fully vetting Afghan evacuees also happened due to the Defense Department's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) having agreements with "foreign partners" that prevents sharing some ABIS data with U.S. agencies "outside of the DoD."

As of December 13, the NGIC reviewed around 58,455 of the 80,404 Afghan evacuees' records that it received and will take until approximately March to finish reviewing the remaining evacuees.

Still, the NGIC identified 31 Afghans in the U.S. who had "derogatory" information as of September 17, but only three could be located. The 31 Afghan evacuees were identified before government agencies began fully sharing information with each other as of September 30.

"NGIC personnel required access to the CBP electronic enrollment records to conduct the analytic review of Afghan evacuees and, on September 30, 2021, the NGIC entered into an agreement with the DHS to access CBP records to complete the review," the report read.

Additionally as November 2, the NGIC identified 50 Afghan personnel in the U.S. with information in Defense Department records that "indicate potentially significant security concerns."

The Defense Department identifies those with significant security concerns as "individuals whose latent fingerprints have been found on improvised explosive devices and known or suspected terrorists."

No details were revealed about the location or current status of those refugees or whether the number of Afghans with a security concern status changed.

The findings of the report come months after the U.S. withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, ending a nearly two-decade war but also drawing criticism targeted at the Biden administration for the way the evacuation operation was handled.

Over 75,000 Afghan refugees have been admitted to the U.S., but the State Department has been struggling with their resettlement process and turned to the private sector for help.

Newsweek contacted the Department of Defense for comments.