KABUL, Afghanistan—Mirwais Shinwari had been working for the U.S. Army as an interpreter for four years, during some of the war’s fiercest fighting in southern Afghanistan, when he was arrested by U.S. soldiers in mid-2012 and told he was suspected of links to the Taliban. After his release months later, with no charges, the Taliban accused him of spying for the United States.
Ever since, he has been caught in limbo, he said—unable to return to his home in eastern Nangarhar province because of insurgent death threats and blacklisted by the U.S. government, which just announced that thousands of former interpreters like him will be evacuated to a third country to complete their visa applications.
