Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office joins campaign to relocate Afghan prosecutors and families

The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office has joined a national effort to help Afghan prosecutors and their families still living in Afghanistan to move to other countries.

The campaign was born after the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys reported more than 3,800 prosecutors and their staff members remained in Afghanistan and requested they be moved. Officials said there have been 26 reports of prosecutors and staffers being tortured or killed by the Taliban.

“There are hundreds of Afghan prosecutors and judges who put their duty ahead of their safety,” said Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker in a news release. “Now we have a moral duty to act to protect them.”

Peters Baker said her office would offer employment to relocated Afghan prosecutors.

The campaign hopes to raise $15 million to relocate 1,500 Afghan prosecutors and their families. Once the effort reaches its goal, it will expand to help every Afghan prosecutor seeking relocation.

Before the fall of Kabul in August 2021, officials said around 6,000 Afghan staff members of the Afghanistan Attorney General’s Office prosecuted cases against members of the Taliban for murder, terrorism, assault, kidnapping, abduction, violence against women and drug crimes.

Many of them were members of the Afghanistan Prosecutors Association who had been trained by the United States and other allied nations. The prosecutor’s office said many are now in hiding, unemployed and facing starvation.

Afghan prosecutors aren’t eligible for special immigrant visas to the United States, and other visa programs can take years to process. The prosecutor’s office said funding non-profit organizations that are able to relocate the prosecutors and their families would be the fastest way to take action.

Some of the involved organizations include the Jewish Humanitarian Response, International Association of Prosecutors and No One Left Behind.