'Unacceptably high' number of Afghans flee military training in U.S.: report

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan soldiers and police brought to the United States for training go “absent without leave” at far higher rates than those of any other country, potentially imperilling efforts to assist Afghan security forces, a U.S. watchdog said on Friday.

Of the 320 foreign military trainees who left while on courses in the United States from 2005 to 2017, 152 - or more than 47 percent - were Afghans, said a report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

The State Department called that number “unacceptably high”. SIGAR found that the rate of asylum seekers among Afghan military trainees rose in recent years as violence in the Islamist Taliban insurgency spread across Afghanistan and security forces sustained heavy casualties.

“The tendency of Afghan trainees in the United States to go AWOL may hinder the operational readiness of their home units, negatively impact the morale of fellow trainees and home units, and pose security risks to the United States,” it concluded. - Read More

'Unacceptably high' number of Afghans flee military training in U.S.: report

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