US flags 44 Afghan evacuees as potential security threats: Reports

The US suspects that more than four dozen Afghan evacuees could pose a national security threat, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) records.

The department has been vetting the more than 60,000 evacuees who have arrived in the US over the two past weeks, and has flagged 44 of them due to their suspicious backgrounds, the report said.

The records show that 13 of those people remain in custody awaiting additional screening procedures, including interviews with the FBI and other counterterrorism experts. Another 15 of the evacuees have been sent back to transit sites in Europe and the Middle East because of security concerns.

Another 16 individuals have not yet been cleared to travel to the US and remain at special transit sites overseas, the report said. (ANI/Sputnik)

( With inputs from ANI )

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