The Defense Department has reported that as of February, nine of the more than 150 Afghan trainees in the United States who went absent without leave, or AWOL, across the nation remain unaccounted for.
Afghan trainees in the United States go AWOL at a rate of 6 percent. Conversely, trainees from other countries go AWOL at a rate of only 0.07 percent, according to the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction.
The numbers were given to Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
In a press release, McCaskill’s office said 11 of those Afghan trainees who went AWOL were training at Fort Leonard Wood, in her home state of Missouri.
“The fact that there were ever Afghan military personnel unaccounted for in Missouri is deeply concerning, and I’m glad to get answers from the Defense Department showing that they’ve all been accounted for — however, it’s clear that there’s more the government can do to prevent this moving forward,†McCaskill said in a statement.
The trend of Afghan military personnel ditching their duties has been fairly common, according to a report published in October by the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, or SIGAR.
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