High-risk extraction / 2021 – ongoing
Operation SkyBox
A small, discreet effort to move allies out of danger and bring Americans home. Some of this file will always stay closed.
- 100+allies relocated to secure areas
- 200+U.S. citizens helped home
- 2021operation began · ongoing
Figures from HARP Rescue’s impact report for Operation SkyBox.
Operational noteTo protect the people involved, details that could endanger lives are withheld from this report: identities, routes, locations and partners.
A / The situation
Left behind after the withdrawal.
Kabul fell to the Taliban on August 15, 2021.1 Over the following weeks the United States and its partners airlifted about 124,000 people out of the country, including about 6,000 American citizens.2
It was not enough for everyone. Senior U.S. officials acknowledged that the majority of Afghans who had helped in the 20-year war effort, and their families, may have been left behind.3 Some Americans were still in the country when the last flight left.2
HARP Rescue launched Operation SkyBox: a small, discreet collaboration with partner NGOs and security personnel to evacuate and relocate U.S. allies at risk from the Taliban, and to bring Americans who had been left behind back home.
B / The call
Requests made in confidence.
Every request came in confidentially. Out of respect for the people and organizations involved, their identities and the specifics of each case stay private — now and later.
HARP keeps that confidentiality as part of the job: the safety of the people involved does not end when they are moved.
C / The plan
Quiet work, by design.
The operation relies on live satellite imagery for situational awareness, secure and reliable transportation, encrypted communications and trained, trusted people on the ground.
Each measure serves one priority: the safety of the people being moved.
D / The outcome
More than 300 people safer.
More than 100 allies have been relocated to secure areas, and more than 200 U.S. citizens have been helped safely home to the United States.
Families have been reunited, and people under threat have been moved somewhere they can live without it. The operation continues.
Sources
HARP Rescue’s actions and figures come from its own impact report for this operation. Background on the event comes from the public sources below.
Some rescues can never be told in full. They can still be funded.
Every rescue requires preparation, experience, and resources. Your contribution helps put those resources in place before the next mission begins.
Help fund the next missionSecure checkout through Zeffy · HARP Rescue is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit · Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law
