For Immediate Release
July 29, 2026
Press Contact: Communications & Outreach Director Nikki Gamer | gamer@afsa.org
Washington, D.C. – Since February, hundreds of American diplomats and their families have been evacuated from embassies and consulates across the Middle East for their safety, as Iran’s retaliatory strikes and a conflict with the U.S. have kept the region unstable with no end in sight. Under the department’s own rules, that kind of evacuation—called “Ordered Departure”— should last no more than 180 days. That deadline arrives in August.
AFSA’s top priority is straightforward: employees who want out of their current assignment, in favor of a posting that gives their family more certainty should be reassigned without further delay or red tape. They should be able to move their household belongings to the next post as soon as practical.
Five months is long enough to live with this kind of uncertainty. Employees and their families need to know, in plain terms and on a real timeline, what happens to their assignments, their benefits, and their children's schooling—before a decision is made, not after. As some posts move toward a newer “Restricted Operations” status, families should not see their benefits reduced, and no family should be held financially responsible for school costs if they can’t return to their previous posts.
None of this diminishes the employees who have stayed at dangerous posts through this crisis, often apart from their own families, keeping services to American citizens running and U.S. policy in the region moving forward. They’ve done their part without complaint. Surely the department can meet that with the same urgency it’s asking of its own employees.
The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) is the professional association and labor union of the men and women of the United States Foreign Service.