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Evacuees board a US military aircraft in Kabul, Afghanistan. (UPI/Yonhap News)

The US is exploring the idea of using military bases in countries around the world, including South Korea, to temporarily house tens of thousands of refugees from Afghanistan, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

Officials were quoted as saying that, as other countries grow more concerned about the huge number of Afghan refugees, the US is looking at facilities under its control both inside and outside the US. They said that facilities under consideration outside the US include military bases in South Korea, Japan, Germany, Kosovo, Bahrain and Italy.

But Song Young-gil, head of South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party, cast doubt on that possibility on Sunday.

“The Wall Street Journal reported that US military bases in South Korea might be considered [as camps to house Afghan refugees], but that’s never been discussed and it’s unclear whether that would be appropriate. Considering the question of transportation, you’d think the refugees would need to go to neighboring countries,” Song said.

At the same time, Song said Afghans who had helped the South Korean government need to be brought over.

“There are apparently 400 Afghans who helped build hospitals and schools in Afghanistan as part of projects led by our government. We need to bring those people safely to Korea, and we’re currently making a diplomatic effort to do so,” he said.

US military bases that the Pentagon has already said will take in Afghan refugees include Fort Lee, Virginia; Fort Bliss, Texas; Fort McCoy, Wisconsin; and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. The US government is also exploring the potential use of other bases in Virginia, Indiana, California, and Arkansas.

US President Joe Biden said in an interview with ABC on Wednesday that the US’ goal was to evacuate not only American citizens but also Afghans who had worked with the US and their families, a group numbering from 50,000 to 65,000 people. Between 10,000 and 15,000 Americans are still in Afghanistan.

Since Afghanistan fell into the hands of the Taliban, the Islamist militant group, the US government has been focusing its efforts on evacuating American citizens and Afghans who worked with the US military.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the US, as it seeks to speed up the evacuation, has activated the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, which dates back to 1952.

The US is looking into chartering around 20 civilian aircraft from as many as five different airlines. These civilian aircraft would not fly directly to Kabul but would instead ferry Afghan refugees who have already been evacuated to US military bases near Afghanistan in countries such as Qatar, Bahrain, and the UAE.

But it’s uncertain whether the US will be able to finish evacuating civilians by Aug. 31, as Biden has promised. Over the past 24 hours, the Pentagon evacuated 3,800 people on 38 flights by C-17 military transport aircraft and charter jets. That was far below the original goal of evacuating 5,000-9,000 people a day.

Civilians are also coming under increasing risk of attack. In a security alert on Saturday, the US embassy to Afghanistan advised “US citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a US government representative to do so.” The embassy cited “potential security threats outside the gates at the Kabul airport.”

The American press cited officials as saying that the embassy was talking about the possibility of Americans being attacked by the Islamic State, the Islamist terrorist group.

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

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