John Oliver on How America Is Turning Its Back on Middle Eastern Translators Who Risked Their Lives

In a moving (but of course, still funny) episode of “Last Week Tonight,” John Oliver sheds light on the plight of Iraqi and Afghani translators who worked for U.S. forces and contractors, a position that jeopardized the well-being of their families as well as themselves. Now that many of these brave Middle Easterners are trying to apply for visas to leave their home, a place that is too dangerous for them to inhabit, our government has placed obstacle upon obstacle before them without any regard to the risk they continually run thanks to their service. Oliver, once again flirting with investigative journalism, delves into the painstaking process of applying for a visa as well as interviews one such translator whose immigration papers took years to be approved, a time during which the Taliban killed his father and kidnapped his 3-year-old brother. Oh, and to top it off, they changed his first name on all official U.S. documents to FNU, which stands for First Name Unknown. As the comedian puts it, “FNU is fnot a fnucking fname.”

Watch the segment below, but be warned: The clip may inspire justifiable tears and anger aimed at the U.S. government and a donkey named Smoke.

—Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata