About two dozen former US-trained Afghan Air Force pilots are still trapped in Afghanistan and are calling on the US government to evacuate them from the country, where they fear they will be executed if discovered by the Taliban.

The pilots mostly belong to two helicopter squadrons and have been in hiding since the Taliban captured Kabul in August. According to several of the pilots who spoke to ABC News, they are living on the run in safe houses and struggling to feed themselves while frantically trying to find a way out of Afghanistan as the Taliban continue to search for them.

The airmen are among thousands of former Afghan soldiers who were left behind in the August mass evacuations and who, so far, have no way out.

Former and current US military officers pushing for pilots to be evacuated say they are frustrated because they believe the current US government refugee policy treats them as a low priority despite the obvious danger to them.

“They are not being given any priority at the moment,” said David Hicks, CEO of Sacred Promise, an NGO created by current and former US military officers who are trying to help the Afghan military to leave.

“They are trained in the United States, they know English, have worked with the United States and have fought directly against the Taliban,” Hicks, a former brigadier general, told ABC News. “You’d think individuals of this caliber would get some level of priority in the whole process. And here they are, sitting right at the back of the line right now.”

Pentagon spokesman Major Robert Lodewick told ABC News he knows former Afghan Air Force members remain in Afghanistan and said “we are working on all available options. to facilitate their departure “.

He said the State Department has helped more than 800 members of the Afghan Air Force and Special Missions Wing to begin the relocation process since Aug.31.

Since taking power, the Taliban have rounded up former Afghan soldiers whom they consider to be a threat or useful to them and, in some cases, have imprisoned or killed them. Human Rights Watch has found that Taliban forces have summarily executed or reported missing more than 100 former police and intelligence operatives in four provinces since August. The total of these murders is probably higher.

The pilots say their squadrons killed hundreds of Taliban fighters during the war, including senior commanders, meaning they will almost certainly face severe retaliation.

“Maybe they’ll cut the skin off our bodies,” one of the pilots told ABC News over the phone. ABC News does not identify him or other pilots for their safety.

The pilot, a former captain, flew helicopters as part of two squadrons based in Kabul and Kandahar. The squadron pilots were highly trained, many of them receiving training overseas, including in the United States, and they worked closely with American military advisers.

They were unable to board US evacuation flights from Kabul airport amid the city’s chaotic fall in August. Since then, the Taliban have closed the borders of Afghanistan. Commercial flights from Kabul have stopped and chartered evacuation flights have slowed.

Now scattered across Afghanistan, some with their families, the pilots say they are largely unable to get out for fear of falling into the hands of the Taliban. Unable to work, their money is running out and they find it increasingly difficult to feed their families amid a humanitarian disaster in the country, several of the pilots said.

“They left us in a very bad situation. Because even we don’t have the money to buy food for our children,” said another pilot. He has four children, aged 2 to 9, and one of them suffers from a serious blood disease.

“We fought for years for the American goals, but in the end they left us alone in poverty,” he said.

More than 500 members of the Afghan Air Force were able to flee Afghanistan in August by flying their planes to neighboring Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. After spending weeks in detention, the United States managed to airlift them to Dubai, where they will be processed for resettlement in the United States.

But pilots trapped in Afghanistan said they were told they were unlikely to be released in the short term.

One or two charter flights facilitated by the US government or organized by private charities continue to leave Afghanistan most weeks, but they mainly carry civilians. The number of flights has declined significantly since August and the number of flights approved for seats has slowed. Only around 3,000 Afghans have been evacuated since the end of September.

U.S. Army officers lobbying to assist pilots said they believed that while difficult, it should be possible to get pilots on evacuation flights if they were given the right priority.

Hicks, of Sacred Promise, said he believes many former Afghan servicemen are currently given lower priority than civilians, despite heavy refugee claims.

The State Department has prioritized the evacuation of Special Immigrant Visa holders, or SIVs, who are Afghans who worked directly for the US mission. In early August, before the collapse of the Afghan government, the Biden administration created another type of refugee status, called Priority 2, or P2, for Afghans deemed at risk but who had not worked directly for the U.S. government. . It was aimed at women’s rights activists, journalists and former Afghan soldiers, but applicants must first leave the country – too big a hurdle for many.

Hicks said the system has created a situation in which Afghan military personnel, although often in more danger than some SIV evacuees, are still stuck behind, with no prospect of rapid rescue.

“I don’t understand how much someone – without offending anyone – but how someone could be a janitor working at the United States Embassy has a higher priority than an Army pilot. Afghan air or special mission squadron that fought the Taliban, ”Hicks said.

The Sacred Promise staff includes current military officers who have worked for years as mentors with pilots in Afghanistan and who are able to verify their identity. Hicks said the NGO had already screened 2,000 former Afghan servicemen, who he said could immediately begin receiving asylum if they were evacuated.

Some senators including Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Senator Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) and Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) have called on the Biden administration to step up its efforts to reach- risk the Afghans saying he is not doing enough.

Hicks and the Pilots acknowledged that the US government faces a gigantic challenge in getting people out. But he said he thought that since his organization is able to help control pilots – and given the urgent danger to them – it makes sense to go faster on them.

“This is the thing that frustrates us the most, and we are trying to get the discussion about why this prioritization cannot be changed or adjusted in this situation,” he said.

The pilots still in Afghanistan fear that time may be running out for an evacuation. They said they were particularly alarmed as they now believe the Taliban have found a database containing their personal information and biometric data, including fingerprints.

Stuck at home, one of the pilots only has to worry. He finds himself watching videos on social media of executions of former Afghan soldiers.

“As we give them more time, they have a better chance or opportunity to find us,” he said. “If I stay in Afghanistan, they will definitely arrest me one day.