ISLAMABAD:
After working for years with the United States to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, Zahra says she was just days away from being evacuated to America when President Donald Trump suspended refugee admissions.
She sold her belongings as she waited for a flight out of Pakistan, where she has been involved in a three-year process to apply for a refugee program, Trump froze in one of his first actions back in office.
“We have stood with them for the past 20 years, all I want is for them to stand up for the promise they made,” the 27-year-old former Afghan defense minister told AFP from Islamabad.
“The only desire we have is to be safe and live where we can have peace and a normal human life,” she said, sobbing into the phone and speaking under a pseudonym to protect her identity.
The withdrawal of US-led troops from Kabul in 2021 ended two decades of war but began a new exodus as Afghans clamored to escape the Taliban government’s borders and fear reprisals for working with Washington.
Trump’s executive order to pause hospitalizations for at least 90 days starting Jan. 27 has blocked about 10,000 Afghans cleared for entry from starting new lives in the U.S., according to the non-profit organization #AfghanEvac.
Tens of thousands more pending applications have also been frozen, the US-based organization said.
“All kinds of people who stood up for the idea of America, now they’re in danger,” #AfghanEvac chief Shawn VanDiver told AFP.
“We owe it to them to get them out.”
Trump’s order said that “the United States lacks the capacity to absorb large numbers of migrants, and particularly refugees,” and halted the removal scheme until it is “aligned with the interests of the United States.”
But campaigners claim the country owes a debt to Afghans left in the lurch by their withdrawal – which Trump committed to in his first term but was overseen by his successor, President Joe Biden.
A special visa program for Afghans who were employed by or on behalf of the United States remains active.
But the more far-reaching refugee scheme was claimed by applicants including former Afghan soldiers and US-backed government employees, as well as their family members.
With the US embassy in Kabul closed, many traveled to neighboring Pakistan to enter paperwork, conduct interviews and go through checks.
“I had high hopes for my sisters, that they would graduate from school and get an education,” said one of five daughters of a former government employee’s family seeking resettlement from Pakistan.
“All my hopes are dashed,” said the 23-year-old. “I have nightmares and when I wake up in the morning I feel like I can’t go back to sleep. I’m very anxious.”
The Taliban government has announced an amnesty and called on those who fled to return to rebuild the country and present it as a haven for Islamic values.
Last summer, Pakistan’s foreign ministry complained that as many as 25,000 Afghans were in the country waiting to be relocated to the United States.
Islamabad announced a sweeping campaign in 2023 to expel undocumented Afghans, ordering them to leave or face arrest as relations with the Taliban government worsened.
At least 800,000 Afghans have left since October 2023, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.
A State Department spokesman told reporters this week that the Trump administration had not yet communicated any new refugee policy to Pakistan.
Islamabad is following “the same old plan” where Washington has committed to accepting refugees this year, Shafqat Ali Khan said.
Afghans waiting for a new life abroad feel caught between a canceled future and the grim prospect of returning to their homeland. AFP
