ISLAMABAD — Afghans who fled after the Taliban seized energy appealed Wednesday to U.S. President Donald Trump to exempt them from an order suspending the relocation of refugees to the US, some saying they risked their lives to help U.S. troops.
An estimated 15,000 Afghans are ready in Pakistan to be authorized for resettlement within the U.S. through an American authorities program. It was set as much as assist Afghans in danger below the Taliban due to their work with the U.S. authorities, media, assist companies and rights teams, after U.S. troops pulled out of Afghanistan in 2021, when the Taliban took energy.
However in his first days in workplace, Trump’s administration introduced the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program can be suspended from Jan. 27 for no less than three months. Throughout that interval, the White Home mentioned the secretary of homeland safety in session with the secretary of state will submit a report back to the president on whether or not the resumption of this system is within the U.S. curiosity.
Refugees who had been authorized to journey to the US earlier than Jan. 27 have had their journey plans canceled by the Trump administration. Amongst these affected are the greater than 1,600 Afghans cleared to resettle within the U.S. That quantity contains those that labored alongside American troopers in the course of the battle in addition to members of the family of active-duty U.S. army personnel.
There was no quick remark from Pakistan, the place authorities have urged the worldwide group to determine the destiny of 1.45 million Afghan refugees, saying they can not keep indefinitely.
“Many of us risked our lives to support the U.S. mission as interpreters, contractors, human rights defenders, and allies,” an advocacy group referred to as Afghan USRAP Refugees — named after the U.S. refugee program — mentioned in an open letter to Trump, members of Congress and human rights defenders.
“The Taliban regard us as traitors, and returning to Afghanistan would expose us to arrest, torture, or death,” the group mentioned. “In Pakistan, the situation is increasingly untenable. Arbitrary arrests, deportations, and insecurity compound our distress.”
Ladies fled overseas after the Taliban closed colleges
“Prior to restrictions on women’s education in Afghanistan, I was a university student,” she mentioned. “Given the risks I face as a women’s rights advocate, I was hoping for a swift resettlement to the United States. This would not only allow me to continue my higher education but also offer a safer and brighter future.”
She mentioned she witnessed a number of Afghans arrested by Pakistani police, which left her in concern, “confined to my room like a prisoner.”
Mahnoosh Monir mentioned she was a medical pupil in Afghanistan when her training was “cruelly suspended by the Taliban.” Earlier than fleeing to Pakistan, she labored as a instructor at a language heart but it surely additionally was shut by the Taliban.
“Afghanistan is no longer a place for any girl or woman to survive,” she mentioned, including she was disenchanted by Trump’s transfer.
“I didn’t expect this suspension to happen. A long span of waiting makes us think of very disappointing probabilities like being sent back to Afghanistan or waiting for a long time in Pakistan as a refugee at risk, which are like nightmares to all case holders,” she mentioned.
The Taliban have disadvantaged 1.4 million Afghan women of education via bans, in line with the United Nations. Afghanistan is the one nation on this planet that bans feminine secondary and better training.
Each Bibi and Monir utilized for relocation and are nonetheless ready. Over time, the visa course of for Afghans who display they’re liable to persecution has develop into protracted.
U.S. program’s suspension leaves exiles in a limbo
One other Afghan lady, Farzana Umeed, and a person, Sarfraz Ahmed, mentioned in an interview on the outskirts of Islamabad they had been traumatized by the suspension of this system.
These in exile in Pakistan embody Afghan journalists who had been compelled to flee Taliban rule to save lots of their lives, and now face “extreme anxiety under the recurring threat of arbitrary arrest, police harassment and deportation to Afghanistan,” Reporters With out Borders mentioned Wednesday.
The media watchdog urged Pakistan to make sure the safety of those journalists, who say their visa is prolonged just for a month for a $100 price.
In keeping with the Afghan USRAP Refugees group, flights to the U.S. for a lot of Afghans had been scheduled for January, February and March after they had been interviewed by the Worldwide Group for Migration and U.S. Embassy officers.
“We seek the reversal of the ban on the refugee program on humanitarian grounds,” mentioned Ahmad Shah, a member of the group, who hoped to go away Pakistan for the US in March after present process all interviews and medical assessments.
Along with Pakistan, greater than 3,200 Afghans are staying in Albania. A NATO member, Albania first agreed to accommodate Afghans for one 12 months earlier than they moved for ultimate settlement in the US, then pledged to maintain them longer if their visas had been delayed.
