HAmida organized rural women’s health clinics and a network of midwives. Mohammad has kept prisoners for the US military. Hekmatullah’s brother worked on American government projects. Suhrab’s father was a high -level judge who chaired sensitive affairs. Kheyal trained workers in the field for an international aid organization. All fled Afghanistan with their families for Pakistan, some time after the disorderly withdrawal of the US military in 2021. They progressed in the long process to penetrate legally in the United States as a refugee. Several of them had plane tickets for America.
Now they are stuck.
One of the first things that President Donald Trump did when he came to power was to suspend the refugee admission program for 90 days. This indeed meant that all the work has ceased to deal with the documents of those fleeing from the United States due to the persecution. A refugee agency told Time that more than 500 flights for more than 1,000 already approved refugees in the region had been canceled.
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Shortly after the signing of the executive decree, the Government of Pakistan, which says that it is home to some 1.5 million refugees and asylum seekers from Afghanistan (some of which arrived during the Soviet occupation ), announced that Afghan residents who could not find a country to take them should leave Rawalpindi and Islamabad – cities where most of them live because they have access to the Internet and government offices and Help – March 31. After that time, they will be repatriated.
According to Shawn Vandiver, founder of # Afghanevac, a coalition of veterans and other groups working in the region, around 15,000 Afghan refugees based in Pakistan have been approved as ready to travel. They are now a terrifying dead end. They cannot move forward, and they cannot go back. Their cases will not progress before at least April 25, and perhaps never. They will be even more imported in Pakistan beyond March 31 and nothing but poverty and dangers await them in Afghanistan, where recent repatriated are seen with deep suspicion or worse. A refugee says that he was warned of “unknown armed men” killing repatriated. “The only men armed in Afghanistan are Taliban,” he adds.
Time spoke to several people blocked by the break and agreed to use only one of their names or their relatives to prevent reprisals from the Afghan authorities or the discovery by the Pakistani authorities.
Hamida was to fly to Doha then in Pennsylvania on February 3, with her husband and young child. On January 25, she received an email from her contacts to the international organization for migration informing her that she would not travel. She had left Afghanistan on the plea of her stepfather, who said he was informed by local authorities that her previous work with maternal health NGOs would mean that her presence in their complex could endanger all The family.
She is terrified to come back. Once they have understood who she is, she says: “I am 100% sure that I will not be alive for more than a week there.” She currently lives in a house in a room. The 30 -month visa process, during which its refugee status claim was verified and approved, has exhausted their savings. To avoid being picked up by the Pakistani police, they lock the door of their apartment with a room and remain hidden for most of the day. Her husband no longer goes to the laborious jobs he was doing. Their child rarely comes out. They shop for grocery store at night. Now, the former project manager with 60 -year -old staff supports his family who does sewing work at home. “We will try to survive here if we can,” she said. “I don’t know what we will do, but I’m sure we will not go to Afghanistan.”
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In many ways, Hekmatullah’s brother is lucky than Hamida. Hekmatullah arrived in the United States a year ago on a special immigrant visa (SIV), which is given to those who served alongside the American army. (This program does not work either.) He can support his brother financially. But in other respects, he is in the same boat. Hekmatullah was invited to expect his brother to arrive at Missouri on February 5, but on January 25, he received an email from his local refugee resettlement agency saying that the trip had been canceled.
His brother, who worked for several American NGOs during the conflict is now in motion, staying in different rentals and friends of friends every night to avoid being captured and returned to Afghanistan. “The Pakistani government is looking for Afghan refugees from around the world in Pakistan to stop and expel them to their country,” said Hekmatullah. “But in Afghanistan, you are not expelled. They will stop you.” (The Pakistani Embassy did not answer the questions sent by e-mail.)
Kheyal’s family filled the documents and their travel documents were requested in December. He, his wife and children expected their flight details every day. “Until January 20, we really hoped every day,” he said. They survive the savings of his previous Job, which he left in part because he expected to move recently in the United States, the Pakistani government began to demand monthly extensions rather than six months on visas. Everyone, with what could be called the euphemist of “manipulation costs”, costs $ 200. The police frequently visit their building.
It is 3 am when he is when he speaks over time, but Kheyal says that no one in his house sleeps. “Once we heard that the process was suspended, so we can’t sleep, we can’t eat,” he said. “My children are depressed. They have access to social media. They hear everything. I can’t hide anything from them.” He hopes to wait for the break in Pakistan.
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Suhrab’s family cannot wait. His father was a judge who was to hide at the home of relatives when the Taliban took power, while people he condemned came to take revenge. The judge and his family arrived in Pakistan in January 2022. Their resettlement was managed by Welcome Corps, a program of the Biden era in which a group of American citizens – in this case, a church in the east of Tennessee – can sponsor a refugee. This program is suspended.
From the West security, Suhrab sometimes works with double team to support them. His brother, who also left the region, also sends money. The family and the religious group of Tennessee are looking for another country to take them, although very few nations give visas to Afghan passport holders. “I’m very afraid,” said Suhrab, sitting in his car during a lunch break at work. “And if they catch them and they force them to get out of Pakistan? I don’t know what will happen to them.”
The religious group is also surprised. “It surprises me that our American government does this, especially against refugees,” said Melva McGinnis, who coordinated the Bienvenue de Church program, which has already sponsored another Afghan family. “The previous government – it was like anyone and their brother can come, legal or illegal. It is not fair that people trying to come to the United States should not be allowed to come. I think that they should. ”
The move of President Trump was not unexpected, however. He considerably reduced the number of refugees authorized in the country the last time he was in office, even before the arrival of Restrictions linked to COVID-19. Generally, surveys show a large strip of Americans on both sides of the political spectrum support America by accepting refugees, and even higher numbers support the acceptance of refugees from Afghanistan which were allied with the American cause. Under President Biden, the number of refugees admitted per year increased from a historic hollow of 11,400 in 2021 to a summit of 30 years over 100,000 in 2024 – although the total number during his mandate is overshadowed by The number of refugees admitted by both by both by the two President Carter (375,000) and President Reagan (660,000 in two terms).
Perhaps more surprising the abandonment of Afghan military staff who fought alongside American forces. Mohammad helped keep prisoners in an American air base. He followed the process of requesting to come to America twice. After waiting 18 months for his SIV, he also asked for a refugee visa, but the treatment was not finished before the three -month break. He, his wife, his two brothers and his sister-in-law live in a cabin in a slum. “My situation is not good,” he said. “We have no money for food or medication.” He and his family eat once a day, with the help of the sympathetic residents.
Vandiver, of #Afghanevac, Says His bipartisan Group is reaching out to republicans in congress to see a carve-out can be made for already-Approved Stranded in Pakistan or Afghanistan, Which He estimates at About 65,000 People, Including 50,000 Afghanistan. “We have a large transversal part of America which is represented in our ecosystem,” he said. “Eighty percent of the American audience supports this effort. It is not something unpopular.”
Eric Lebo, a former navy reservist, served with Mohammed at the air base. “We could not do our job if it was not for him and his soldiers,” said Lebo, now a truck driver in California. “There are all kinds of refugee and immigration stuff,” he adds. “But I mean, people like Mohammed are soldiers who served alongside American forces in Afghanistan. Their lives are in danger.”
Mohammed’s brother and parents still live in Afghanistan. Recently, he said – and sends SMS a horrible photo – his brother was shot in the face. Mohammed thinks that the attackers confused his brother for him.
