Refugees who had been approved to travel to the United States before the Jan. 27 deadline suspending the U.S. refugee resettlement program have had their travel plans canceled by the Trump administration.
Thousands of refugees are now blocked in various locations around the world.
The suspension was the subject of a decree signed by the president Donald Trump Monday. That left open the possibility that people who had gone through a lengthy process to be approved as refugees and allowed to come to the United States, and whose flights were booked before that deadline, could still enter under surveillance.
But in an email seen Wednesday by The Associated Press, the U.S. agency overseeing the processing and arrival of refugees told staff and stakeholders that “the arrival of refugees into the United States has been suspended until new order”.
Among those affected are more than 1,600 Afghans allowed to resettle in the United States under the program established by the Biden administration after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. This number includes those who worked alongside American soldiers during the war as well as family members of active duty American military personnel.
Afghans who fled after the Taliban seized power called on Trump on Wednesday to exempt them from the order, with some saying they were risking their lives to support US troops.
An estimated 15,000 Afghans are waiting in Pakistan for clearance to resettle in the United States through a U.S. government program. It was created to help Afghans in danger under the Taliban due to their work with the US government, media, humanitarian agencies and rights groups, following the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021, when the Taliban took power.
There was no immediate comment from Pakistan, where authorities urged the international community to decide the fate of Afghanistan’s 1.45 million refugees, saying they cannot stay indefinitely.
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“Many of us have risked our lives to support the U.S. mission as interpreters, contractors, human rights advocates and allies,” said an advocacy group called Afghan USRAP Refugees – named after the U.S. program for refugees – said in an open letter to Trump, members of Congress and human rights activists.
“The Taliban consider us traitors and returning to Afghanistan would expose us to arrest, torture or death,” the group said. “In Pakistan, the situation is increasingly untenable. Arbitrary arrests, deportations and insecurity aggravate our distress.
Trump’s order had given the agency until Jan. 27 before it began halting all treatment and travel for at least three months. Now, however, it appears that the timing of the order has been brought forward. It was not immediately clear what prompted the change.
Refugees are distinguished from people who arrive directly at the U.S.-Mexico border with the goal of eventually seeking asylum in the United States. Refugees must live outside the United States to be considered for resettlement and are typically referred to the State Department by the United Nations.
They undergo extensive screening before coming to the United States. Once in the United States, they are usually matched with a resettlement agency that helps them adjust to life in America. This includes help finding a job and enrolling their children in school.
Some Afghans are traumatized by the suspension
An Afghan woman, Farzana Umeed, and a man, Sarfraz Ahmed, said in an interview on the outskirts of Islamabad that they were traumatized by the program’s suspension.
“I practically cried last night when we heard this news,” Umeed said. She said that it was difficult for her to live in Pakistan and she could not travel to America either. “Returning to my country of origin also means taking a huge risk. What should I do,” she asked, and urged Trump to reverse his decision.
Among the journalists in exile in Pakistan are Afghan journalists who had to flee the Taliban to save their lives and who now face “extreme anxiety under the recurring threat of arbitrary arrests, police harassment and expulsion to Afghanistan,” Reporters Without Borders said on Wednesday.
The media watchdog has urged Pakistan to provide protection to journalists, who say their visas are only extended for a month for a fee of $100.
According to the Afghan group USRAP Refugees, many Afghans had planned flights to the United States for January, February and March after being questioned by the International Organization for Migration and U.S. embassy officials.
“We are calling for the ban on the refugee program to be reversed on humanitarian grounds,” said group member Ahmad Shah, who hoped to leave Pakistan for the United States in March after undergoing all interviews and medical tests .
In addition to Pakistan, more than 3,200 Afghans are staying in Albania. A NATO member, Albania first agreed to house fleeing Afghans for a year before they settled permanently in the United States, then pledged to keep them longer if their visa was delayed.
—with files from Munir Ahmed of the Associated Press
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