Islamabad:
After working for years alongside the United States to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, Zahra says that it was only to be evacuated to America when President Donald Trump suspended admissions to refugees.
She sold her personal effects while waiting for a flight outside Pakistan, where she was involved in a three -year process that asked for a refugee program that Trump froze in one of his first acts in office.
“We have stood with them in the past 20 years, all I want is that they defend the promise they have made,” said the former worker of the Ministry of Defense of the Afghanistan at AFP of Islamabad.
“The only wish we have is to be safe and live where we can have peace and an ordinary human life,” she said, sobbing on the phone and speaking under a pseudonym to protect her identity.
The 2021 withdrawal of the troops led by the United States of Kabul ended two decades of war, but began a new exodus, while the Afghans claimed to escape the Taliban government and fears of reprisals to work with Washington.
Trump’s executive decree to interrupt admission for at least 90 days from January 27, blocked approximately 10,000 Afghans approved for entry after the start of new lives in the United States, according to #AFGHANEVAC for non-profit.
Tens of thousands of additional requests have also been frozen, said the American organization.
“All kinds of people who defended the idea of America, now they are in danger,” the chief of #Afghanevac, Shawn Vandiver told AFP.
“We have to get them out.”
Trump’s order said that “the United States does not have the capacity to absorb a large number of migrants, and in particular refugees”, and to stop the relocation scheme until it “Alignments with the interests of the United States”.
But the activists argue that the country owes a debt to the Afghans left in the radish by their withdrawal – to which Trump was committed to his first mandate, but was supervised by his successor President Joe Biden.
A special visa program for Afghans employed by or on behalf of the United States remains active.
But the widest refugee program was invoked by candidates, including former Afghan soldiers and government employees supported by the United States, as well as family members.
With the Kabul’s Embassy of America, many went to neighboring Pakistan to enter the paperwork, conduct interviews and undergo a verification.
“I had a lot of hope for my sisters, which they should graduate from school and continue their studies,” said one of the five daughters of the family of a former government employee for the resettlement of Pakistan .
“All my hopes are broken,” said the 23 -year -old player. “I have nightmares and when I wake up in the morning, I feel like I can’t fall asleep. I am very anxious.”
The Taliban government has announced an amnesty and encouraged those who fled to return to rebuild the country, presenting it as a paradise for Islamic values.
Last summer, the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs complained up to 25,000 Afghans in the country while waiting to move to the United States.
Islamabad announced a scanning campaign in 2023 to expel undocumented Afghans, ordering them to leave or face an arrest when relations were dried with the Taliban government.
At least 800,000 Afghans have left since October 2023, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told journalists this week that Trump administration had not yet communicated any new refugee policy in Pakistan.
Islamabad follows “the same former plan” where Washington is committed to welcoming refugees this year, said Shafqat Ali Khan.
The Afghans pending new lives abroad feel taken between a canceled future and the haunting prospect of returning to their homeland. AFP
