Pakistan sets deadline for Afghan refugees after Trump's US blockade

Pakistan sets deadline for Afghan refugees after Trump's US blockade

Islamabad, Pakistan - Shakoofa Khalili Wart was on the return of her husband, who was supposed to get bread from the market when she heard the shouting of her eight -year -old daughter from the balcony. The girl had seen the police closer to her father on the street in front of her safe house in Islamabad, and ran directly towards her.

family on the run off the Taliban regime

"(she) screamed and reached for the hand of the policeman and pleaded him to let her father go," Khalili told CNN as she told how her worst fears became reality. The family had fled from Afghanistan in 2022 to escape the Taliban regime-militant fighters who filled the power vacuum that had arisen after the withdrawal of the United States and its allies after a 20-year war.

fear of deportation

Now the family is afraid of being deported to Afghanistan after US President Donald Trump has ordered the suspension of the US refugee recording program (USRAP). This effectively closed the doors for refugees worldwide who hoped for a path to relocation to the United States. Shortly after signing the executive order, the Prime Minister of Pakistan designed a three -stage return plan for "Afghan citizens who are to be relocated to a third country".

The document that is available stipulates that foreign missions coordinate the relocation of Afghan citizens from the capital Islamabad and the neighboring garrison town of Rawalpindi by March 31, 2025. If you are not removed by this date, you will be "attributed to your home country of Afghanistan". The plan concerns Afghan citizens who fled to Pakistan for fear of possible reprisals by the Taliban, because of their connections to the USA and the NATO troops.

For many Afghans, the deportation is synonymous with death

Khalili is one of these people. In Afghanistan, she worked on a program to protect children from abuse, which was financed by the US embassy. She hoped for a US visa, but is now stuck in Pakistan, without escaping. "For us we have worked alongside the United States, the return to Afghanistan is not just a risk - it is a death sentence," said Khalili to Cnn.

This time the requests of her daughter looked at the police. Although father and child made it back into their safe home, Khalili's daughter has not spoken a word since then. "My daughter has fallen into a deep silence since this terrible incident. She has not eaten for two days. Talking and screaming at night," said Khalili.

The Situation of the Afghan refugees in Pakistan

Many Afghans who worked for the United States and who could not escape Afghanistan now live in secret, for fear for their lives. In an explanation, the UNHCR, the UN refugee organization, and the IOM, the International Organization for Migration, said that the returnees fear reprisals from the Taliban-especially ethnic and religious minorities, women and girls, journalists, human rights activists and members of creative.

Shawn Vandiver, the founder of #Afghanevac, a leading coalition of resettlement and veteran groups, estimates that between 10,000 and 15,000 Afghans in Pakistan are waiting for a visa or the relocation to the USA. In a post on X, Vandiver said that the break in USrap in particular Afghan women in Pakistan, who are left behind without work, legal protection and hope.

Pakistan's pressure on Afghan refugees

Pakistan is home to one of the largest refugee populations in the world - most of them come from Afghanistan. But the country did not always receive Afghan refugees in a friendly manner, but let them live under enemy living conditions for years and threatened with deportation. According to UNHCR, more than 3 million Afghan refugees live, including registered refugees and over 800,000 undocumented people, in Pakistan.

Many fled before the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan in the 1980s. After the attacks on September 11, a new generation made its way to Pakistan, with changing numbers for almost two decades. The return of the Taliban to power in 2021 after the chaotic withdrawal of the United States triggered a new wave of around 600,000 refugees. In November 2023, Pakistan started with a new offensive against Afghan refugees to put the Taliban pressure, to take more against militant attacks from Afghanistan.

Khalili and her family continue to hide in Islamabad and their despair grows. She reported CNN of the risks that she and others take "to support the United States mission as an interpreter, contractor, human rights defender and allies". According to Khalili, the Taliban see them as enemies and they are faced with the dark reality of arrests, torture or death, if they are forced. "This suspension (of the visa program) refuses to protect us and the security that have been promised to us, and leaves us without protection against unimaginable consequences, left to the benevolence of the Taliban."