A group of 66 lawmakers in the United States has written to the administration of President Donald Trump asking it to halt a planned mass deportation of Afghans, including some who worked alongside coalition forces in Afghanistan before the military withdrawal in 2021. In Monday’s letter, the lawmakers cited advocacy group reports that at least 150 Afghans were scheduled to be deported from Tuesday – flown from detention facilities in Louisiana to Pakistan. The news agency also reported that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials had said in court filings that they eventually planned on returning some of the Afghans to their home country.
The US does not have diplomatic relations with Afghanistan, which has been governed by the Taliban since US troops withdrew in August 2021. Critics of the practice have said it undermines decades of global humanitarian norms around asylum seeker and refugee protection. They say deportees often end up in countries with a record of human rights abuses, or places that are so dangerous the US tells its own citizens not to travel there.
The Trump administration has forcibly sent at least 25,000 people to third countries, according to a tally by nonprofits Refugees International and Human Rights First. Human Rights First said it has confirmed that a flight carrying some of the Afghans from Alexandria, Louisiana, to Pakistan is scheduled for Tuesday. Rights advocates say the batch of deportations to Pakistan may also include Iranians, small numbers of whom the Trump administration has previously sent to third countries to eventually be returned to Iran, despite the ongoing war the US is waging on the country.
Pakistan has deported millions of Afghans to Afghanistan in recent years, as relations with the Taliban have deteriorated. Most of the Afghans scheduled for deportation did not have the opportunity to properly fight their removal in court, Shawn VanDiver, founder and president of the AfghanEvac advocacy group, said. VanDiver said he spoke to one man on Monday, a former police officer in the Afghan government toppled by the Taliban, who expected to be deported and feared for his life if he ended up back in Afghanistan.
Others, VanDiver said, had also either worked in the Afghan government or with the US, or had family that did so, and would be in danger in Afghanistan. Since taking office, Trump has attempted to put an end to resettlement programmes for Afghans started by former President Joe Biden. More than 120,000 Afghans were evacuated from Afghanistan in 2021 after the chaotic withdrawal of US forces.
Some ended up in facilities abroad, like in Qatar. This September, the US granted a nine-month extension for Camp As Sayliyah, a facility in Qatar housing more than 1,000 Afghans who assisted US forces in Afghanistan. Afghans evacuated to the US were initially granted humanitarian parole, allowing them to stay in the country.
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