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Many Afghan refugees now feel desperate after Trump’s immigration orders (archive photo)
“It is as if the United States did not really understand what I had done for this country, it was a betrayal,” Abdullah told the BBC.
He fled Afghanistan with his parents in the middle of the American withdrawal in August 2021 and is now a parachutist for the American army. He fears that he cannot help her sister and her husband to escape, because of President Donald Trump’s decree suspending a resettlement program.
The order cancels all thefts and suspends requests for Afghan refugees, without any exemption for the families of active soldiers.
Trump says the decision aims at “record migration levels” which threaten “the availability of resources for the Americans”.
But Abdullah and several other Afghan refugees told the BBC that they estimated that the United States “turned their backs on them”, despite years of work alongside American officials, troops and non-profit organizations in Afghanistan . We do not use their real names, because they fear that this can compromise their file or put their family in danger.
As soon as Abdullah heard of this order, he called his sister in Afghanistan. “She was crying, she lost hope,” he said. He thinks that her work made her a target of the Taliban government which took power in 2021.
“Anxiety is just unimaginable. She thinks we can never meet again,” he said.
During the war, Abdullah said he was an interpreter for American forces. When he left Afghanistan, her sister and her husband could not get their passport in time to board the plane.
Suhail Shaheen, spokesperson for the Taliban government, told the BBC that there is an amnesty for anyone who has worked with international forces and that all Afghans can “live in the country without any fear”. He claims that these refugees are “economic migrants”.
But a 2023 UN report questioned the insurance of the Taliban government. She revealed that hundreds of former government officials and members of the armed forces have been killed despite general amnesty.
Abdullah’s sister and her husband had passed the medical examinations and the interviews necessary for resettlement in the United States. The BBC has seen a document from the American Department of Defense approving their candidacy.
Today, Abdullah says that Trump’s insistence that immigration is too high does not justify his separation from his family. He describes his sleepless nights and says anxiety affects his work in his combat unit in the United States.
Babak, former legal advisor to the Afghan Air Force, is still hiding in Afghanistan.
“They are not content to break up the promise they have given us: they also break us,” he said.
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In the last days of American control, Kabul airport was flooded with desperate Afghans hoping to escape the Taliban.
The BBC has seen letters of the United Nations confirming its role, as well as a letter approving its asylum application by a Lieutenant-Colonel of the US Air Force. The endorsement adds that he provided advice on the strikes targeting activists linked to both the Taliban and the Islamic State group.
Babak does not understand the president’s decision, since he worked alongside American troops. “We have risked our lives because of these missions. Today, we run a serious danger,” he said.
He moved his wife and young son from one place to the next, trying desperately to stay hidden. He claims that his brother was tortured to find out where he was. The BBC cannot verify this part of its history, given the nature of its claims.
Babak calls Trump and his national security advisor Mike Waltz to change his mind.
“Mike Waltz, you served in Afghanistan. Please encourage the president,” he said.
Before saying goodbye, he adds: “The only ray of light to which we hung on.”
Ahmad managed to fly to the United States in the middle of withdrawal chaos, but he is now separated from his family. He felt that he had no choice but to leave behind his father, his mother and his teenage brothers and sisters.
If he and his father had not worked with the United States, he said, his family would not be the target of the Taliban government. “I cannot sleep knowing that I am one of the reasons why they are in this situation,” he adds.
Before taking power by the Taliban, Ahmad worked for a non-profit organization called Open Government Partnership (OGP), co-founded by the United States 13 years ago and whose headquarters are in Washington. He says that the work he is most proud of is the creation of a special court to treat abuses against women.
But he claims that his work at the OGP and his plea in favor of women made him a target and that he was shot by Taliban fighters in 2021 before the Taliban took control of the country.
The BBC has seen a letter from a Pennsylvania hospital evaluating “evidence of injuries caused by bullets and bullet fragments”, which according to them, are “consistent with its story of what happened to him in Kabul”.
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The Afghans who worked alongside American troops and the coalition feel betrayed by Trump
Worse, he says that his family is also in danger because his father was colonel in the Afghan army and helped the CIA. The BBC has seen a certificate, supplied by the Afghan national security forces, thanking its father for its services.
Ahmad claims that the Taliban government has harassed its parents, brothers and sisters, pushing them to flee to Pakistan. The BBC has seen photos showing the father and brother of Ahmad treated in a hospital for injuries which, according to him, were inflicted by members of the Taliban government.
His family had taken several stages of the resettlement program. He said he even provided proof that he has enough money to provide for his family when he arrived in the United States, without any government aid.
Today, Ahmad claims that the situation is critical. His family is in Pakistan with visas that will expire in a few months. He contacted the OIM and he was told to “be patient”.
The chief of #AFGHANEVAC, a non -profit group helping Afghan refugees eligible to resettle, said that it estimated that 10,000 to 15,000 people were at the last stages of their request.
Mina, who is pregnant, has been waiting for a flight from Islamabad for six months. She fears that her terror will threaten her unborn child. “If I lose the baby, I will commit suicide,” she told the BBC.
She said she used to protest for women’s rights, even after the Taliban government has taken control of Afghanistan. She claims to have been arrested in 2023 and held overnight.
“Even at that time, I didn’t want to leave Afghanistan. I hid for my release, but they called me and told me that next time they would kill me,” she said.
Mina fears that the Pakistani government will send her back to Afghanistan. This is partly explained by the fact that Pakistan will not indefinite asylum to Afghan refugees.
The country welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees from its neighbor, during the decades of instability in the region. According to the United Nations Agency for Refugees, the country welcomes three million Afghan nationals, of which approximately 1.4 million are in regular situation.
While cross -border tensions with the Taliban government is increasing, the fate of Afghans in Pakistan is raising more and more concerns, with information reporting on intimidation and alleged detentions. The UN Special Rapporteur said he was concerned and Afghans in the region are worth better treatment.
The Pakistani government said that it expelled foreign nationals who are illegally in the country to Afghanistan and has confirmed that research has been carried out in January.
According to the IOM, more than 795,000 Afghans have been expelled from Pakistan since September 2023.
The Afghan refugees with whom we have spoken feel taken between a country where their life is in danger and a host country whose patience is at the end.
They had placed their hopes in the United States, but what seemed to be a security sphere was suddenly blocked by the new president until further notice.
