After the Ban: Afghans in Limbo
January 23, 2025Note to Readers: As a volunteer, I have had the chance to get to know many Afghans in crisis over the last few years. I have helped many of them to reach Western Countries but am also in contact with many who remain behind. Over the next weeks, I plan to share some of them you, via this blog.
Chapter 1: Humaira and Sahar
I met Afghan sisters (Humaira, left and Sahar) just over a year ago while on a trip to Pakistan. I was in a city park where I found destitute Afghan families living in tents. Sahar and Hameda, who were passing nearby, spotted me and came over to talk. Both spoke conversational English and were anxious to meet a foreigner, hoping for help.
Since then, we have kept in contact, occasionally speaking over WhatsApp.
Speaking to Sahar today, she re-shared her story.
As a family (four siblings and parents), they have spent years going through the process of applying for humanitarian visas in order to travel to the US as refugees. They traveled as a family to Pakistan and entered legally, according to the advice of US officials.
Over the period of several years living in Pakistan, they completed all the necessary steps, including background checks and medical exams. They were waiting to be assigned a flight when, on January 20, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order temporary banning refugee relocation. Two days later, it was announced that approximately 10,000 approved refugees coming from many countries had their flights cancelled, even though the ban isn’t scheduled to come into effect until January 27. Among them are 1660 Afghan allies and their families, many of whom fought alongside US forces, worked for international women and human rights organizations, or are otherwise at risk of persecution by the Taliban.
In Afghanistan, the sisters’ father was retired from the Afghan military and their mother worked as a midwife, putting the family at risk. Now, the four siblings and their parents live in a two room apartment in Islamabad.
Their only income comes from their brother’s occasional online tutoring. Their older sister, who is a refugee living in Germany, sometimes sends money to help pay the $100 rent, which they cannot afford on their own.
Pakistan meanwhile continues to round up and deport Afghans living illegally in their country. Other Afghans I’m in contact with tell me that the police are frequently coming to areas where Afghans live, checking documents and arresting those whose visas are expired. Sometimes even those with valid visas are detained and extorted, I’ve been told. A new law in Pakistan requires visas to be renewed on a monthly basis, to the tune of approximately $100 per person. For Afghans, most of whom are jobless and have already gone through their savings, this amount is prohibitive. Many have no option but to let their visas lapse.
More than 1.7 million Afghans are registered in Pakistan, but some estimates put the number of Afghans (both legal and illegal) at between 3 and 4 million.
That number includes those who fled after the Taliban takeover in 2001 and also those who fled the Afghan-Soviet War in the 1980s (and their descendants). Over the last year, Pakistan has ramped up deportations, sending at least 670,000 back to an uncertain future in their home country.
