Exclusive-Trump administration canceling flights for nearly 1,660 Afghan refugees, say U.S official, advocate By Reuters

By Jonathan Landey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – About 1,660 Afghans with U.S. government clearance, including family members of active-duty U.S. military personnel, are having their flights canceled under President Donald Trump’s order ending U.S. refugee programs. a refugee resettlement attorney said Monday.

The group includes unaccompanied minors waiting to be reunited with their families in the U.S., as well as Afghans who are at risk from the Taliban because they fought for the former U.S.-backed Afghan government, Sean VanDiver said. the head of the #AfghanEvac coalition of US veterans and advocacy groups, and a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity provided.

The U.S. decision also leaves in limbo thousands of other Afghans who have been approved as refugees for resettlement in the U.S. but have not yet been assigned flights from Afghanistan or neighboring Pakistan, they said.

Trump made immigration a key promise of his 2024 victory campaign, leaving the fate of US refugee programs up in the air.

The White House and the State Department, which oversees US refugee programs, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“The Afghans and the lawyers are panicking,” VanDiver said.

“We warned them it was going to happen, but they did it anyway. We hope they reconsider,” he said of communications with Trump’s transition team.

VanDiver’s organization is the main coalition working with the U.S. government to evacuate and resettle Afghans in the U.S. after the Taliban took over Kabul, when the last U.S. troops left Afghanistan in August 2021 after two decades of war.

After the chaotic withdrawal of American troops from Kabul, the former president Joe Biden’s administration brought about 200 thousand Afghans to the United States.

One of the dozens of executive orders Trump was expected to sign after being inaugurated for a second term on Monday was to suspend US refugee programs for at least four months, said an incoming Trump administration official who asked not to be identified.

“We know that means unaccompanied children, (Afghan) partner forces who have trained, fought and died or been injured alongside our troops, and families of active-duty U.S. service members will be stuck,” VanDiver said.

VanDiver and the U.S. official said Afghans who have been approved for resettlement as refugees in the U.S. are being removed from flights they were scheduled to take from Kabul between now and April.

They include about 200 family members of Afghan-American active duty personnel who were born in the U.S. or from Afghans who came to the U.S., joined the military and became naturalized citizens, they said.

Those removed from the flights also include an unknown number of Afghans who fought for the former U.S.-backed government in Kabul and about 200 Afghan refugees or unaccompanied children of Afghan parents whose children traveled alone to the United States during the U.S. withdrawal, VanDiver said, and US official.

An unknown number of Afghans who qualified for refugee status because they worked for US contractors or US-linked entities are also in the group, they said.