Trump’s order has stranded 200,000 Afghan refugees
Earlier this year, Maryam had her younger sister’s bag packed a week before she was to leave for a new life in the United States. She told Zainab that she was to strive to achieve her dreams.
For Zainab, life in the United States represented a second start. She’d been accepted into the College of Arts at Kabul University before the Taliban assumed power in 2021. Zainab was one of the lucky ones. She’d taken part in a one-year internship program in the U.S. Embassy, which made her eligible for a P-2 refugee case in the United States.
Maryam, who had worked for four years at the Afghan-American University in Afghanistan, then succeeded in applying for asylum in the United States.
When the immigration files for both sisters were accepted by the U.S. government, they travelled to Pakistan with their mother and three brothers to proceed with the next steps in the process. “My father passed away six years ago. After that, I became the head of the family, but with the arrival of the Taliban, I lost my job, and we were forced to sell everything — including our car and household belongings — and move to Pakistan,” Maryam explained.
They’ve been in Pakistan for three years, waiting to complete the elaborate process. In January 2025, 30-year-old Maryam received news that her immigration file had reached its final stage and that her flight would be scheduled soon. Zainab was due to travel to the United States on February 5.
But after Donald Trump became president of the United States on January 20, he issued an executive order suspending the U.S. refugee assistance program. As part of that freeze, the Trump administration cancelled the flights of 1,600 Afghans to the United States.
In particular, the executive order affects those with P-1, P-2, and P-3 category refugee claims. P-1 cases — representing “priority one” claims — include individuals with “compelling protection needs” referred by embassies, NGOs, or the UNHCR. P-2 cases include those whom the U.S. State Department identified as persons in specific at-risk groups, while P-3 cases cover those awaiting family reunification in the United States. In addition, other Afghans whose humanitarian cases affected by the new Trump order have had the processing of their cases suspended for up to three months.
Afghan-Evac, an organization that works to transfer Afghans to the United States, confirmed that the P-1 and P-2 refugee cases for Afghans have been halted. On January 23, it wrote on X, “This is disheartening for us and many of our allies; however, we will continue our efforts and hope that this barrier is removed.”
Afghan-e-UK also published a notice sent by the U.S. State Department. The email stated that following the issuance of the executive order, the entry of refugees into the United States has been suspended until further notice, and all scheduled flights for refugees to the United States have been cancelled.
No one from the U.S. government informed Zainab that her flight had been cancelled. “No one is responding to our repeated calls. We send emails and receive no reply,” Maryam told Zan Times on February 6. “The IOM [UN International Organization for Migration] office is in a location where, unless you have an appointment in advance, they won’t allow you in.”
When Maryam learned that she and her sister would not be travelling to America, she felt suffocated: “I felt short of breath. I was gasping, my hands were sweating, and I became weak.” It was a feeling she hadn’t had since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Now, the symptoms are back: “I visited the doctor five times; no one understood my pain. I am suffering, I can’t sleep at night, and I am terribly scared.”
For now, they are living in a one-room house dealing with the uncertainty of not knowing if their flights to the United States will ever be rescheduled. In addition, this seven-member family is also grappling with the fact that their Pakistani visas have expired. Given that Pakistan is in the midst of a massive deportation effort focused on Afghan migrants and refugees, they know that the police might arrest them and send them back to Afghanistan at any moment. “In Afghanistan, there is no home or place left for us, and here we have no peace,” explains Maryam. “We have come to a remote village near Islamabad to hide from the police. Truly, this sense of hopelessness has overwhelmed us.”
Maryam and Zainab are among many Afghan women whose lives have been thrown into turmoil by decisions of the new Trump administration. In March 2022, Rahila arrived in Pakistan after obtaining a Pakistani visa. Like Zainab, she was scheduled to fly on February 5 from Islamabad Airport to the United States. Her destination was Seattle, Washington. To fund the journey, Rahila sold her new bike and sewing machine — which she used to cover her daily expenses — to fund the journey.
Like other migrants, Rahila learned about the cancellation of her flight through social media. “When I found out, I was stunned. I went into shock,” she tells Zan Times. “I was out of it for a week. I felt that all doors had been closed to me.”
Rahila holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and worked for five years with USAID projects and various offices in Afghanistan. By now, Rahila had exhausted her savings and her “family visit” type of visa had long since expired. As an illegal migrant, she lives with three other women and scrounges for work as a tailor and a weaver. Her unemployed parents and two sisters live in Afghanistan while her 21-year-old brother dropped out of school and moved to Iran for work.
Rahila wanted to bring her family to the United States but, as a single P-2 refugee applicant, she isn’t allowed to include older relatives. She sees no future for herself in Afghanistan and hopes never to return to her homeland. For her, Afghanistan is a country where she has neither the right to work, nor the right to education, nor the right to a normal life.
The impact of Trump’s decisions is widening. A February 19 Reuters report revealed that the U.S. State Department’s Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) has been ordered to prepare for its closure in April. This shutdown will prevent an estimated 200,000 Afghans, stranded in countries like Pakistan, Albania and Qatar, from being able to travel to the United States.
As of now, 3,000 Afghans vetted for resettlement in the United States in Albania and Qatar remain in limbo, while the situation for holders of P-1 and P-2 refugee claims in Pakistan is dire. According to more than 10 Afghan migrants in Pakistan who talked to Zan Times, the situation in that country is extremely grim. Obtaining a legal tourist visa — which is valid for six months and costs up to US$1,200 — is out of reach for many migrants in Pakistan, who are already struggling with daily expenses. To avoid being caught in Pakistani police deportation sweeps, some Afghans, particularly women whose lives were at risk in Afghanistan, have moved to remote areas to hide.
Desperation and terror are common among Afghan refugees in Pakistan. In November 2021, Saideh, her husband, and his entire family arrived in Pakistan. After working in collaboration with the Americans for 15 years, her husband had received a P-2 refugee claim to bring his entire family, including his married children, to the United States.
“We sold our household items, gold and jewelry, our caravan, everything,” Saideh explains. That money got them to Pakistan a few months ahead of their trip to the United States. She and eight family members were to fly to California on February 13.
Those plans are now in limbo. Saideh hasn’t received any communication from the IOM or the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. “Without a visa, we were stuck. We believed we were truly heading to America, where these hardships would be made up for,” she says. Now, she is one of 14 people from three families crowded into a two-bedroom apartment in Pakistan. When they can, they beg neighbours or acquaintances for a place to sleep, if only for a night. For 31‐year‐old Saideh, who holds a bachelor’s degree in law and once managed a ministry before the fall of the republic, life is almost too difficult to contemplate: “We never thought it would take this long or that we would have to endure so much hardship. Now, with another three months of suspension looming, we do not know what will become of our cases.”
“When we heard our flights were cancelled, by God, we were all in shock. For hours we sat as if in mourning, barely able to move” she recounts. When her husband was told, his blood pressure plummeted. He and his three brothers were so furious at the U.S. decision.
Saideh is struggling with depression and fears the thought of being forced back to Afghanistan. “During this time, everyone has learned that we have an American case. Even the Taliban have been informed,” she explains. “If we return, they will definitely arrest the men in our family and even us.” They have no other option but to sell their remaining assets and continue hiding in Pakistan.
Another Afghan woman living in limbo is Shirin Gol. Before the Taliban regained power, she and her family enjoyed a comfortable life. Shirin, who has a bachelor’s degree in law, worked in the gender department of the Ministry of Public Health in Kabul while her husband, who has a master’s in management and commerce, held an important government position. Fearing for their lives, she, her husband, and their four children illegally crossed over into Pakistan on the day Kabul fell in 2021.
“The day we entered Pakistan was the worst day of our lives. In this long period of waiting here, not even a drop of relief has passed our lips,” she recalls. Now, they are “in a dire economic state on borrowed money, without any work.” Their only hope was resettlement. Their case had progressed to the stage where their flights had been scheduled and a home procured for them in the United States.
On January 22, they read about the flight cancellations on the X site. “When we read that news, our limbs went numb. We looked at each other in disbelief. I was in shock — and I nearly had a heart attack,” Shirin says. They fell into a state of despair and could only console one another. Like others, they’ve received no updates from officials.
Shirin Gol and her husband have always focused on building a better future for their children. Now, they have no good options: “When our case reached its final stage, we sold all our belongings in Islamabad and were ready to travel to the United States. But now, returning to Afghanistan, we have nothing left.”
Khadija Haidary and Atia FarAzar (pen name) are Zan Times journalists.
