ISLAMABAD: Afghans stranded in Pakistan while awaiting US resettlement said on Thursday Washington’s decision to pause immigration applications has shattered their expectations of relocation and left them vulnerable to possible mass deportations by Islamabad.
The policy, announced by the Trump administration earlier this week, halts processing of green cards, citizenship petitions and Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) from 19 countries already under a partial travel ban, including Afghanistan and Somalia.
For thousands who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power in 2021, the move has upended years of waiting.
“It was very shocking, a traumatic situation, what we had hoped for, it went against our aspirations,” said Ihsan Ullah Ahmadzai, an Afghan journalist and human rights activist living in Pakistan.
He said the pause risked giving Pakistani authorities “a green light” to deport Afghans whose US cases are now indefinitely on hold.
