Pakistan must stop returns of Afghans to persecution, Trump administration must restart resettlement
Media Contact: [email protected]
As Pakistan’s latest deadline for a new wave of deportations and detentions of Afghans approaches on April 10, Human Rights First calls on the government of Pakistan to halt returns of people at risk of persecution and torture and urges the Trump administration to restart resettlement for at-risk Afghans and other refugees.
“Human rights advocates, religious minorities, women’s rights defenders, people with U.S. government ties and others in danger of Taliban retribution must not be delivered into the hands of their persecutors,” said Eleanor Acer, Senior Director for Global Humanitarian Protection at Human Rights First. “People at risk of persecution and torture must be protected from return as required by international law. The United States must restore its life-saving resettlement program and swiftly bring to U.S. safety Afghans who are at risk due to their U.S. ties, human rights work or other persecution. In its own actions at home, the United States must uphold international law and protect people from return to persecution and torture. When the United States tramples on international law in its own treatment of people, it sets a terrible example for other countries, endangers lives around the world and subverts the rule of law globally.”
On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order suspending the U.S. refugee resettlement program. Human Rights First has urged that the President rescind this order and restore refugee resettlement. The administration should also halt any plans to issue unjust nationality and/or religious-based bans. The Trump administration has left thousands of Afghans stranded in the U.S. resettlement pipeline, as well as others who are awaiting special immigrant visas (SIVs). These include former interpreters and other people who worked with the U.S. military and U.S. government, their family members, as well as human rights advocates and others at risk of persecution in Afghanistan. Many now also face potential forced relocation from two major cities (and proximity to U.S. processing) and the additional danger of return to persecution and torture in Afghanistan.
Many of the approximately 2.5 million Afghans at risk of deportation are registered refugees with the UNHCR in conjunction with the Pakistani government. Some of those Afghans have spent decades in Pakistan, creating families, building businesses and strengthening communities. They are victims both of the instability and violence within Afghanistan and of the dangerous rise of xenophobia running rampant in Pakistan, as in many places in the world.
Human Rights First provides pro bono legal assistance and representation to Afghan refugees seeking asylum through its Project: Afghan Legal Assistance (PALA) initiative. Of the thousands of clients PALA has assisted, many of their family members are currently stranded in Afghanistan and Pakistan – even though they have legal pathways to reunite with their loved ones in the United States. “The United States should urgently reunite Afghan families and bring to safety people whose lives are on the line due to their work with the United States or other persecution,” said Shala Gafary, Managing Attorney of PALA. “After five decades of war and suffering, it is time that host countries stop treating Afghans as temporary residents and start meaningfully integrating them into their societies without the threat of deportation back to Taliban terror.”
Well prior to the fall of Kabul, the organization, its Veterans for American ideals project, and its partners repeatedly urged the United States to swiftly bring to U.S. safety Afghans who served as interpreters, worked with the U.S. military or government or were otherwise at risk due to their U.S. ties or human rights work. The organization has previously called on the government of Pakistan to refrain from unlawful returns, while also calling on the United States to swiftly resettle at-risk Afghans.
