ISLAMABAD, Jan 26, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - After working for years alongside the 
United States to combat the Taliban in Afghanistan, Zahra says she was just 
days from being evacuated to America when President Donald Trump suspended 
refugee admissions.

She sold her belongings as she awaited a flight out of Pakistan, where she 
has been embroiled in a three-year process applying for a refugee scheme 
Trump froze in one of his first acts back in office.

"We stood with them for the past 20 years, all I want is for them to stand up 
for the promise they made," the 27-year-old former Afghanistan defence 
ministry worker told AFP from Islamabad.

"The only wish we have is to be safe and live where we can have peace and an 
ordinary human life," she said, sobbing down the phone and speaking under a 
pseudonym to protect her identity.

The 2021 withdrawal of US-led troops from Kabul ended two decades of war but 
began a new exodus, as Afghans clamoured to escape Taliban government curbs 
and fears of reprisal for working with Washington.

Trump's executive order to pause admissions for at least 90 days starting 
from January 27 has blocked around 10,000 Afghans approved for entry from 
starting new lives in the United States, according to non-profit #AfghanEvac.

Tens of thousands more applications in process have also been frozen, the US-
based organisation said.

"All sorts of people that stood up for the idea of America, now they're in 
danger," #AfghanEvac chief Shawn VanDiver told AFP.

"We owe it to them to get them out."

- 'Hopes are shattered' -

Trump's order said "the United States lacks the ability to absorb large 
numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees", and stopped the relocation 
scheme until it "aligns with the interests of the United States".

But campaigners argue the country owes a debt to Afghans left in the lurch by 
their withdrawal -- which Trump committed to in his first term but was 
overseen by his successor president Joe Biden.

A special visa programme for Afghans who were employed by or on behalf of the 
United States remains active.

But the more wide-reaching refugee scheme was relied on by applicants 
including ex-Afghan soldiers and employees of the US-backed government, as 
well as their family members.

With America's Kabul embassy shut, many travelled to neighbouring Pakistan to 
enter paperwork, conduct interviews and undergo vetting. 

Female applicants are fleeing the country where the Taliban government has 
banned them from secondary school and university, squeezed them from public 
life and ordered them to wear all-covering clothes.

"I had a lot of hopes for my sisters, that they should graduate from school 
and pursue education," said one of five daughters of an ex-government 
employee's family seeking resettlement from Pakistan.

"All my hopes are shattered," said the 23-year-old. "I have nightmares and 
when I wake up in the morning, I feel like I can't fall asleep again. I'm 
very anxious."

The European Court of Justice ruled last year that Afghan women have the 
right to be recognised as refugees in the EU because Taliban government curbs 
on women "constitute acts of persecution".

This week, the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor said he was 
seeking arrest warrants for Taliban government leaders because there are 
grounds to suspect they "bear criminal responsibility for the crime against 
humanity of persecution on gender grounds".

Moniza Kakar, a lawyer who works with Afghan refugees in Pakistan, said some 
women told her they "prefer suicide than going back to Afghanistan".

The Taliban government has announced an amnesty and encouraged those who fled 
to return to rebuild the country, presenting it as a haven of Islamic values.

But a 2023 report by UN rights experts said "the amnesty for former 
government and military officials is being violated" and there were 
"consistent credible reports of summary executions and acts tantamount to 
enforced disappearances".

- 'No life left for me' -

Last summer, Pakistan's foreign ministry complained as many as 25,000 Afghans 
were in the country awaiting relocation to the United States.

Islamabad announced a sweeping campaign in 2023 to evict undocumented Afghans 
, ordering them to leave or face arrest as relations soured with the Taliban 
government.

At least 800,000 Afghans have left since October 2023, according to the 
Norwegian Refugee Council.

But Afghans awaiting refugee relocation have also reported widespread 
harassment to leave by authorities in Pakistan.

A foreign ministry spokesman told reporters this week Trump's administration 
had not yet communicated any new refugee policy to Pakistan.

Islamabad is following "the same old plan" where Washington has committed to 
taking in refugees this year, Shafqat Ali Khan said.

Afghans awaiting new lives abroad feel caught between a cancelled future and 
the haunting prospect of returning to their homeland.

"I don't have the option of returning to Afghanistan, and my situation here 
is dire," said 52-year-old former Afghan journalist Zahir Bahand.

"There is no life left for me, no peace, no future, no visa, no home, no 
work: nothing is left for me."