Politics
The administration of US President Donald Trump is preparing to forcibly deport more than 150 Afghan nationals who had sought refuge in the United States, sending them back to Afghanistan through Pakistan.
Washington: The administration of US President Donald Trump is preparing to forcibly deport more than 150 Afghan nationals who had sought refuge in the United States, sending them back to Afghanistan through Pakistan. According to a report by The New York Times, the Afghan nationals, who are being held in various US prisons and detention centres, include relatives of individuals who had been allied with the former Afghan government, as well as members of minority communities. Citing three unnamed US officials, the newspaper reported that the first deportation flight is expected to depart on November 2. Under the plan, the detainees will initially be transferred to Pakistan before being handed over to Afghan authorities across the border.
According to the report, Pakistan is being used as an intermediary route for the deportations because the United States does not maintain formal diplomatic relations with the Taliban government. The arrangement is intended to avoid the usual diplomatic complications associated with direct transfers. Pakistan has not yet issued any official response, confirmation or endorsement of the reported plan. Under US law, individuals cannot be directly deported to countries where their lives or freedom would be at risk. However, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has informed the detainees that Afghanistan remains their final destination. According to The New York Times, the refugees have recently been transferred from detention facilities across the country to a detention centre in Louisiana, where chartered flights are being planned for the first week of November.
Among those facing deportation is a 47-year-old Afghan refugee who arrived in the United States with his family in 1981, at the age of two, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. After being convicted in two cases involving robbery and threats in 2003, his permanent residency documents were revoked. However, he continued to report regularly to immigration authorities in accordance with legal requirements. He has identified himself as gay and married a US citizen in 2020. The Afghan refugee says that the Taliban's strict policies pose an extreme threat to his life if he is returned to Afghanistan.
In another case, an Afghan national whose wife had previously served in the former Afghan army and women's police force told a court that he fled to the United States in 2024 after being subjected to Taliban violence in 2023. However, a US court rejected his asylum application. The development comes at a time when Pakistan itself has repatriated more than 2.7 million Afghan nationals, including both undocumented migrants and legally residing individuals, since 2023, citing security concerns. The Pakistani government maintains that the Taliban provide shelter to terrorists who carry out attacks inside Pakistan, and says the country remains committed to the repatriation of additional Afghan nationals.
In the past, US administrations carried out deportations of Afghan nationals through third countries on a very limited scale, generally involving individuals convicted of serious crimes. According to research data from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), only 97 Afghans were deported over the previous four years. However, the operation expected in November is part of the Trump administration's broader campaign to carry out large-scale deportations of immigrants. In previous measures, the administration had also tightened visa restrictions on Afghans who worked alongside US forces. Some were transferred to African countries, while others were pressured to accept voluntary returns from a US military base in Qatar.
