OMM Newsroom
The Trump administration is preparing to deport Afghan refugees to Pakistan as early as Monday, despite concerns they could later be returned to Afghanistan under Taliban rule, media reports said Friday.
The flight has not been publicly announced, but rights advocates and detainees’ families said it could take place in the coming days, NBC News reported. Anadolu Agency reported the plans, citing NBC News.
The reports come amid uncertainty over Afghan refugees housed at Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar, where the US government has repeatedly extended deadlines for removing residents.
The State Department initially said everyone would be removed from the facility by March 31. That deadline was later extended to Sept. 30, and in September the Trump administration postponed the camp’s closure by a further nine months, according to the report.
Earlier this year, the administration also considered transferring refugees from Camp As Sayliyah to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an Ebola outbreak had been reported.
The possibility of deportation to Pakistan has prompted concern among rights advocates and detainees’ families about the refugees’ safety and the risk they could eventually be returned to Afghanistan.
AfghanEvac, an organization that advocates for Afghan refugees, criticized the reported plans in a statement Friday. It accused the administration of preparing the flight while public attention was focused on the upcoming US midterm elections, “hoping no one is watching.”
“The government won’t say where these flights land, because it knows what happens to the people on them when they do,” AfghanEvac said, according to NBC News. “A government confident in what it is doing does not hide it,” the organization added.
The reported flight would follow months of uncertainty over the future of Afghan refugees at the Qatar facility as the administration continues to consider arrangements for their removal. The destination and timing of the proposed flight have not been officially confirmed.
