Urgent Plea to Pakistan: Protect Afghan Visa and Refugee Applicants

A group of important people, including former high-level officials from the United States and organizations that help refugees, have joined forces to ask Pakistan not to send away Afghan people who are trying to move to the United States for safety.

Pakistan recently said that by November 1, all people who are living in Pakistan without proper documents, including many from Afghanistan, need to leave or they might be forced to go back to their home countries.

Around 20,000 or more Afghan people who left their country when the Taliban took over in 2021 are currently in Pakistan. They are waiting for their applications to be approved so they can go to the United States either as refugees or with special visas for helping the US.

The group sent a letter to Pakistan, signed by 80 former important US officials and organizations, saying that it would be wrong to send these Afghan people back to a place where their lives could be in danger. They reminded Pakistan of international agreements and humanitarian principles.

The letter was organized by #AfghanEvac, a group in the US that helps Afghan people who worked with the US government and are now worried about their safety.

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The people in Pakistan who are waiting for their visas or refugee status include former translators, journalists, women activists and other professionals who could be in danger if they return to Afghanistan.


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The group asked Pakistan to stop sending these Afghan people back and, at the very least, not put them in jail or deport them.