Afghan Refugees Feel 'betrayed' by Trump Order Blocking Rating to Us

“It's like the United States doesn't really understand what I've done for this country, it's treason,” Abdullah told the BBC.

He fled Afghanistan with his parents amid the US withdrawal in August 2021. and is now a paratrooper for the US military. He worries he can't help his sister and her husband escape because of President Donald Trump's executive order halting a resettlement program.

The order cancels all flights and applications for Afghan refugees, with no exemption for active-duty military families.

Trump argued that the decision deals with “record levels of migration” that threaten “the availability of resources for Americans.”

But Abdullah and several other Afghan refugees have told the BBC they feel the US has “turned its back” on them, despite years of working alongside US officials, troops and non-profit organizations in Afghanistan. We are not using their real names as they are concerned it could jeopardize their cases or put their families at risk.

As soon as Abdullah heard about the order, he called his sister. “She was crying, she lost all hope,” he said. He believes his work has made her a target of the Taliban government that took over in 2021.

“The anxiety, it's just unthinkable. She thinks we'll never be able to see each other again,” he says.

During the war, Abdullah says he was a translator for American forces. When he left Afghanistan, his sister and her husband couldn't get passports in time to board the flight.

Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban government spokesman, told the BBC there was an amnesty for anyone who worked with international forces and all Afghans could “live in the country without fear”. He claims that these refugees are “economic migrants”.

But a UN report in 2023 questions assurances from the Taliban government. He found that hundreds of former civil servants and members of the armed forces had been killed despite the general amnesty.

Abdullah's sister and her husband completed the medical exams and interviews required to resettle in the US. The BBC has seen a document from the US Department of Defense approving their request.

Abdullah now says Trump's insistence that immigration is too high does not justify separating him from his family. He describes sleepless nights and says the anxiety affects his work in his combat unit serving the United States.

Babak, a former legal adviser to the Afghan Air Force, is still in hiding in Afghanistan.

“They don't just break their promise to us — they break us,” he says.

The BBC has seen letters from the United Nations confirming his role, as well as a letter approving his asylum claim from a US Air Force LT Colonel. The approval added that he provided advice on strikes targeting fighters affiliated with both the Taliban and the Islamic State group.

Babak cannot understand the president's decision, given that he is working alongside American troops. “We risked our lives for these missions. Now we are in grave danger,” he says.

He moves his wife and young son from place to place, desperately trying to stay hidden. He claims his brother was tortured about his whereabouts. The BBC cannot verify this part of its story given the nature of its claims.

Babak appealed to Trump and his national security adviser, Mike Waltz, to change their minds.

“Mike Waltz, you served in Afghanistan. Please encourage the president,” he tells us.

Before saying goodbye, he adds, “The only ray of light we've been holding on to is going out.”

Ahmad managed to fly to the US amid the chaos of the withdrawal, but is now separated from his family. He felt he had no choice but to leave his father, mother and teenage siblings behind.

If he and his father had not worked with the U.S., he says, his family would not have been targeted by the Taliban government. “I can't sleep knowing that I'm one of the reasons they're in this situation,” he adds.

Before the Taliban takeover, Ahmad worked for a non-profit called the Open Phanception Partnership (OGP), co-founded in the US 13 years ago and based in Washington. He says the work he is most proud of is establishing a special court to deal with abuse against women.

But he claims his work in the OGP and his advocacy for women made him a target, and he was shot dead by Taliban fighters in 2021, before the Taliban took over the country.

The BBC has seen a letter from a hospital in Pennsylvania assessing “evidence of injury from bullet and bullet fragments” which they say is “consistent with his account of what happened to him in Kabul”.

Making matters worse, he says his family is also in danger because his father was a colonel with the Afghan army and assisted the CIA. The BBC has seen a certificate provided by the Afghan National Security Forces thanking his father for his service.

Ahmad says the Taliban government harassed his parents, siblings, so they fled to Pakistan. The BBC has seen pictures showing Ahmad's father and brother being treated in hospital for injuries he claims were inflicted by Taliban government operatives.

His family has completed several steps of the resettlement program. He says he has even provided evidence that he has enough funds to support his family once they arrive in the US without any government assistance.

Now Ahmad says the situation is critical. His family is in Pakistan on visas that will expire within months. He contacted the IOM and was told to “be patient”.

The head of #afghanevac, a non-profit group that helps admissible Afghan refugees resettle, said he estimated 10,000-15,000 people were in the late stages of their applications.

Mina, who is pregnant, has been waiting for a flight from Islamabad for six months. She worries that her terror will threaten her unborn child. “If I lose the baby, I will kill myself,” she told the BBC.

She says she protested for women's rights even after the Taliban government took control of Afghanistan. She claims she was arrested in 2023. and was detained overnight.

“Even then I didn't want to leave Afghanistan. I went into hiding after I was released, but they called me and said next time they will kill me,” she says.

Mina is worried that the Pakistani government will send her back to Afghanistan. This is partly because Pakistan will not grant asylum to Afghan refugees indefinitely.

The country has taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees from its neighbor during decades of instability in the region. According to the UN refugee agency, the country hosts three million Afghan nationals, about 1.4 million of whom are documented.

As cross-border tensions with the Taliban government have flared, concern has grown in Pakistan about the fate of Afghans, with reports of alleged intimidation and detentions. The UN special rapporteur said he was concerned, and Afghans in the region deserved better treatment.

Pakistan's government says it is expelling foreign nationals who are in the country illegally back to Afghanistan and confirmed search raids took place in January.

According to the IOM, more than 795,000 Afghans have been expelled from Pakistan since last September.

The Afghan refugees we talked about feel caught between a homeland where their lives are in danger and a host country whose patience is running out.

They pinned their hopes on the US – but what appeared to be a safe harbor was abruptly blocked by the new president until further notice.