Afghans waiting for US resettlement expelled by Pakistan

The caretaker government’s huge deportation drive has forcibly repatriated scores of Afghans awaiting resettlement in the United States, an advocacy group and Afghan applicants say, alleging that authorities often ignored US embassy letters of protection.

The move complicates the efforts of such Afghans, as the US has shuttered its embassy in Kabul and they must also grapple with human rights restrictions and stubborn financial and humanitarian crises in their homeland.

At least 130 Afghans being processed for US special immigration visas or refugee resettlement in the United States have been deported, said Shawn VanDiver, president of Afghan Evac, the main coalition of groups helping such efforts.

The police have arrested more than 230 such Afghans, although about 80 have since been released, he added.

Pakistan began expelling more than a million undocumented foreigners, mostly Afghans, on November 1, amid a row over accusations that Kabul harbours the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and other militants, a charge the ruling Taliban deny.

More than 450,000 Afghans have returned home, the United Nations says, many now living in difficult winter conditions near the border.