Afghan citizens who fled the country with US assistance remain stranded in third countries, with some trapped in prison-like facilities and many in the aftermath of the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, new documents shared exclusively by The Guardian show Not sure about their resettlement prospects.
U.S. officials would not say exactly how many Afghans remain at the sites, which they were brought to after being evacuated during the Taliban's lightning takeover in 2021 that sent hundreds of thousands fleeing. Some supporters estimate that "hundreds" of people remain trapped in makeshift camp facilities across as many as three dozen countries.
A set of government records released Tuesday provide previously undisclosed details about the U.S. government's involvement in operating the sites. The records describe family separations, deteriorating mental health conditions, inadequate facilities and fears of forced deportation.
The documents, which provide a snapshot through the fall of 2023, were obtained by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Abolition Law Center and Muslim Advocates following a lawsuit filed against the Departments of Defense, State and Homeland Security.
Sadaf Doost, a lawyer and human rights program manager at the Abolition Law Center, told the Guardian that advocates filed records requests to obtain information about conditions at six locations where they knew Afghans were being held. But the groups wrote in a briefing guide that they had obtained documents showing that Afghans applying to enter the United States were "detained, held, or otherwise forcibly detained" in at least 36 countries.
“Other records we obtained reveal tireless letter after letter of appeal from Afghan nationals to U.S. government officials—ranging from details of a lack of access to the U.S. embassy, lawyers, and humanitarian and immigrant rights organizations, to untenable conditions, and then the collective trauma in the community continues to persist,” Durst added.
It was not clear from the document how many of the 36 countries were housing evacuees in holding facilities; supporters said they were aware of five facilities in four countries: the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kosovo and Germany. As of April 2023, records show 2,834 Afghans awaiting U.S. applications were in Qatar, 1,256 in the United Arab Emirates, 259 in Kosovo and dozens more in other countries.
The Departments of Defense and Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment. A U.S. State Department spokesperson wrote in a statement to the Guardian that the U.S. government has been working to resettle eligible Afghans since 2021. While officials work on their cases, applicants "can appear on third-country platforms with the sponsor's permission" at the U.S. expense, the spokesman said. The spokesperson added that the United States issued more than 33,000 special immigrant visas to Afghans in fiscal year 2024.
"Since the suspension of embassy operations in Kabul in August 2021, the U.S. government has been working to resettle eligible Afghans to the United States through legal immigration pathways. These efforts continue today."
In July 2021, the United States announced that it would leave Afghanistan, ending a two-year war that resulted in more than 1.6 million people leaving the country. In the final days of the withdrawal next month, U.S. officials are coordinating emergency evacuations of about 120,000 people to dozens of countries around the world.
Since then, more than 190,000 Afghans have resettled in the United States, according to a State Department spokesman, but newly released records show that many Afghans stranded abroad are awaiting applications to enter the United States for humanitarian or other reasons. . Another public records request issued by the U.S. Immigration Council in 2023 showed that from January 2020 to April 2022, there were only 114 applications out of 44,785 applications for humanitarian parole - which allows individuals in emergency situations to Entry into the United States without other qualifications - or less than 0.3%, approved. According to Reuters, officials are currently processing more than 20,000 "special immigrant visa" applications from Afghans who have worked for the U.S. government and have rejected about 40%.
Little is known about what U.S. officials call the "water lily" sites, some of which still exist. The term also refers informally to foreign installations where U.S. personnel are temporarily stationed. Some of the sites are government-run temporary refugee housing facilities, and others are on former U.S. military bases. (A department spokesman said these locations are now known as "platform locations.")
Human rights advocates have previously expressed concerns about some sites in the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo and Qatar. In 2023, Human Rights Watch warned that up to 2,700 Afghans were arbitrarily detained in the Emirates Humanitarian City, a logistics center in Abu Dhabi, and that Afghan evacuees were “held in cramped, miserable conditions for more than 15 months , without any hope that their case has progressed."
The group found that Afghans at the camp were subject to around-the-clock surveillance and movement restrictions, and were denied access to legal counsel, visitors and journalists, while poor health care sometimes led to life-threatening complications. Several people told human rights investigators at the time that they were not allowed to leave the scene.
The situation at other locations was not much better, with Afghan suicides and hunger strikes reported at processing sites in Qatar and Kosovo. The Kosovo camp has earned the nickname "Little Guantánamo" among residents because those held there are told that if they leave, their applications for resettlement in the United States will be denied.
In one case described in the document, an elderly woman with dementia was brought to the United States while her "caregiver" remained in the United Arab Emirates, a State Department official wrote in an email to colleagues. It was revealed that the plan was to move the woman to a nursing home. "This seems cruel to me," the official wrote. Another email mentioned someone who managed to reach the United States while their "vulnerable mother and brother" remained in the UAE.
A spokesman for the department said that more than 17,000 people passed through the UAE between August 2021 and January 2022, but fewer than 50 remain there today, and that the United States is "working with the UAE to determine the resettlement of the remaining population." plan".
U.S. officials have denied in the past that they are stationed at sites where Afghans are held overseas, but records show they were involved in setting up at least some of them. The documents included agreements between the United States and five countries, including Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Italy and Germany, detailing what the United States said at the time would be the conditions for the "temporary" relocation of Afghan citizens to the sites. In the agreement, U.S. officials pledged to contribute to the "security and comfort" of Afghans held in third countries, including providing meals, health care and educational needs. They promised that the host country would help maintain "order" on site, including conducting "joint" patrols.
Such agreements are "short-term," ranging from one month to less than a year. But records show that at least some deadlines have been formally extended, including in Qatar until at least September 2023.
Laila Ayub is an immigration attorney and co-director of the ANAR Project. The ANAR Project is an advocacy organization founded by Afghan-American women to help Afghans resettle in the United States. The United States remains in Afghanistan or a third country. She added that many have become so desperate that they are choosing dangerous routes to the United States through Latin America and the U.S.-Mexico border. Others returned to Afghanistan despite the risks.
“Decades of U.S. foreign policy have directly contributed to the displacement of many Afghans,” she added. "(U.S. officials) have made specific promises that they will prioritize Afghans and provide them with a path, but we just haven't seen that promise fulfilled."
This week, a bipartisan group of more than 700 U.S. veterans and current and former officials wrote an open letter urging the incoming Trump administration to preserve special visa and resettlement options for at-risk Afghans and increase allocations Give them processing resources and protect them from wider impacts. Immigration enforcement, which Trump has said will be a top priority of his administration.
Shawn VanDiver, a U.S. Navy veteran and founder of the #AfghanEvac group, said he was concerned that Donald Trump might ban refugees from entering the country, as he did during his first term. office.
"We need a better plan for wartime allies," said Vandiver, who praised officials' efforts to house large populations while noting that the process remains flawed. "The system is working as designed, but the system is designed to be difficult. It's designed to be difficult."