Humayun Bayat was looking forward to moving to the United States in early February to begin a new chapter in his life.
The young Afghan man, who worked for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, was happy to leave Pakistan, where he has lived for the past three years after fleeing the Taliban takeover of neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.
“Our lives are in danger,” he told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi after his flight to the United States was canceled due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s suspension of U.S. refugee programs on January 20.
“We won't be able to go to Afghanistan either because I worked against the Taliban,” Bayat said.
Jamshid Azizi, who also worked for U.S. forces during the nearly 20-year U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, also voiced distress after his planned flight to the United States early next month was canceled.
“We face death in Afghanistan,” Azizi said. “We want President Donald Trump not to leave us in limbo.”
Bayat and Azizi are among some 1,660 Afghans who were chosen to move to the United States over the next three months after Washington cleared them for resettlement.
Refugees disembarked from a U.S. Air Force aircraft after an evacuation flight from Kabul at a naval base in Rota, southern Spain, in August 2021.
But their flights were canceled after Trump, soon after taking the oath of office on January 20, suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) “until the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.”
“Afghans and advocates are panicking,” Shawn VanDiver, a member of the Afghan Evacuation Association, a coalition of U.S. veterans and advocacy groups, told Reuters.
“We hope they will reconsider,” VanDiver said of his organization’s attempts to persuade the new administration to change its views on the issue.
“We are very sad,” an Afghan physician who worked for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul told Radio Azadi.
SEE ALSO: Afghan Evacuees Remain In Limbo In Albania 3 Years After Taliban TakeoverThe doctor said his case was “pending” days before his previously planned departure to the United States on January 15.
“We are facing a lot of problems here,” he added.
The United States resettled more than 200,000 Afghans in the country following its final withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. Most of them worked with the U.S.-led international military coalition or were involved in projects funded by Washington and its allies.
Fears Of Deadly Retribution
But thousands of Afghans are still waiting in Pakistan, Gulf states, and Europe for their cases to be resolved.
“I don’t care much about myself. It is my children and wife I am more worried about,” one Afghan man living in Pakistan told Radio Azadi. He requested anonymity, citing security concerns.
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5
Afghans Cleared For U.S. Evacuation Fear Trump Reversal Could Allow Taliban To 'Kill Us'
He said he fears deadly retribution from the Taliban because the Islamist group ruling Afghanistan considers anyone who supported the U.S. invasion of the country an “infidel.”
An Afghan woman also living in Pakistan said refugees there were facing tremendous pressure. Pakistani authorities have frequently harassed Afghans in apparent retaliation for the Taliban's refusal to help Islamabad against its Pakistani Taliban allies.
“I hope we receive international support for a safe and stable future,” she said.