ISLAMABAD: Afghan refugees on Friday appealed to Pakistan’s premier to ease a visa regime on humanitarian grounds after President Donald Trump paused the US refugee programs.
Many Afghans whose visas have either expired or will expire soon fear arrest and deportation.
“We don’t know exactly when the pause of the US refugee program will be lifted, but we request Pakistan to extend our stay for at least six months after the expiry of our visas,” said Ahmad Shah, a member of the Afghan USRAP Refugees advocacy group.
An estimated 20,000 Afghans are currently waiting in Pakistan to be approved for resettlement in the US via an American government program.
Refugees approved to travel to the United States in coming days have had their travel plans canceled by the Trump administration. Among those affected are the more than 1,600 Afghans cleared to resettle in the US
Pakistan says it is yet to receive any official intimation from the United States about the suspension of the refugee program. Afghans who are in the country were supposed to be relocated by September 2025.
The refugee program was set up to help Afghans at risk under the Taliban because of their work with the US government, media, aid agencies and rights groups. The US pulled out of Afghanistan in 2021 when the Taliban took power.
But in its first days in office, Trump’s administration announced the US Refugee Admissions Program would be suspended from Jan. 27 for at least three months.
Shah said most of the Afghans who are in transition to the United States were now living in a very difficult conditions. “We don’t want to live here permanently, we urge the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to order authorities to extend the visas of Afghan people for at least six months,” he said.
He also urged the United Nations refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration to help Afghans who are waiting for relocation. “If the UNHCR and IOM don’t help us in this difficult situation, who will rise his or her voice for us?” Shah said.
Meanwhile, there is uncertainty among many over their future.
Sarfraz Ahmed, a journalist who fled to Pakistan from Afghanistan when the Taliban seized power, said Friday he had been expecting to receive a call confirming his travel plans, but the suspension of the refugee program by Trump changed everything.
Khalid Khan, a former Afghan army captain who worked for the Afghan air force and helped the US air force during the operations against the Afghan Taliban and other groups, fled his country along with his family in 2023. “I will be in a trouble if I am sent back to Afghanistan,” he said.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said there is an agreement with Washington to take Afghans who are in Pakistan to the United States for resettlement by September 2025.
“The arrangements are in place. We have, so far officially, not received any further information on this issue. So that’s all that I can say as far as we are concerned, that arrangement remains in place,” ministry spokesman Shafqat Ali Khan told a news briefing in Islamabad on Thursday.
The Taliban has deprived 1.4 million Afghan girls of schooling through bans, according to the United Nations. Afghanistan is the only country in the world that bans female secondary and higher education.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Munir Akram, has demanded “strict accountability” for Israeli crimes against Gaza’s children, state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported on Friday.
UN aid chief Tom Fletcher briefed the UN Security Council meeting on Thursday via video from Stockholm and bluntly assessing the past 15 months of war in Gaza said: “Children have been killed, starved, and frozen to death … They have been maimed, orphaned, separated from their family. Conservative estimates indicate that over 17,000 children are without their families in Gaza. A generation has been traumatized.”
The continued lack of basic shelter combined with winter temperatures pose serious threats to children. With more than a million children living in makeshift tents, and with many families displaced over the past 15 months, children face extreme risks, UNICEF has said. The UN Human Rights Office has said nearly 70 percent of fatalities it had verified in Gaza were women and children.
“Heinous crimes have been committed in this brutal [Israel-Hamas] war, particularly against children in violation of international humanitarian law, the Geneva Conventions, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on Genocide,” Akram said at the briefing to the UN Security Council this week.
“There must be accountability for these crimes. This is essential to restore international legitimacy. We must try to ensure that such a brutal slaughter of children never happens again.”
Palestinian health authorities say Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 47,000 people, with another 10,000 believed to be dead and uncounted under the rubble. A United Nations damage assessment released this month showed that clearing over 50 million tons of rubble left in the aftermath of Israel’s bombardment could take 21 years.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal to halt fighting in Gaza and exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners on Jan. 15, opening the way to a possible end to a 15-month war that has upended the Middle East.