Afghan Refugees in Pakistan Protest Delay in US Resettlement – The Diplomat

The Pulse | Society | South Asia

Lots of of Afghan refugees going through excessive delays within the approval of U.S. visas protested in Pakistan’s capital on Sunday, as an American program to assist relocate at-risk Afghans fleeing Taliban rule stalls.

The U.S. authorities’s Precedence 1 and Precedence 2, often called P1 and P2, refugee packages have been meant to fast-track visas for at-risk Afghans together with journalists and rights activists after the Taliban takeover of their homeland. These eligible will need to have labored for the U.S. authorities, a U.S.-based media group, or a nongovernmental group in Afghanistan, and should be referred by the U.S.-based employer.

Candidates have been ready in Pakistan for a couple of and a half years for U.S. officers to course of their visa purposes. The delay in approving visas and resettlement has left Afghan candidates in a extremely susceptible place as they cope with financial hardship and lack of entry to well being, schooling, and different companies in Pakistan.

Mohammad Baqir Ahmadi, who stated he’d helped to prepare the protest outdoors of Pakistan’s Nationwide Press Membership in Islamabad, stated lots of the Afghans current have been going through issues in extending visas to attend out the appliance course of in Pakistan.

Protesters stated that candidates had but to obtain the preliminary interview obligatory to start the visa utility course of.

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“We, the holders of P1/P2 circumstances, your allies, and colleagues, performed a major position towards growth of democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression. We’re at the moment asking to your help and companionship within the unhealthy days of life,” learn one banner held by Afghan demonstrators.

Hesamuddin, an Afghan who’s ready on the processing of his P2 case, stated authorities ought to evacuate Afghan P1 and P2 candidates to a rustic the place the required resettlement help facilities (RSC) are open and in a position to conduct interviews. “They have to evacuate us to a different nation the place RSCs are functioning and may course of there,” he stated.

Below U.S. guidelines, candidates should first relocate to a 3rd nation for his or her circumstances to be processed, which initially can take as much as 14 to 18 months. Circumstances are processed by way of the resettlement help facilities.

The Taliban retook energy in Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew. Many Afghans sought to depart within the quick aftermath of the Taliban takeover.

The Taliban rulers have progressively imposed extra restrictions, significantly on ladies. They’ve banned ladies and women from education past the sixth grade, barred them from most jobs, and demanded they cowl their faces when outdoors.