Pakistan: Afghan family seeking US asylum fears deportation

DW (English)

A US resettlement scheme for Afghan refugees is set to end under President Donald Trump. DW met with an Afghan family sheltering in Pakistan as deportations back to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan are underway.

Transcript

00:00Kaewan was just 12 when she came to Pakistan with her family three years ago to escape

00:07Taliban rule.

00:09Since then, Kaewan has built a life here.

00:13She is a talented artist and dreams of becoming a graphic designer.

00:24Before the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, Kaewan's father worked with the Afghan

00:30police force and later worked in security for an American firm.

00:35The family feared that would leave them at the risk of being persecuted by the Taliban.

00:40They fled to Pakistan, hoping to move to the US from there through the US Refugee Admissions

00:45Program.

00:46Now, US President Donald Trump's executive order suspending all refugee admissions to

00:52the United States has put Kaewan's family's fate in doubt.

01:16Kaewan goes to a school here for Afghan children funded by a Canadian NGO.

01:21But her prospects to stay in Pakistan are also bleak.

01:25Pakistan, home to more than two million Afghan refugees, is growing impatient with the delays

01:29to the relocation programs.

01:31Now, the government is warning it could deport Afghans like Kaewan and her family.

01:38We have to go to America because we can't also, after school, we cannot continue our

01:44education in Pakistan because we cannot go to university and the deportation in Pakistan

01:51Kaewan's mother, Zohal, was a children's rights activist in Afghanistan.

01:57In Pakistan, she started a small school for Afghan refugee children in her home.

02:03She shows me the empty classrooms that until recently were full of Afghan students.

02:08Now, all her students have either fled to other Pakistani cities or have been deported

02:13to Afghanistan.

02:19We're urging America to support Afghan refugees.

02:25We're asking them to resume processing our visas, especially for those of us who are

02:32facing difficulties in Pakistan.

02:38We have a case for resettlement and we are not a danger to the U.S.

02:44If they process our migration cases, we promise that we will consider America as our very

02:50own country.

02:52Kaewan and her family are stuck in an uncertain situation, with an overwhelming feeling that

03:04they are not welcome anywhere.

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