Islamabad: Shukria Sediqi understood that her days of safety were numbered as soon as the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. She had spoken to women who had fled violent husbands while working as a journalist who promoted women's rights. When they requested a divorce, she attended court with them.
Her work was considered immoral by the Taliban, who forbid women from most public places, employment, and education.
As a result, she and her family fled when the Taliban overran Herat in western Afghanistan in August 2021 as the US was leaving the nation.
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They initially attempted to board one of the final American flights leaving Kabul. They then attempted to enter Tajikistan, but they lacked visas. She and her family finally entered the neighbouring country in October 2021 after spending two nights sleeping outside at the checkpoint into Pakistan amid throngs of Afghans fleeing the Taliban.
The aim? Resettling in the US through a US government programme created to assist Afghans at risk under the Taliban due to their involvement with US authorities, the media, and aid organisations.
Sediqi and thousands of others are still waiting, however, two years after the US withdrew from Afghanistan. Although there has been some recent improvement, the procedure for granting Afghans US visas has been painfully slow. Only a small percentage of Afghans have been resettled thus far.
Many of the applicants who fled Afghanistan are living in limbo in exile and are depleting their savings. They are concerned that the US, which made a lot of promises, has forgotten about them.
"What will happen to my kids? Where am I going?" Sediqi enquired. The answer is, "Nobody knows."
After its invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the US relied on Afghans to assist the Afghan government and military for the next 20 years. An increasing number of media outlets hired Afghan journalists. Afghans were the backbone of aid programmes, providing everything from food to tutoring—often women working in remote areas.
Since 2009, the US has had a special immigrant visa programme to assist Afghans who worked as interpreters for the US military and government.
Then, as the US presence in the nation was coming to an end, the Biden administration established two new refugee programmes, increasing the number of Afghans who were eligible to apply for resettlement in the US.
The P-1 and P-2 visas are for aid workers, journalists, or other people who did not directly work for the US government but who supported causes like democratisation and free press that put them in danger under the Taliban.
Enayatullah Omid and his wife were among the Afghans who helped build the nation after the Taliban were overthrown in 2001 and were put at "risk due to their US affiliation" after the US withdrew; these programmes were designed to assist them.
With assistance from the US-based media training nonprofit Internews and funding from the US Agency for International Development, Omid launched a radio station in the province of Baghlan in 2011. Although he was the station's general manager, he performed all duties, including reporting live and mopping the floors at night. Homaira Omid Amiri, his wife, was a provincial activist in addition to working at the station.
On August 9, 2021, Omid claimed to have taken one final action: he burned paperwork to prevent the Taliban from identifying his staff. He then escaped with his wife.
They remained at the shelters until the Taliban closed them down, which had been planned by a committee to safeguard Afghan journalists. In the spring of 2022, Internews directed Omid to the US refugee programme. Omid and his wife left Afghanistan in July 2022 after being informed that he needed to do so in order for his case to move forward.
Omid feels unsafe even in Pakistan. He's moved three times because he's concerned about the Taliban's reach. Afghans with expired visas are the targets of police raids. He was receiving text messages about raids in another Islamabad neighbourhood as he spoke with The Associated Press and he was unsure of how much to tell his already anxious wife.
Leave no one behind is an American proverb, he claimed.
"We want them to take action. It shouldn't just be a catchphrase for them, he continued.
More than 70,000 Afghans, as well as tens of thousands of Americans and foreign nationals, were transported to safety during the American airlift in August 2021; plane after plane was filled with the fortunate individuals who were able to navigate the massive crowds encircling Kabul airport. Most entered the country through a process known as humanitarian parole.
Numerous others are still on hold. Without counting family members, there are about 150,000 applicants for the special immigrant visa programmes. According to a report by the Association of Wartime Allies, processing them all at the current rate would take 31 years.
Separately, the State Department reports that 27,400 Afghans are waiting to enrol in one of the two refugee programmes established in the closing days of the US presence in Afghanistan. Family members are not included, which could increase the number by tens of thousands. According to data from the State Department, only 6,862 of these Afghan refugees—mostly P-1 and P-2 visa applicants—have been accepted since the US withdrew from Afghanistan.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly meant all resettlement initiatives when he stated in June that the US had relocated about 24,000 Afghans since September 2021.
About 200 AP employees and their families, as well as staff from other American news organisations still trying to emigrate to the US, are among the applicants for the refugee programme.
According to Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and chief executive officer of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, the US refugee process is typically excruciatingly slow, with wait times of up to 10 years being typical. Additionally, Donald Trump, a former US president, destroyed the refugee system, resulting in the lowest annual acceptance rate of refugees in history.
According to Vignarajah, Afghan immigrants face additional difficulties. Because they feared retaliation, many Afghans destroyed documents during the Taliban takeover. They now need them to support their claims.
They'll probably have to wait for years on end, frequently in dangerous circumstances, according to the grim reality, Vignarajah said.
The various Afghan resettlement programmes established by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, a body established by Congress to oversee government spending in Afghanistan, were criticised in a recent report.
"Bureaucratic dysfunction and understaffing have undermined US promises that these individuals would be protected in a timely manner, putting many thousands of Afghan allies at high risk," the report stated.
The lack of transparency surrounding the refugee programmes was also criticised, which was said to have prevented Afghans considering leaving their country to await processing from having access to "critical information" they needed to make such a significant decision.
Omid and his wife were told they had to leave Afghanistan to apply, a costly endeavour involving selling their possessions, travelling to another country, and waiting. This is just one example of the confusion surrounding the application process. They arrived in Pakistan, one of the few nations that accepts Afghans, along with many others, only to learn that the US was not processing their applications for asylum there.
Late last month, when the State Department announced it would start processing applications in Pakistan, that situation changed.
Congress, however, has so far been unable to take any action on a bill that would have improved assistance for Afghans who are still trying to reach America.
The State Department turned down an interview request from the AP but declared in a statement that it is committed to processing visas for Afghan refugees. In June, Blinken praised the efforts made to assist Afghans in resettling in the United States but emphasised that there is still work to be done.
At the same time, the Biden administration has made strides towards reversing the refugee system's Trump-era reduction. Compared to Trump's limit of 15,000 refugees admitted annually during his final year in office, the administration increased that number to 125,000 per year. Even though it seems unlikely that the Biden administration will reach the cap this year, more Afghans and refugees are being accepted.
Shawn VanDiver, the leader of a coalition called #AfghanEvac that backs Afghan resettlement efforts, disagreed with claims that the refugee programmes are ineffective.
They have "really got off to a slow start and there are vulnerable people that are waiting for this much needed relief," he said. But I also know that there is movement to push on this because of my conversations with the government.
Lacking information, Afghans in Pakistan compare what they learn about their cases from US officials in WhatsApp chat groups, organising online protests to call for faster US action.
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When the Taliban retook power, millions of Afghans who had fled decades of war had already settled in Pakistan, and an additional 600,000 people are believed to have flooded the nation. Even though many had legitimate travel documents, renewing them is a time-consuming and expensive process. Tensions have increased as a result of searches for Afghans with expired visas.
Abdul was the head of security for an aid organisation in Afghanistan that specialised in financial support for women, but he declined to give his last name out of fear of being arrested due to the expiration of his visa. The dangers were great; three of his coworkers died while he was there.
Getting the group's foreign employees to the airport so they could flee was one of his final tasks. The group continued to operate until 2022, when Abdul was held captive by the Taliban for two weeks. A Taliban member claimed he could protect Abdul's family after his release if Abdul gave him his daughter in marriage.
Abdul was aware that it was time to go. That evening, he, his wife, and their kids fled to Iran. They travelled to Pakistan towards the end of last year after learning that their referral to one of the refugee programmes had been approved. There hasn't been any information since then.
The family is afraid to leave the house because their visas have now expired.
The future is entirely bleak, Abdul declared. "I'm not afraid to die, but I'm really concerned about my children's future."