By Jonathan Landay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared by the U.S. government to live in the U.S., including family members of active-duty U.S. military personnel, have had their trips canceled under the President Donald Trump’s order suspending US refugee programs, a US official and a leading refugee resettlement advocate said on Monday.

The group includes unaccompanied minors awaiting reunification with their families in the U.S. as well as Afghans at risk of Taliban punishment because they fought for the former-backed US government in Afghanistan, said Shawn VanDiver, head of the #AfghanEvac coalition of US veterans and advocacy groups. and the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The US decision also leaves in limbo limbo other Afghans who have been approved for resettlement as refugees in the US but have not yet been assigned flights from Afghanistan or from neighboring Pakistan, they said.

Trump made an immigration crackdown a major promise in his victorious 2024 election campaign, leaving the fate of US refugee programs up in the air.

The White House and the State Department, which oversees US refugee programs, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“Afghans and advocates are panicking,” VanDiver said. “I have had to recharge my phone four times now because so many people have been calling me.

“We warned them that this would happen, but they still did it. We hope they will reconsider,” he said of contacts with Trump’s transition team.

VanDiver’s organization is the main coalition working with the US government to evacuate and resettle Afghans in the US since the Taliban took over Kabul as the last US forces left Afghanistan in August 2021 after two decades. war.

Nearly 200,000 Afghans have been brought to the US by the administration of former President Joe Biden since the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Kabul.

One of several executive orders Trump is expected to sign after being sworn in for a second term on Monday suspends US refugee programs for at least four months.

The new White House website said Trump “suspended refugee resettlement, after communities were forced to house large and unsustainable migrant populations, straining community safety and resources .”

“We know this means unaccompanied children, (Afghan) fellow forces who have trained, fought and died or been wounded alongside our troops, and families of active duty service members. in the US service will be stuck,” VanDiver said.

VanDiver and the U.S. official said the Afghans approved the return because U.S. refugees were removed from showings on flights they would take from Kabul between now and April.

Minority Democrats on the House Foreign Relations Committee blasted the move, saying in a post on X that “this is what withdrawal looks like.

They include nearly 200 family members of Afghan-American active duty U.S. service personnel who were born in the U.S. or of Afghans who came to the U.S., joined the military and became naturalized citizens, they said. .

Those removed from the flights also included an unknown number of Afghans fighting for the former US-backed government in Kabul and about 200 unaccompanied children of Afghan refugees or Afghan parents whose children were brought alone to the United States during the U.S. withdrawal, VanDiver and the U.S. official said.

An unknown number of Afghans who qualify for refugee status because they work for US contractors or US-affiliated organizations are also in the group, they said.