“It’s like America doesn’t actually understand what I’ve done for this country, and it’s a betrayal,” Abdullah told the BBC.

He fled Afghanistan with his parents during the U.S. evacuation in August 2021 and is now a paratrooper in the U.S. military. With President Donald Trump’s executive order halting the resettlement program, he also fears his sister and her husband won’t be able to escape either.

The order cancels all flights and applications for Afghan refugees without exempting active military families.

Trump argued that the decision involved “record levels of relocation” that threatened “Americans’ resource availability.”

But Abdullah and several other Afghan refugees told the BBC they believed the United States had been working with U.S. officials, troops and non-profit organizations for years. We are not using their real names because they fear doing so would jeopardize their cases or put their families at risk.

When Abdullah heard the order, he called his sister. “She was crying, she had lost all hope,” he said, believing his work made her a target of the Taliban government that takes power in 2021.

He said: “The anxiety, it’s unimaginable. She thinks we’ll never see each other again.”

During the war, Abdullah said he worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Army. When he left Afghanistan, his sister and husband were unable to obtain passports in time to board the flight.

Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Taliban government, told the BBC that there was an amnesty for anyone who cooperated with international forces and that all Afghans could “live in the country without fear”. He claimed that these refugees were “economic immigrants.”

However, a 2023 United Nations report cast doubt on the Taliban government’s assurances. It found that despite the amnesty, hundreds of former government officials and members of the armed forces were killed.

Abdullah’s sister and her husband have completed the medical exams and interviews required for resettlement in the United States. Documents showing the US Department of Defense endorsing its application have been seen by the BBC.

Now, Abdullah says Trump’s insistence that immigration is too high does not justify his separation from his family. He described sleepless nights and said the anxiety was affecting his combat unit, serving the United States in the United States.

Babak is a former legal adviser to the Afghan Air Force and remains in hiding in Afghanistan.

“They’re not just breaking our promise – they’re breaking us,” he said.

The BBC has seen letters from the United Nations confirming his role, as well as a letter endorsing the US Air Force lieutenant colonel’s asylum claims. The endorsement added that he had advised on strikes targeting militants linked to the Taliban and the Islamic State group.

Babak could not understand the president’s decision, given his work with the U.S. military. “We risk our lives because of these missions. Now we are in grave danger,” he said.

He had been moving his wife and young son from location to location, desperately trying to hide. He claimed his brother was tortured over his whereabouts. Given the nature of his claims, the BBC was unable to verify this part of his story.

Babak called on Trump and his national security adviser, Mike Waltz, to change their minds.

He told us: “Mike Waltz, you served in Afghanistan. Please encourage the president.”

Before saying goodbye, he added: “The one light we have been holding on to has been extinguished.”

Ahmad managed to fly to the United States amid the chaos of the withdrawal, but is now separated from his family. He felt he had no choice but to leave his father, mother and teenage siblings behind.

He said his family would not have been targeted by the Taliban government if he and his father had not cooperated with the United States. He added: “I can’t sleep knowing I’m in this situation.”

Before the Taliban takeover, Ahmad worked for a non-profit organization called the Open Government Partnership (OGP), which was co-founded by the United States 13 years ago and is headquartered in Washington. He said the work he was most proud of was setting up a special court to address abuse against women.

But he claimed his work with the OGP and advocacy for women made him targeted and shot by Taliban fighters in 2021 before they took over the country.

A letter from a hospital in Pennsylvania, seen by the BBC, assessed “evidence of bullet and bullet fragment injuries” which they said was consistent with his account of what happened in Kabul.

Worse, he said his family was also in danger because his father was a colonel in the Afghan army and assisted the CIA. The BBC has seen a certificate provided by Afghan National Security Forces thanking his father for his service.

Ahmed said the Taliban government harassed his parents, siblings, so they fled to Pakistan. The BBC has seen photos showing Ahmad’s father and brother being treated for injuries in hospital, claiming people from the Taliban government were responsible for the damage.

His family has completed several steps of the resettlement plan. He said he even provided evidence that he had enough money to support his family without any government help after arriving in the United States.

Now Ahmed says the situation is critical. His family was granted a visa in Pakistan that was due to expire in a few months. He has contacted the IOM and was told to “be patient”.

The director of #AfghaneVac, a nonprofit that helps eligible Afghan refugees resettle, said he estimates there are 10,000-15,000 people in the advanced stages of applying.

Pregnant Mina had been waiting for the flight from Islamabad for six months. She feared her terror would threaten her unborn child. She told the BBC: “If I lost my baby I would kill myself.”

She said she regularly protested for women’s rights even when the Taliban government took control of Afghanistan. She claims she was arrested in 2023 and detained overnight.

“Even then, I didn’t want to leave Afghanistan. After my release I went into hiding, but they called me and said next time, they would kill me,” she said.

Meena fears the Pakistani government will send her back to Afghanistan. This is partly because Pakistan will not grant asylum to Afghan refugees indefinitely.

The country has taken hundreds of thousands of refugees from decades of instability in the region. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, the country is home to 3 million Afghan nationals, with about 1.4 million documented.

Concern has grown over the fate of Afghans in Pakistan, with reports of alleged intimidation and detention as cross-border tensions with the Taliban government erupt. The UN special rapporteur said he was concerned that Afghans in the area deserved better treatment.

The Pakistani government said it was deporting foreign nationals who had returned to Afghanistan illegally and carried out the raids in January.

According to the IOM, more than 795,000 Afghans have been expelled from Pakistan since September last year.

We are talking about Afghan refugees in a homeland where their lives are at risk, and in a host country whose patience is exhausted.

They had been pinning their hopes on the United States – but what appeared to be safe ports was suddenly blocked by the new president until further notice.