Reported by Al Jazeera
At least 150 Afghans are facing deportation to Pakistan and on to Afghanistan.
A group of 66 lawmakers in the United States has written to the administration of President Donald Trump asking it to halt a planned mass deportation of Afghans, including some who worked alongside coalition forces in Afghanistan before the military withdrawal in 2021.
In Monday’s letter, the lawmakers cited advocacy group reports that at least 150 Afghans were scheduled to be deported from Tuesday – flown from detention facilities in Louisiana to Pakistan.
More from the original report
The Associated Press news agency also reported that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials had said in court filings that they eventually planned on returning some of the Afghans to their home country.
The US does not have diplomatic relations with Afghanistan, which has been governed by the Taliban since US troops withdrew in August 2021.
“Sending dozens of people back to one of the most dangerous countries on earth, and where they are likely to be targeted for their or their family’s suspected support of the US government or criticism of the Taliban, is a death sentence,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin.
“Our country made a promise never to abandon the Afghans who sacrificed their own and their family’s safety to stand with American service members.”
As part of its crackdown on immigration, the Trump administration has made agreements with at least 35 countries to take in third-country nationals , in many cases because it cannot send them back to their home countries for fear they would be tortured, killed, or otherwise persecuted.
Critics of the practice have said it undermines decades of global humanitarian norms around asylum seeker and refugee protection. They say deportees often end up in countries with a record of human rights abuses, or places that are so dangerous the US tells its own citizens not to travel there.
The Trump administration has forcibly sent at least 25,000 people to third countries, according to a tally by nonprofits Refugees International and Human Rights First.