US administration preparing to deport Afghan refugees to Pakistan, reports say

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is preparing to deport Afghan refugees to Pakistan as early as Monday, according to media reports on Friday that cite NBC News. Advocates fear the refugees could later be sent to Afghanistan.

The flight has not been announced publicly. NBC News reported that rights advocates and relatives of detainees said it could take place in the coming days. Anadolu Agency and The Express Tribune relayed the report.

Neither the destination nor the timing of the flight has been officially confirmed, according to the reports. The sources do not say how many people would be on board.

Concerns over safety

The prospect of deportation to Pakistan has worried rights advocates and families of detainees, according to the reports. They are concerned about the refugees' safety and about the risk that they could eventually be moved on to Afghanistan, which is governed by the Taliban.

AfghanEvac, an organisation that advocates for Afghan refugees, criticised the reported plans in a statement on Friday. It accused the administration of preparing the flight while public attention was on the upcoming US midterm elections, "hoping no one is watching."

"The government won't say where these flights land, because it knows what happens to the people on them when they do," NBC News quoted AfghanEvac as saying. The group added: "A government confident in what it is doing does not hide it."

The reports did not include a response from the US government or from Pakistan. It was not clear from the sources whether either had been asked to comment.

Background

The reports link the plan to continuing uncertainty over Afghan refugees housed at Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar. According to the reports, the US government has repeatedly extended its deadlines for removing people from the facility.

The State Department first said everyone would leave the camp by March 31. That date was later moved to Sept. 30. In September, the administration delayed the camp's closure by a further nine months, according to NBC News.

Earlier this year, the administration also considered moving Afghan refugees from Camp As Sayliyah to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an Ebola outbreak had been reported, according to the same report.

The sources do not say whether the people who could be deported to Pakistan are those held at the Qatar camp. They also do not describe the legal basis for the proposed flight. The reports say only that the administration is still weighing arrangements to remove the refugees.

The Express Tribune's version of the story also linked to a separate article about Pakistan urging the Afghan Taliban to take "decisive action" against terrorist groups. That article was not part of the NBC News report, and the sources do not connect it to the proposed flight.