Afghanistan Times
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KABUL — U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to intervene on behalf of hundreds of Afghan evacuees who have been held for years in the United Arab Emirates, after fleeing Afghanistan following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. His statement, made Sunday on Truth Social, marks a significant and unexpected shift from his administration’s otherwise hardline stance on immigration and refugee policy. “I will try to save them, starting right now,” Trump wrote, sharing a report detailing the prolonged detention of Afghan refugees at a temporary facility in the UAE. The evacuees, many of whom worked alongside U.S. and allied forces during the two-decade war, have lived in legal limbo since the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Kabul. The UAE agreed in 2021 to temporarily host several thousand Afghans at the request of Washington, but efforts to resettle them in third countries have been slow and incomplete. While Canada agreed to accept around 1,000 of those stuck in the Emirates, many more remain, unable to return home due to Taliban rule and with no clear path forward. Trump’s remarks come after his administration terminated temporary deportation protections for thousands of Afghans in the U.S. earlier this year and suspended refugee resettlement upon returning to office in January. Critics have accused the administration of abandoning vulnerable allies and reversing key Biden-era protections that had allowed nearly 200,000 Afghans to enter the U.S. since 2021. Those evacuees included interpreters, U.S. military family members, unaccompanied children, and relatives of Afghan-Americans already in the country—many of whom faced direct Taliban threats due to their association with the West. While it remains unclear what concrete steps Trump plans to take, his comments have raised hopes among the detainees and their advocates, who say the U.S. bears a moral responsibility to act. Rights groups have described the conditions at the UAE facility as restrictive and psychologically damaging, with many refugees reporting deteriorating mental health after years of uncertainty and isolation. The White House and the State Department have not yet issued further details on any new resettlement plan or diplomatic discussions with Emirati officials. The situation underscores the lasting human fallout of the U.S. exit from Afghanistan, and the unresolved fate of those who fled in its aftermath—many of whom are still waiting for a place to call home. You said:
