Explainer · Regional
Afghan Allies in Pakistan
A history of policy decisions and human consequences. How tens of thousands of Afghans with U.S. cases came to be in Pakistan, what the two governments agreed to in 2023, why that arrangement collapsed in January 2025, and why Afghan families there now face detention, harassment, and deportation to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
Last updated November 1, 2026
Afghan nationals in Pakistan, including U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) referrals, Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants, humanitarian parole applicants, and I-730 and other family reunification beneficiaries, face escalating risk because the coordinated U.S. and Pakistani policy protections that once covered them have collapsed. After the 2021 U.S. withdrawal, tens of thousands of Afghans relocated to Pakistan to await U.S. processing, often without durable legal status and reliant on informal diplomatic arrangements to avoid enforcement. Those arrangements were destabilized when U.S. refugee processing and related pathways were halted in 2025, including family reunification cases, leaving many Afghans stranded. This explainer provides background on how these conditions developed, the current risks on the ground, and the steps AfghanEvac is calling for to prevent further harm.
Scope
This explainer applies only to Afghan nationals in Pakistan
Afghans in other countries have faced different legal regimes, processing environments, and risks. While U.S. policy decisions affected Afghans globally, Pakistan represents a uniquely acute case because of its proximity to Afghanistan, the size of the Afghan population present there, and the interaction between U.S. immigration policy and Pakistani enforcement decisions. This explainer focuses on how U.S. and Pakistani policies intersected in Pakistan, and why Afghan allies there are now facing extreme danger.
Who this explainer centers
Pakistan has hosted multiple categories of Afghans with U.S. ties: refugees referred to USRAP (commonly known as P1 and P2 cases), SIV applicants who had not yet reached the interview stage, Afghans who applied for humanitarian parole but whose applications were never adjudicated, and other Afghans with U.S.-linked immigration or family-based cases. All of these groups have been affected by shifting policies. This explainer centers the three populations impacted most acutely in Pakistan.
1. USRAP P1 and P2 refugees
Referred to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and told, after August 2021, that the United States could not assist them unless they were physically present in a third country.
2. SIV applicants awaiting interview
Applicants in the Special Immigrant Visa pipeline who had not yet reached the consular interview stage, many of whom were moved into Pakistan by the U.S. government itself.
3. Humanitarian parole applicants
Afghans whose parole applications stalled without ever being adjudicated, leaving them with a pending U.S. case and no decision.
What these groups share
- They often lacked durable legal status in Pakistan.
- They could not safely return to Afghanistan.
- They were dependent on U.S. processing timelines beyond their control.
- Their protection in Pakistan rested largely on informal tolerance rather than law.
2021 to 2022
The third-country requirement and self-relocation
August 2021: evacuation and the third-country requirement
Following the collapse of the Afghan government and the U.S. withdrawal in August 2021, tens of thousands of Afghan allies were left behind. In the immediate aftermath, the U.S. government consistently told Afghans with refugee referrals that it could not assist them unless they were physically present in a third country. Refugee processing inside Afghanistan was not operational, and the Taliban was not recognized as a legitimate government with which the United States could coordinate.
“If you want U.S. help, you must leave Afghanistan on your own.”The message many Afghans facing retaliation took from U.S. guidance
2021 to 2022: refugees self-relocate to Pakistan
Pakistan became the primary destination for Afghan refugees because it was geographically accessible, it allowed entry (often temporarily), and other countries imposed stricter entry requirements. By late 2021 and throughout 2022, tens of thousands of Afghan refugees were living in Pakistan while awaiting U.S. processing.
Most had short-term visas or no durable legal status, were forced to renew visas repeatedly or live in legal limbo, and relied on Pakistani tolerance rather than formal protection. Advocates warned early that this arrangement was fragile and unsustainable.
October 2022 to 2023
Enduring Welcome and rising enforcement pressure
October 2022: Enduring Welcome changes U.S. policy
On October 1, 2022, the U.S. government launched Enduring Welcome, replacing Operation Allies Welcome. It marked a significant shift: the United States allowed P1 and P2 refugees inside Afghanistan to access relocation support, which was possible because the Taliban was not recognized as a legitimate government. In theory, refugees no longer needed to flee to a third country to remain eligible.
For Pakistan, the impact was limited. By this point tens of thousands of refugees were already in Pakistan, many could not safely return to Afghanistan, and Pakistan continued to host a large population with no clear timeline for departure. Enduring Welcome changed U.S. policy. It did not undo the reality created in Pakistan.
2022 to 2023: delays, enforcement pressure, and rising risk
Throughout 2022 and into 2023, refugee processing remained slow, visa renewals and exit permits became harder to obtain, and Pakistan increased enforcement pressure in waves. Refugees faced a paradox: they were told to wait for U.S. processing, and they were penalized for waiting. This tension led directly to intensified diplomatic engagement.
Fall 2023
Escalation within ongoing U.S. and Pakistan diplomacy
By the fall of 2023, the United States and Pakistan had already been engaged in long, protracted discussions regarding Afghan nationals in Pakistan who were awaiting U.S. immigration processing. These discussions involved senior U.S. embassy leadership, multiple U.S. government agencies, and Pakistani government counterparts.
The core challenge was widely understood. Pakistan was hosting a very large population of Afghans who were not moving quickly enough, and the United States had not yet put in place a durable processing and protection framework capable of withstanding prolonged delays. As enforcement pressure increased and risks to Afghan populations became more acute, concerns were escalated within this existing diplomatic channel.
October 2023: letters to Pakistan
In October 2023, AfghanEvac sent a formal letter to senior Pakistani officials urging restraint toward Afghans in U.S. immigration pathways. The letter called for exemptions from detention and deportation for this defined population, and it was signed by a bipartisan group of former U.S. ambassadors, retired generals, and humanitarian leaders.
Around the same time, Members of Congress, including Representative William Keating, sent correspondence to Pakistani officials urging the opening of a Resettlement Support Center and renewed restraint toward Afghan refugees and other U.S.-linked populations. Additional private correspondence from senators and congressional offices reinforced the same message.
These letters did not initiate U.S. and Pakistan engagement. They amplified existing diplomacy, elevated the humanitarian and diplomatic stakes, and made clear that the status quo was untenable. This escalation helped sharpen existing diplomacy and set the stage for the high-level engagement that followed in November 2023.
What changed in fall 2023
The critical shift was not only diplomatic. It was operational. A central demand, echoed by AfghanEvac’s letter and by congressional correspondence, was the opening of a Resettlement Support Center (RSC) capability in Pakistan so refugee processing could move at real scale, and so Pakistani enforcement pressure would not collapse the pipeline.
In practice, expanded RSC capacity and an increased PRM and USCIS footprint were the mechanism that made the broader understanding workable. Pakistan could point to visible processing progress, and the United States could credibly commit to moving a defined population through the system rather than leaving them in indefinite limbo.
November 2023
A fragile breakthrough with Pakistan
During the fall of 2023, after sustained high-level engagement, the United States and Pakistan reached a practical understanding. This period included senior State Department visits to Pakistan, ambassador-level engagement with Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, parallel congressional and diplomatic pressure, and coordinated interagency focus on Pakistan.
The message was unmistakable: this was a defined, documented population for which the United States accepted responsibility. The list included USRAP P1 and P2 refugees, SIV applicants, and humanitarian parole seekers. The list was shown, not left behind.
The commitments made
The U.S. commitment
The United States committed to processing all Afghans in U.S. immigration pathways in Pakistan. Processing was real and ongoing, supported by staffing plans tied to expanded processing capacity, including the RSC mechanism that enabled scale. Embassy letters were issued to every individual on the list.
The Pakistani commitment
Pakistan committed to not harassing that defined population while U.S. processing moved forward.
2024: a fragile equilibrium
For a time, the arrangement worked. Arrests declined, deportations slowed, and embassy letters were honored. Throughout 2024, U.S. processing continued, Pakistan largely honored its commitment to restraint, and Afghan allies remained in Pakistan in reliance on the understanding reached the year before. The system was imperfect, but it functioned.
2023 to 2024
CARE relocations, U.S.-sustained housing, and reliance
As part of the U.S. government’s Afghan relocation efforts, the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) moved Afghans overland from Afghanistan into Pakistan, including refugees, SIV applicants awaiting interview, and others with pending U.S. immigration pathways. These individuals were placed into U.S.-government-sustained housing while their cases were processed. For many, this housing represented a transition point, not a destination.
People brought into CARE housing were led to believe they would be moving onward to the United States once processing was complete. In reliance on that understanding, many sold their remaining belongings in Afghanistan, exhausted personal savings, and severed what little stability they had left.
This relocation and housing support saved lives and enabled processing to continue. It also created deep reliance on U.S. follow-through. Once moved into U.S.-sustained housing in Pakistan, most individuals could not safely return to Afghanistan, no longer had homes, livelihoods, or assets to return to, and had no independent means to remain lawfully in Pakistan.
November 2024: housing removals
In November 2024, CARE began removing some Afghans from housing in Pakistan whose cases were considered stalled or no longer eligible for sustainment support. CARE made clear that these determinations were not immigration or visa eligibility decisions, but sustainment determinations related to housing authority.
Advocates raised immediate concerns about the timing and consequences of these removals. These individuals had been moved into housing by the U.S. government itself, many had been waiting for extended periods, and several later received Chief of Mission approval or authorization to move onward, demonstrating that stalled cases were not necessarily ineligible cases.
These housing removals did not cause the later collapse of the U.S. and Pakistan arrangement. But they increased vulnerability for a subset of Afghans in Pakistan just months before U.S. processing was halted entirely.
January 2025
Processing stops and the arrangement collapses
In January 2025, the Trump administration halted refugee processing. That decision ended U.S. refugee processing in Pakistan, broke the U.S. commitment underpinning the fall 2023 arrangement, and removed the incentive for Pakistani restraint. Pakistan resumed harassment, detention, and deportation of U.S.-linked Afghans almost immediately.
Islamabad as the default post after January 2025
After January 2025, the U.S. government also made a separate, consequential decision. Because there are no U.S. consular services in Afghanistan, the State Department declared Islamabad to be the primary processing post for Afghan nationals. This designation:
- Was made without prior coordination with Pakistan.
- Applied to most Afghan visa categories, including family-based and other immigrant and non-immigrant visas.
- Did not apply to Afghan SIVs, which follow a separate statutory and operational framework.
- Further concentrated Afghan demand on Islamabad at a moment when processing capacity was shrinking, not expanding.
For many Afghans in Pakistan, this meant being required to remain in Pakistan to pursue a visa, being exposed to enforcement while waiting, and having no alternative post available. The decision compounded risk at precisely the moment that protection was being withdrawn.
February 2026
A second letter to Pakistan
On February 9, 2026, as reporting indicated Pakistani authorities were moving toward deportation of Afghans specifically awaiting U.S. resettlement, AfghanEvac wrote again, this time to President Asif Ali Zardari and to Ambassador Rizwan Saeed Sheikh in Washington. The letter recounted the fall 2023 understanding and how it collapsed, acknowledged that Pakistan largely honored its side through 2024, and named the January 2025 U.S. processing halt as the decision that broke the arrangement.
It asked Pakistan for three things: an immediate halt to arrests, detention, and deportations of Afghans documented as being in U.S. immigration pathways; restored recognition of U.S. Embassy letters, or equivalent documentation, as a basis for temporary protection; and time and space for renewed diplomatic engagement toward a humane and orderly resolution.
October to November 2026
The United States turns Pakistan into a deportation route
The newest chapter runs in the opposite direction. For five years the question was whether Pakistan would send U.S.-linked Afghans back to Afghanistan. Now the United States itself is sending Afghans detained in America to Pakistan, knowing where they go from there.
Beginning in mid-October 2026, Afghans in ICE custody across at least 11 states, many detained at routine check-ins, were told they were being moved for removal. On October 26, Bloomberg Law reported that the administration planned to deport detained Afghans, including relatives of people who served alongside U.S. troops, to Pakistan. In a sworn declaration filed October 30 in a federal habeas case in the Eastern District of Virginia, an ICE supervisory deportation officer stated that the charter out of Alexandria, Louisiana would have a final destination of Pakistan with further transport onward to Afghanistan. The same officer had sworn a week earlier that the flight would land in Afghanistan. The removal order in that case names Afghanistan. No immigration judge approved removal to Pakistan.
Whether Pakistan has formally agreed to receive the flight is unclear. What is clear is the outcome for the people on it. Pakistan has spent two years expelling Afghans across the border, and the Taliban has every reason to target the relatives of those who worked with the United States.
What would stop it
The bipartisan Afghanistan TPS Act (H.R. 9899 / S. 5308) would protect Afghans already in the United States from removal to Taliban hands, with full vetting, through July 1, 2029. The House discharge petition to force a vote ripens November 9. AfghanEvac’s action tool connects you to your members of Congress and the White House by phone and letter.
Where things stand
Renewed danger for tens of thousands of Afghan allies
Today, tens of thousands of Afghan allies in Pakistan face renewed danger. Deportations have continued at scale through 2026.
For Afghans with U.S. cases, the practical consequence is unchanged. The relocation pipeline that was supposed to move them out of Pakistan is stalled, and Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar, extended to roughly June 2027 on September 30, 2026, is not accepting new arrivals.
Why this was foreseeable
Advocates warned for years that temporary protections could not last indefinitely, that delays would increase risk, and that refugees would pay the price. Those warnings proved correct.
The Afghans most affected followed U.S. guidance as it evolved, waited in good faith, had no control over the January 2025 policy decisions, and were already documented, listed, and known to both governments. The danger they now face is not the result of confusion or misunderstanding. It is the downstream consequence of policy decisions.
AfghanEvac’s position
Foreseeable harm does not become acceptable harm. These families are being punished for circumstances entirely outside their control, and it is still wrong. AfghanEvac calls for an immediate halt to arrests, detention, and deportations of Afghans documented as being in U.S. immigration pathways; recognition of U.S. Embassy letters or equivalent documentation as a basis for temporary protection; and time and space for diplomatic engagement and lawful processing to resume. Lives depend on it.
At a glance
Timeline of key events
- October 30, 2026
An ICE officer states under oath in the Eastern District of Virginia that the charter out of Alexandria, Louisiana will land in Pakistan with onward transport to Afghanistan. AfghanEvac issues a statement and launches the Stop the Flight campaign.
- October 26, 2026
Bloomberg Law reports the administration plans to deport detained Afghans, including relatives of people who served alongside U.S. troops, to Pakistan. Detentions at routine check-ins had been reported since mid-October.
- September 30, 2026
Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar is extended to roughly June 2027. It is not accepting new arrivals.
- January 1 to September 12, 2026
Reporting puts arrests and removals of Afghans from Pakistan at more than 80,000 for the period, and more than 2.68 million since the campaign began in 2023.
- February 9, 2026
AfghanEvac writes to President Zardari and Ambassador Sheikh asking Pakistan to halt arrests, detention, and deportations of Afghans in U.S. immigration pathways, restore recognition of U.S. Embassy letters, and allow space for renewed diplomacy.
- After January 2025
The State Department declares Islamabad the primary processing post for most Afghan visa categories (not SIVs), without prior coordination with Pakistan.
- January 2025
The Trump administration halts refugee processing. The U.S. commitment underpinning the 2023 arrangement is broken, and Pakistan resumes harassment, detention, and deportation of U.S.-linked Afghans almost immediately.
- November 2024
CARE begins removing some Afghans from U.S.-sustained housing in Pakistan whose cases are considered stalled. CARE describes these as sustainment determinations, not immigration decisions.
- 2024
A fragile equilibrium. U.S. processing continues and Pakistan largely honors its commitment to restraint.
- November 2023
After sustained high-level engagement, the United States and Pakistan reach a practical understanding covering a defined, documented population. Embassy letters are issued to every individual on the list.
- October 2023
AfghanEvac sends a formal letter to senior Pakistani officials, signed by a bipartisan group of former U.S. ambassadors, retired generals, and humanitarian leaders. Representative William Keating and other Members of Congress send parallel correspondence urging a Resettlement Support Center and restraint.
- 2023 to 2024
CARE moves Afghans overland from Afghanistan into U.S.-government-sustained housing in Pakistan while their cases are processed.
- 2022 to 2023
Refugee processing remains slow, visa renewals and exit permits become harder to obtain, and Pakistan increases enforcement pressure in waves.
- October 1, 2022
Enduring Welcome launches, replacing Operation Allies Welcome, and allows P1 and P2 refugees inside Afghanistan to access relocation support.
- Late 2021 to 2022
Tens of thousands of Afghan refugees self-relocate to Pakistan to await U.S. processing, most on short-term visas or with no durable legal status.
- August 2021
The Afghan government collapses and the United States withdraws. Afghans with refugee referrals are told the U.S. cannot assist them unless they are physically present in a third country.
Go deeper
Read the February 2026 letter to Pakistan
AfghanEvac’s February 9, 2026 letter to President Zardari and Ambassador Sheikh and the short version of this explainer are linked below. Our explainers on barriers to relocation, Camp As Sayliyah, and the current state of the SIV program cover the rest of the pipeline.
Related explainers
This explainer summarizes public policy and legal developments for informational purposes and is not legal advice. For guidance on your own case, consult a qualified immigration attorney or a DOJ-accredited representative. Built in consultation with attorneys, former U.S. government officials, and families in the process. Questions or corrections: contact@afghanevac.org.
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