Trump Vows to Help Afghan Refugees Stuck in UAE After Years of Detention

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he would help Afghans detained in the United Arab Emirates for years after fleeing their country when the US pulled out and the Taliban took power.

Trump, a Republican who promised a far-reaching immigration crackdown, suspended refugee resettlement after he took office in January. In April, his administration terminated temporary deportation protections for thousands of Afghans in the US.

\”I will try to save them, starting right now,\” Trump declared in a post on Truth Social, linking to an article about the Afghans held in limbo in the UAE.

Trump cited news website Just the News, which reported that UAE officials were preparing to hand over some Afghan refugees to the Taliban. Reuters has not independently verified this claim.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The UAE, a close security partner of the US, agreed in 2021 to temporarily house several thousand Afghans evacuated from Kabul as the Taliban ousted the US-backed government during the final stages of the US-led withdrawal.

Since the chaotic US troop withdrawal from Kabul, former President Joe Biden’s administration has resettled nearly 200,000 Afghans in the United States.

In 2022, Canada agreed to resettle about 1,000 of the Afghans still held in the UAE following a US request. The exact number of Afghans remaining in the Gulf country is unclear.

Some countries have forcibly returned Afghan refugees to Afghanistan. According to the UN, nearly 2 million Afghans were repatriated from Iran and Pakistan in the past seven months.

On Friday, Germany deported 81 Afghan men to Afghanistan as part of a broader tightening of refugee admissions. Several other European countries are also pushing for stricter asylum rules within the EU.

In the US, Democrats have urged Trump to reinstate temporary protected status for Afghans, arguing that women and children could face particular risks under the Taliban-led government that has been in power since 2021.

The refugees include family members of Afghan-American US military personnel, children cleared to reunite with their parents, relatives of Afghans already admitted, and tens of thousands of Afghans who worked for the US government during the two-decade-long war.

Shawn VanDiver, president of the #AfghanEvac advocacy group, called on Trump to follow through on his statement with concrete action.

\”President Trump has the authority to do the right thing. He should instruct the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the State Department to expedite processing, push for third-country partnerships, and ensure that we never again abandon our wartime allies,\” VanDiver said in a statement.