Exclusive: UN's Afghan staffers 'stranded' in US resettlement limbo

Afghan employees of the United Nations have been “stranded” in Pakistan for more than a year, harassed by law enforcement, robbed by armed assailants, and forced to pay thousands of dollars in fines as they endure a stalled effort to be resettled in the United States, according to two confidential emails written to U.N. leaders by a representative of the employees, Sayed Lutfullah Barez. And the U.N. leadership in New York has ignored their pleas for help, he claims. Some 14 Afghan workers with the U.N. have been trapped in bureaucratic limbo since they were evacuated with their families from Afghanistan, following the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. military forces in August 2021, according to Barez, a U.N. public information officer with the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA. They face the constant threat of violence, their tenuous visa status has prevented their children from attending school, and “chronic stress and depression are rampant, and in some cases, to the point of suicide attempts,” Barez wrote in a Jan. 27 email to Rosemary DiCarlo, the U.N. under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs. It shouldn’t have turned out this way. The U.N. had referred the Afghans as priority, or P1, cases for resettlement through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. Beneficiaries of the program are generally vetted abroad by Resettlement Support Centers, before receiving U.S. visas. The centers are administered by the International Organization for Migration on behalf of the U.S. government. But Barez claimed that plans to open a resettlement center in Pakistan have been put off because of a surge in terrorist attacks in the region. Even if they do open, the Afghan evacuees fear they will have to wait in line behind 40,000 others seeking resettlement in Pakistan, a process that could take years. “We have been stranded in Pakistan for more than one year, mostly without visas which exposes us to harassment by law enforcement, fines, arrest, and deportation,” Barez wrote in January. “Several of us have already been fined by the government in thousands of dollars, at least in one case one of our houses were raided by police.” The plea for help comes as Pakistan is confronting a surge of terrorist strikes by the Pakistan Taliban, known as Tehrik-E Taliban Pakistan. The group attacked a local police station in Peshawar in January, which killed 80 people, according to the International Crisis Group. The violence, according to Barez, is fueling anti-Afghan sentiment in Pakistan. “We still find it appropriate to keep writing to you to ask for your attention, although we are not sure you are actually reading this or not.” --— Sayed Lutfullah Barez wrote in a January email to U.N. official Rosemary DiCarlo The evacuees have written repeatedly to senior officials in U.N. headquarters, initially seeking help prodding the U.S. State Department to expedite the cases or to facilitate their travel to a transit country, such as North Macedonia or Turkey, with the capacity to process their resettlement applications. “To our disappointment, we have not received a single response,” Barez wrote in the January email on behalf of the evacuees. In his latest letter to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres dated March 24, Barez suggested that the evacuees were giving up on the prospect of ever being resettled in the U.S. He appealed to the U.N. chief to help them resettle instead in Canada or Germany. “I am writing once again on behalf of UNAMA’s evacuated staff members in Pakistan with P1 cases for resettlement to the US, to remind you about our dreadful and potentially dangerous situation here,” Barez wrote. “The security is worsening rapidly too. On March 9, a son of one of our evacuated colleagues in Pakistan was shot and injured by robbers in plain daylight in the middle of a busy street.” “Even without this incident, we have kept our families mostly confined inside homes for more than a year since we didn’t have visas, which has had a heavy toll on mental, physical and psychological wellbeing of our families,” he wrote. “Given the ongoing situation in Pakistan, more serious and possibly fatal incidents against easy targets like us are inevitable.” A spokesperson for Guterres, Stéphane Dujarric, told Devex the U.N. chief and other U.N. officials “continue to engage with the Government of Pakistan regarding the situation of the UN national personnel and their families in the country.” The U.N. mission in Afghanistan, he added, which has a branch office in Pakistan, “is in regular contact with the affected staff members” while a number of governments “are considering long-term solutions, including resettlement, for United Nations evacuees.” Following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, “the United Nations has explored with a number of Member States the possibility of longer-term solutions for personnel assessed as to be at a very high/unacceptable risk, as a result of their work with the United Nations, along with their dependents, either permanently or temporarily. A large number of these personnel and dependents were evacuated on temporary visas to several countries,” Dujarric said. Barez wrote in March that a total of 37 U.N. staffers were evacuated from Afghanistan. Twelve were permitted into a resettlement program in Germany, nine in Canada, and 14 in the U.S. Two employees have not been permitted into any resettlement program. The status of the Afghan evacuees destined for the U.S. contrast sharply from those who sought refuge in Canada and Germany, he said. “So far, 10 evacuees and their families have arrived in Germany and all 9 evacuees on [the] Canada list have passed biometric fingerprinting and medical checkups, and are expected to be scheduled to fly to Canada within weeks,” Barez wrote in the March email. “The remaining 14 of us with P1 cases to the US however haven’t had any progress at all, and are left in complete despair and excruciating uncertainty.” A State Department spokesperson referred questions on the case to the United Nations, saying the U.S. does “not comment on specific cases on privacy grounds.” The spokesperson said that the International Organization for Migration “recently reached out to all Afghans with [priority] petitions to ensure we have up-to-date contact information” as it awaits permission from Pakistan to begin processing refugees. “If individuals choose to relocate, the U.S. government cannot fund their travel,” the spokesperson added. Barez declined a request for an interview about the role that he and his colleagues played in the UNAMA. But a December 2017 U.N. press release identified him as a U.N. public information officer. In the release, Barez urged Afghan girls and women to speak out against gender-based violence. “When survivors are allowed to speak out – with the help of the media – it holds perpetrators accountable, turns lives around, and sensitizes society to all forms of gender-based violence, including sexual harassment,” he said. “The UN hopes to help in Afghanistan’s transformation by focusing efforts around enforcing laws that defend women and by insisting on the view that all and any violence against women and girls is wrong.” Today, Barez is wondering whether the U.N. is even hearing his pleas. “Although we have written to you and H.E. [His Excellency] Secretary General several times and to our disappointment, we have not received a single response, but we still find it appropriate to keep writing to you to ask for your attention, although we are not sure you are actually reading this or not,” Barez wrote to DiCarlo in January. The U.N.’s Dujarric said: “We take our duty of care to our personnel very seriously. The United Nations is grateful to those countries that have shown support so far and continues to appeal to Member States to consider longer-term solutions, including resettlement, for those Afghan personnel identified as being at a very high or unacceptable risk if they remain in or return to Afghanistan.” Update, March 30, 2023: This story has been updated to include comments from the State Department.