Refugees who are already in the United States will continue receiving services, but all resettlement efforts under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program are now suspended indefinitely — including “all refugee case processing and pre-departure activities,” according to the memo. Roughly 10,000 refugees were booked for travel, which is now canceled. The decision is expected to have far-reaching consequences for refugee families and people whose security clearances are at risk of expiring, with no clear timelines for their resettlement.
Nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared by the U.S. government to resettle in the U.S. are having their flights canceled under President Donald Trump’s order to suspend U.S. refugee programs, as stated by a U.S. official and a leading refugee resettlement advocate. The group includes unaccompanied minors awaiting reunification with their families in the U.S. and Afghans at risk of Taliban retribution, according to Shawn Vandiver, head of the #AfghanEvac coalition. The U.S. decision leaves thousands of other Afghans approved for resettlement in limbo, as they have not yet been assigned flights from Afghanistan or neighboring Pakistan, as reported by the U.S. official.
Refugees who had been approved to travel to the United States before a Jan. 27 deadline suspending America's refugee resettlement program have had their travel plans canceled by the Trump administration. The suspension was in an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Monday. It left open the possibility that people who had undergone the process to be approved as refugees and permitted to come to the U.S., and had flights booked before that deadline, might still be able to get in under the wire.