AFGHANS who fled after the Taliban retook power appealed to US President Donald Trump today to exempt them from an order suspending the relocation of refugees to the country, some saying they risked their lives to support US troops.

An estimated 15,000 Afghans are waiting in Pakistan to be approved for resettlement in the US via a government programme.

It was set up to help Afghans at risk under the Taliban because of their work with the US government, media, aid agencies and rights groups after the US’s disastrous retreat from Afghanistan in 2021, when the Taliban returned to power.

But in his first days in office, Mr Trump’s administration announced that the US Refugee Admissions Programme (Usrap) would be suspended from January 27 for at least three months.

During that period, the White House said that the secretary of homeland security in consultation with the secretary of state will submit a report to the president whether the resumption of the programme is in the US interest.

There was no immediate comment from Pakistan, where authorities have urged the world community to decide the fate of the 1.45 million Afghan refugees, saying they cannot stay indefinitely.

“Many of us risked our lives to support the US mission as interpreters, contractors, human rights defenders and allies,” an advocacy group called Afghan Usrap Refugees said in an open letter to Mr Trump, members of Congress and human rights defenders.

“The Taliban regards us as traitors and returning to Afghanistan would expose us to arrest, torture or death,” the group said.

“In Pakistan, the situation is increasingly untenable. Arbitrary arrests, deportations and insecurity compound our distress.”

Hadisa Bibi, a former student in Kabul who fled to neighbouring Pakistan last month, said that she read in newspapers that Mr Trump suspended the refugee programme.

“Prior to restrictions on women’s education in Afghanistan, I was a university student,” she said.

“Given the risks I face as a women’s rights advocate, I was hoping for a swift resettlement to the United States. This would not only allow me to continue my higher education but also offer a safer and brighter future.”

She said that she witnessed several Afghans arrested by Pakistani police, which left her in fear, “confined to my room like a prisoner.”

Mahnoosh Monir said that she was a medical student in Afghanistan when her education was “cruelly suspended by the Taliban.”

Before fleeing to Pakistan, she worked as a teacher at a language centre but it was too was shut by the Taliban.

“Afghanistan is no longer a place for any girl or woman to survive,” she said, saying that she was disappointed by Mr Trump’s move.

“I didn’t expect this suspension to happen. A long span of waiting makes us think of very disappointing probabilities like being sent back to Afghanistan or waiting for a long time in Pakistan as a refugee at risk, which are like nightmares to all of case holders,” she said.

The Taliban have deliberately deprived 1.4m Afghan girls of schooling through bans, according to the United Nations.

Afghanistan is the only country in the world that bans female secondary and higher education.

Both Ms Bibi and Ms Monir applied for relocation and were still waiting. Over time, the visa process for Afghans who demonstrate they are at risk of persecution had become protracted.

According to the Afghan Usrap Refugees group, flights to the US for many Afghans had been scheduled for January, February and March after they were interviewed by the International Organisation for Migration and US embassy officials.

“We seek the reversal of the ban on the refugee programme on humanitarian grounds,” said Ahmad Shah, a member of the group, who was hoping to leave Pakistan for the US in March after undergoing all interviews and medical tests.

In addition to Pakistan, more than 3,200 Afghans have stayed in Albania — which first agreed to house fleeing Afghans for one year before they move for final settlement in the US, then pledged to keep them for longer if their visas were delayed.