US President Donald Trump said he will try to help Afghan refugees who have been detained in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since they fled their country after the Taliban took power.
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“I will try to save them, starting right now,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, linking to a report about the Afghans held in the UAE.
According to Reuters, Trump referred to a report by “Just the News”, which claimed that UAE officials may hand over some refugees to the Taliban. Reuters said it had not confirmed that report.
The UAE agreed in 2021 to temporarily shelter thousands of Afghans who were evacuated from Kabul after the US withdrawal. Since then, many have remained in legal limbo. Canada accepted about 1,000 of them in 2022 at the request of the US, but it is not clear how many are still in the Gulf country.
Nearly 200,000 Afghans were brought to the United States under former President Joe Biden. Trump’s administration, however, ended protections for many Afghans in April and had earlier suspended refugee resettlement after he took office.
Some countries have already started sending Afghan refugees back. The United Nations said nearly 2 million Afghans were returned from Iran and Pakistan in the past seven months. On Friday, Germany deported 81 Afghan men, and several European countries are also reviewing their asylum policies.
Many of the Afghans stuck in the UAE include people who worked for the US government during the 20-year war, children waiting to reunite with parents, and family members of Afghan-Americans who served in the US military.
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Shawn VanDiver, president of the advocacy group #AfghanEvac, said Trump should take clear steps to follow through on his words.
“President Trump has the authority to do the right thing,” VanDiver told Reuters. “He should instruct the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department to speed up processing, work on third-country partnerships, and make sure we never again leave our wartime allies behind.”
The US State Department did not comment on the situation when asked by Reuters.