Fatima has spent her whole life waiting for approval of her humanitarian visa to reach the United States.
Fatima will turn one in September, and so will the emergency immigration application that was made on her behalf to the U.S. government a week after her birth.
Fatima’s parents received special permission to enter the United States last year due to her father’s employment in the Afghan presidential palace prior to the Taliban retaking Afghanistan, according to government records, defying the seemingly insurmountable odds faced by other Afghans seeking entry.
Fatima was born only 16 days after her parents’ applications were accepted, but the United States has not yet decided on the application made on her behalf.
The family’s trust in the United States and its pledge to protect Afghans in need has been put to the test during the 10-month wait, which has left them in a difficult legal and emotional situation.
Mohammed, Fatima’s father, who received humanitarian parole—special authorization to enter the United States—on September 1, 2021—said, “We are in a really horrible position.
“The situation is difficult day by day. This is very similar to a jail.”
The family was evacuated from Afghanistan in October 2021, but they have been stranded in the United Arab Emirates ever since.
They requested that their identities be altered, claiming worries for their safety as well as the protection of family members who lived in Afghanistan as a result of Mohammed’s position as a senior officer in the presidential palace.
Mohammed, his wife, and Fatima are among the thousands of Afghan evacuees who have been stuck in third countries for months, and in many cases, for close to a year.
This is despite the fact that it has been nearly a year since the fall of Kabul and the chaotic U.S. evacuations, and they are still waiting to hear whether the U.S. will agree to resettle them.
According to previously unreleased U.S. State Department information provided to CBS News, there are still about 6,500 Afghan evacuees living at the Emirates Humanitarian City, an apartment building outside of Abu Dhabi that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) agreed to turn into a temporary refugee housing facility.
Last summer, just after the U.S.-aligned administration in Kabul fell apart, some of the Afghans living in the Humanitarian City came in the United Arab Emirates.
Last November, nonprofit organisations organised charter planes to transport others out of Afghanistan.
They include Afghans who want to immigrate to the United States as Special Immigrants because they supported the American war effort, families and individuals who fear Taliban harm because of their employment, ethnicity, gender, or other factors, and other evacuees who were able to board an evacuation flight.
Those residing in the Humanitarian City have been subjected to a slower, case-by-case immigration review by U.S. officials, which does not include a guarantee of U.S. resettlement, as opposed to the more than 70,000 Afghans who were directly evacuated and then swiftly resettled by the U.S. last year after some security vetting.
The differential processing is a result of US policy. According to the State Department, Afghans who were evacuated to the UAE by August 31, 2021, were almost promised entry into the United States provided they cleared certain medical and security requirements.
However, anyone who entered the country after August 31, 2021, must now demonstrate their eligibility for a U.S. immigration benefit, such as a visa or refugee status.
On August 15, 2021, Kabul was overrun by the Taliban, and the last American combat aircraft to leave Afghanistan did so shortly before midnight on August 31.
The quick conquest triggered a humanitarian disaster that forced millions of Afghans to flee their homes.
Thousands, including unregistered refugees living in improvised shelters who spoke to CBS News about their suffering in June, crossed the border into the neighbouring country of Pakistan.
Afghan refugees who were subject to stricter screening at a U.S. military facility in Kosovo told CBS News they felt “like captives.”
According to the State Department, the US is looking into the situations of every Afghan who has been left in the Humanitarian City.
A total of 17,000 evacuees have gone through the Humanitarian City, and the majority of those who have left have been resettled in the United States, according to the department, which noted that the U.S. has continued to process some Afghans there.
However, the State Department recognised that not all Afghans living in the Humanitarian City would be eligible for American resettlement, adding that it had been pleading with other nations to take in those refugees.
The State Department issued a statement saying, “The United States is completely committed to aiding Afghans at Emirates Humanitarian City to reach their ultimate destination.”
“Given our continued commitment to our Afghan partners, we anticipate welcoming thousands more people to the United States in the near future.”
However, supporters claim that Afghans in the Humanitarian City have been unfairly treated differently, and even ignored, only because of the aircraft they were evacuated on and the person who managed their evacuation.
After the hasty U.S. military retreat, it is now up to private American individuals and the Emirati government to assist at-risk Afghans who were left behind, according to Joseph Robert, a U.S. veteran who managed the evacuation and resettlement of some Afghans to the UAE.
The burden of support has been placed in the hands of the American people and a foreign country that sacrificed their time, money, and resources to do what was right, Robert said.
“Those Afghans in the UAE have been left in limbo, uncertain of their future, unable to provide for their loved ones still suffering in Afghanistan.”
A facility in Leesburg, Virginia, that has been used by the Biden administration to process new Afghan arrivals is scheduled to run out of congressional funding at the end of September, though it’s unclear whether there is a firm deadline to relocate the remaining Afghans at the Humanitarian City to the United States or third countries.
It’s also not clear how long the Emirati government will continue to offer Afghans housing and other necessities.
The UAE government told CBS News it was collaborating with the U.S. “to relocate Afghan refugees in a timely way,” adding that the agreement to host them was made “temporarily.”
The Emirati government said it is offering sanitation, health, clinical, counselling, education, and food services to Afghans, adding that it “remains committed to this ongoing cooperation with the US and other international partners to ensure that Afghan evacuees can live in safety, security, and dignity.”
Mohammed, a former employee of the presidential palace, finds the wait to be intolerable. His family has a feeling of helplessness whenever they see other Afghans leaving the Humanitarian City, according to Mohammed.
He said that the inability for them to exit the Humanitarian City had made the situation worse. Mohammed went on to stress that his family’s mental health has been impacted by the protracted and indefinite detention, stating, “Day and night, we are in the room.”
Mohammed’s family’s application for humanitarian parole should be given top priority by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), according to Elizabeth Rieser-Murphy, an attorney for the Legal Aid Society who is representing Mohammed’s family.
This is because of the child’s age and the agency’s approval of her parents’ petitions.
“Given the volume of outstanding parole petitions, we are aware that USCIS has limited resources, but this is a unique instance.
The continued uncertainty of this family is cruel and inhumane “Rieser-Murphy noted that the family has American relatives in New York who are prepared to receive them.
USCIS has received over 48,900 petitions for humanitarian parole from Afghans living abroad since July 2021, according to confidential USCIS statistics.
According to agency statistics, USCIS rejected 8,058 instances, or roughly 96%, of the 8,427 parole petitions it had considered as of July 28.
Mohammed said that if his infant is denied entry and his family is forced to return to Afghanistan, he risked imprisonment or perhaps death, citing reports of Taliban killings of former Afghan government officials.
Maybe this is how our lives will end out,” he speculated.