WASHINGTON—Today, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released a statement on reports that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has returned at least two Afghan families to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. According to multiple credible reports, the UAE began deportations as early as July 10 and informed U.S. officials of its intent to “close this chapter for good” by July 20—just hours before President Donald Trump publicly pledged to “save” the stranded evacuees.
“Reports that the United Arab Emirates has returned Afghan families from the Emirates Humanitarian City in Abu Dhabi to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan are unacceptable, and there are indications that these actions were coordinated with the Taliban regime. For months, I have called on this Administration to do more to ensure our Afghan allies—many of whom served alongside U.S. forces—are fully processed and brought to safety in the United States. Returning vulnerable Afghans to the very regime they fled, especially after risking their lives in support of American operations, is a betrayal of our values and commitments. We made a promise to protect those who stood with us. There is still time to act. The Trump administration must immediately extend protection and resettlement opportunities for Afghan evacuees who remain stranded in Qatar, the UAE, Albania and Pakistan.
“President Trump must also take urgent and decisive action to lift all restrictions preventing Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants and holders from traveling to the United States. Those restrictions, along with the Department of Homeland Security’s revocation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections for vulnerable Afghan families in the U.S. and threats to deport them back into the arms of the Taliban, are shameful and run contrary to everything we stand for as a country. Those protections should be immediately reinstated and extended.”
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