Big News Network, 1/15/25: “Afghan citizens evacuated by Washington during the chaotic withdrawal from the country in 2021 remain stranded in around 36 countries, often in prison-like facilities, according to new documents released by several human rights grounds on Tuesday.

‘Hundreds to thousands’ of Afghans, who were forced to flee during the Taliban’s takeover, are still “detained or stranded” with pending applications to enter the US, according to a joint press release by the Center for Constitutional Rights, Abolitionist Law Center, and Muslim Advocates.

‘Rather, correspondence from Afghan civilians and investigations by human rights groups confirm uncertainty for months up to years on end,’ the document reads.

The records, offering a snapshot up to the fall of 2023, reveal Washington’s involvement in operations across the sites, where human rights abuses like ‘cases of family separation,’ denial of access to humanitarian organizations, as well as inhumane conditions, have been reported, resulting in ‘trauma and mental health crises.’

The documents were obtained by the groups following litigation against the Departments of Defense, State, and Homeland Security, according to The Guardian.

An attorney and program manager at the Abolitionist Law Center, Sadaf Doost, told the newspaper that advocates filed records requests to seek information about conditions at several places, where they knew Afghans were being held. The papers indicated that those evacuated have been “detained, held, or otherwise forced to remain in limbo” in some 36 nations, he said.”

Read the full article here.