As the Pakistani government has removed 300,000 Afghans from its borders since Jan. 1, U.S. allies are increasingly among those being returned to their homeland. This week, two U.S. nonprofits reported that six Afghans in U.S. processing pipelines were deported in a single 24-hour period.
Since the fall of the Afghan government in August 2021, Long Island volunteer Meredith Festa has assisted 169 U.S. Refugee Admissions Program applicants whose lives were endangered because they provided care for U.S. military dogs and U.S. Embassy employees’ pets. Covering the extortionate prices of visas, rent, and healthcare in Pakistan during four years of crawling bureaucracy cost the founder of the nonprofit Paws Unite People over $1.5 million. About $400,000 came directly from Festa’s liquidated retirement savings.
