WASHINGTON (NBC) – More than 230 Afghan children are alone in the U.S. while their parents or caregivers remain in Afghanistan, according to new figures from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement obtained by NBC News, and as it gets harder to evacuate anyone from Afghanistan, there is little hope of speedy reunions.
Just one flight with evacuees leaves Kabul each week, and some countries where Afghans wait while applying to come to the U.S. have stopped accepting refugees.
As of August 30, the Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR, had 104 children in its care, while 130 were in the custody of state governments or non-governmental organizations. Of the 104 still in federal care, 42 are in foster care, according to ORR data.
During the chaotic evacuation of Americans and Afghans who had helped the U.S. in August 2021, many Afghan families made the hard decision to separate to get as many family members as possible to safety. More than 1,500 children came to the U.S. unaccompanied, and ORR has placed more than 1,400 with family members or other adults.
The goal remains to reunify all Afghan children with their parents or relatives in the U.S., a spokesperson said, although many do not yet have family outside Afghanistan.
“These children have experienced far more trauma than any child ever should,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.
“The urgency of this moment means doing whatever it takes to reunite these vulnerable children with their families. ... These children can’t afford to wait decades for the United States to keep its promise to those left behind,” O’Mara Vignarajah added.
Since the U.S. departure from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover, the Taliban have restricted the number of flights leaving Kabul. In November, the Taliban halted all evacuation flights for several months over a dispute about how Kabul Airport was being run and who was leaving on the flights.
Flights restarted in January. By this summer, an average of two charter flights were leaving with evacuees every week, but the number has since fallen again, and this month it is down to one per week.