RASC News Agency: In a move that has alarmed refugee advocates and human rights defenders, the United States Department of State has informed Congress of its intention to close the Office of the Coordinator for Afghanistani Relocation Efforts (CARE) a key agency tasked with managing the relocation and resettlement of Afghanistani refugees. According to confidential documents reviewed by Bloomberg, the responsibilities of CARE will soon be absorbed by the Bureau of Afghanistan’s Affairs, and the position of the Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconstruction will be eliminated altogether. This decision forms part of a sweeping bureaucratic restructuring within the federal government, aimed at reducing staff and consolidating diplomatic functions under broader foreign policy directives. More than 300 federal agencies are undergoing review and reorganization in what officials describe as a move to refocus U.S. international engagement, even as the humanitarian cost of such “streamlining” becomes painfully evident.
The CARE office was created in the wake of the Taliban’s seizure of power in August 2021 a political catastrophe that triggered the collapse of the former Afghanistan’s government and left thousands of U.S.-affiliated Afghanistani nationals vulnerable to retaliation, imprisonment, and death. The Biden administration, under immense international and domestic pressure, established the office to address urgent evacuation and resettlement needs. CARE rapidly became a critical node for processing Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs), coordinating with host countries, and offering support to those fleeing Taliban persecution. Despite bipartisan support in Congress and clear evidence of the office’s necessity, the State Department has chosen to shutter it. As of yet, there has been no public explanation or clear plan presented to replace or continue its core functions. This vacuum raises serious questions about America’s commitment to those it once called allies and about the fates of the thousands of refugees still languishing in limbo across the globe.
The closure has drawn particularly sharp condemnation from veterans’ groups and refugee organizations. Shawn VanDiver, a U.S. Navy veteran and president of a nonprofit that advocates for Afghanistani evacuees, issued a forceful statement: “The CARE Office was created to remedy the failures of America’s chaotic withdrawal. Its sudden dismantling without transparency or accountability is a betrayal of our deepest values. The lives of thousands are still hanging in the balance, and this action signals that the U.S. is walking away from the promises it made.” Indeed, tens of thousands of Afghanistani nationals particularly former interpreters, women’s rights activists, civil servants, and members of ethnic and religious minority communities remain at risk under Taliban rule. Many had been promised safe passage under U.S.-backed programs such as Operation Allies Welcome, yet now face indefinite delays, opaque visa processes, and waning international attention.
For those who have managed to resettle in the United States, the struggle continues. Refugee organizations report widespread difficulties: a lack of long-term housing, insufficient mental health services, bureaucratic red tape, and inadequate cultural integration programs. The CARE Office, for all its limitations, was at least a focal point of support. Its closure creates a vacuum and with it, the risk of abandoning refugees to the same instability from which they fled. More troubling still, the closure takes place against the backdrop of a rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. The Taliban regime, emboldened by impunity and bolstered by foreign aid despite its draconian policies, continues to erode basic freedoms. Girls are barred from school, women are flogged in public squares for “moral crimes,” ethnic minorities face systemic exclusion, and cultural heritage is being erased. In this context, eliminating a critical refugee support mechanism appears not just negligent, but morally indefensible.
The Biden administration’s silence on the matter has drawn comparisons to the previous Trump-era hostility toward refugees. Under that administration, resettlement programs were gutted, refugee admissions slashed, and a broader agenda of isolationism pushed to the fore. Though President Biden initially promised a more compassionate policy, the dismantling of CARE suggests a convergence of bureaucratic expediency and political amnesia. As global attention shifts elsewhere, the people of Afghanistan and those forced to flee its borders are again being forgotten. The shutdown of the CARE Office is not merely an administrative adjustment; it is a statement. And for many, that statement reads loud and clear: You are no longer our responsibility.
