The mental health crisis among Afghan refugees is no longer simmering beneath the surface

Ruchi Kumar is an Istanbul-based journalist who covers conflict, politics and gender.

In August, 2021, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who served with the U.S. military, was brought to the Kabul airport, the last remaining bastion of the U.S.’s 20-year-long occupation of Afghanistan. As the country collapsed, with the Taliban slowly strangling the Afghan capital and the country’s president fleeing, Mr. Lakanwal and his family joined thousands of soldiers like him who served foreign forces on cargo planes that were evacuated out of the country.

Just over four years later, Mr. Lakanwal drove across the country that he once served and had received asylum in, and allegedly shot two members of the U.S. national guard in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 26.

Little is known about his alleged motives, but this much is certain: anti-immigrant voices in the West are having a field day. President Donald Trump suspended all visas and asylum programs for Afghans, along with other nationalities considered “of concern,” and called the country “a hellhole on Earth.”

Afghan nationals are now being vilified. The Trump administration has frequently criticized the U.S.’s evacuation efforts, blaming his predecessor Joe Biden for not vetting those brought into the U.S. on the tight timelines agreed upon in the terms set by the first Trump administration.

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But many Afghans’ service to the U.S. against the Taliban is being lost in the conversation. Of the nearly 123,000 people airlifted out of Kabul after the collapse of the Afghan government, 36,821 of the Afghan evacuees were applicants of the Special Immigration Visa (SIV), which is offered to those who served in or with the U.S. military. Many of the others were eligible for other immigration programs for their services to the war and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, which put them at direct risk of the Taliban’s persecution.

What’s more, a significant issue is being ignored: the mental health crisis among Afghan asylum seekers, particularly those involved in the war against the Taliban. Indeed, Mr. Lakanwal was reportedly suffering from apparent mental health issues. This is no coincidence.

According to reports, Mr. Lakanwal was recruited as a teenager to work with the CIA-led commando-style paramilitary force “Zero Unit” that conducted specialized anti-Taliban military operations. Such recruitment of child soldiers among the Western-backed forces was not uncommon.

Contrary to the anti-immigrant critics, members of such an elite battle unit would have certainly been vetted before being brought into the U.S. However, these men, many of whom were raised within military structures, likely suffer from varying degrees of trauma. They were unlikely to have received any mental health evaluation or the kind of support that many veterans receive.

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Studies conducted among Afghan evacuees have noted the “unique” mental health challenges and traumas of refugees. In leaving the country for safety, many also lost the support systems of their local communities, reporting a feeling of isolation in their host communities.

For many former Afghan soldiers, this distress is further compounded by mental health issues stemming from their role in the conflict. The growing anti-immigrant rhetoric in the West, along with the recent crackdown of refugees in the U.S., would only add to their senses of instability and precarity. These crises have been simmering since well before 2021: several groups working with Afghan war veterans have repeatedly drawn attention to the rising rates of suicide within that community.

Of course, none of this justifies violence; those who perpetrate it must be punished according to the law. But understanding the crisis that might underlie it would actually make communities safer. However, a witch hunt of all Afghan asylum seekers, even those known to have served in military units with a notorious reputation, would be akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It would certainly not make the West any safer. Afghans, it must be remembered, are not the enemies; rather, they were the key allies in the U.S.’s fight against terrorism – and victims, themselves, of war’s heavy costs.

Rather than malign them, the U.S. should work to address the mental health care of its asylum seekers to facilitate a dignified integration into their new communities. In Canada, for instance, the specific mental health needs of those arriving from conflict and traumatic environments are acknowledged, and while these programs are often underfunded and stretched thin, they provide meaningful support. Refugees and refugee claimants in Canada also have access to mental health supports, along with primary physician care through settlement services, as well as community or peer support groups; this is rarely the case in the United States.

The chaos of conflict-related migration remains an unfortunate reality of our world. It would help the countries hosting these migrants to create safer communities amid the chaos.