An Afghan military officer who attempted to desert to avoid being sent back to Afghanistan from military training in the United States has been denied asylum by the immigration judge hearing his case.
ABC News reported that the immigration judge denied on Friday Major Jan Arash's petition for asylum because he failed to prove that he would be persecuted by the Afghan Army because of his actions. The judge also stated that asylum is not applicable because the Taliban is no longer a government in Afghanistan.
Major Arash and two other soldiers of the Afghan Army attempted to flee into Canada and gain refugee status in order to prevent their return from Afghanistan. All three soldiers have claimed that they have been threatened by the Taliban because of their work with the United States Army.
Arash and the other soldier, Capt. Noorullah Aminyar, were denied entry into Canada and returned to the United States. They were detained since September while the third soldier, Capt. Mohammad Nasir Askarzada, successfully entered Canada in December after proving that he had relatives in the country.
The three soldiers were in Massachusetts for a training exercise.
Lawyer Matthew Borowski, who represented both Arash and Aminya, said that he will attempt to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals. The appeal is expected to take several months, the entirety of which the soldiers will continue to be detained at the Buffalo Federal Detention Center.
Capt. Aminyar's case is pending before the same immigration judge. According to Borowski, Friday's ruling does not bode well for the soldier.
"The cases are essentially the same," said the lawyer, who is representing the soldiers for free.
Borowski also told ABC News that Arash hoped to obtain release under parole so he could seek employment and send money back home.
"His family is starving in Afghanistan," Borowski said. "They don't have firewood and they don't have food, or not enough."
