By Lizbeth Diaz
TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - Naser Zazai, 29, had planned to reunite with his mother and brother in the United States this week after fleeing Afghanistan, where he says he was threatened and attacked because his brother had once worked for the U.S. military.
Instead, he is now stranded in Mexico after U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday abruptly canceled all asylum appointments for migrants waiting in Mexico - including Zazai's, scheduled for Jan. 22.
The medical doctor is one of thousands of migrants who had expected to start their new lives in the U.S. this week, only to find themselves suddenly faced with the prospect of returning to their home countries, seeking refuge elsewhere, or waiting indefinitely in Mexico.
But for Zazai and the dozens of other migrants living at the Assabil shelter in Tijuana, the only such refuge in Mexico specifically for Muslim migrants, these choices are even grimmer.
"I can't stay in Mexico," said Zazai. "And I can't go back to my country where I could be killed."
An increasing number of migrants from Asia, the Middle East, and Africa have begun migrating through Mexico en route to the U.S. in recent years.
But Muslim migrants face a series of additional challenges in Mexico, human rights experts say, from language barriers to misconceptions about those who follow a religion with scant presence in Mexican society.
According to 2020 census data, there are fewer than 8,000 Muslims living in Mexico, representing less than 0.01% of the population.
"They have a very particular situation due to their culture and religion," said Soraya Vazquez, of the human rights group Al Otro Lado. "There is a lot of stigma against the Muslim community."
Many migrants who travel to Mexico from other continents hoping to ultimately reach the U.S. have to pay smugglers thousands of dollars for the lengthy journeys. This puts them at risk of extortion and violence, Vazquez said, especially if they are unable to pay off the hefty debts because they are stuck in Mexico.
Reuters spoke with five Afghan migrants in Tijuana who all had their U.S. asylum appointments canceled. Like Zazai, they said they could not return to Afghanistan, but that staying in Mexico felt like a perilous option, too.
"It was like a funeral here," said Ahmed Tijani, assistant director of the Assabil shelter who is originally from Ghana, describing the atmosphere in the refuge on Trump's first day in power. "No one could believe what happened."
Zazai told Reuters that he left Afghanistan because he feared for his life after the Taliban returned to power, due to his brother's ties to the U.S. military. He said that, on one occasion, gunmen arrived and searched his house. Later, he said, he was beaten unconscious by unknown assailants. Reuters could not verify his story.
He spent $22,000 to flee the country and make his way to Mexico, where he waited for nearly six months to secure his U.S. asylum appointment, he said.
Its cancellation was part of Trump's broader crackdown on immigration, which also included an order suspending U.S. refugee programs. That led to nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared by the U.S. government to resettle in the U.S., including family members of active-duty U.S. military personnel, having their flights canceled on Monday.
Now, Zazai says he hopes to find another way to migrate to the U.S., but he knows that there are currently few, if any, options.
"What is my plan for the future?" he asked himself on Tuesday, as the reality of his new circumstances sank in. "I don't know what to say."