WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is in discussions to doubtlessly ship greater than 1,000 Afghans who assisted America’s war effort and family of U.S. service members caught in Qatar to a 3rd nation, the U.S. authorities and an advocacy group mentioned. Congo is an possibility, the group mentioned.
Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran and head of the #AfghanEvac coalition, which helps Afghan resettlement efforts, mentioned Wednesday that U.S. officers knowledgeable him and different teams that discussions have taken place between the US and Congo about taking the Afghan refugees who’ve been in limbo at a U.S. base in Doha for the previous yr.
The 1,100 refugees at Camp As-Sayliyah embrace Afghans who served as interpreters and with Particular Operations Forces, in addition to the instant households of greater than 150 lively responsibility U.S. army members.
The State Division mentioned it’s working to establish choices to “voluntarily” resettle the refugees in a 3rd nation, nevertheless it didn’t verify which nations have been being mentioned.
An alternate supplied to the refugees, VanDiver mentioned, is to return to Afghanistan, the place they face probably reprisal and even dying by the hands of the Taliban for working alongside the U.S. throughout the two-decade conflict.
“You can’t name a selection voluntary when the 2 choices are Congo and the Taliban, civil conflict or an oppressor who needs to kill you,” VanDiver mentioned at a digital press convention. “That isn’t a selection. That could be a confession extracted beneath duress.”
The discussions — which have been reported earlier by The New York Occasions — come greater than a yr after President Donald Trump paused his predecessor’s Afghan resettlement program as a part of a sequence of executive orders cracking down on immigration.
That coverage left hundreds of refugees who fled conflict and persecution, and had gone by means of a generally yearslong vetting course of to start out new lives in America, stranded at locations worldwide, together with the bottom in Qatar.
From one war-torn nation to a different
The bottom in Doha “was all the time supposed as a transit platform. It was by no means designed to carry households for months or years, which is the scenario that individuals are presently in,” mentioned Jon Finer, who was deputy nationwide safety adviser to then-President Joe Biden. “What I need to emphasize is that this was supposed to honor a wartime dedication.”
Finer and different former U.S. officers and refugee advocates warned of the danger of resettling Afghans in Congo, a rustic that U.N. officers say is going through “probably the most acute humanitarian emergencies on this planet.”
The African nation has been battered by decades-long preventing between authorities forces and Rwanda-backed rebels in its jap area.
Congolese authorities didn’t instantly reply to AP’s request for touch upon the discussions, which didn’t come as a shock to some within the nation. Congo is one among not less than eight African nations that have been paid tens of millions in controversial offers with the Trump administration to obtain migrants deported from the U.S. to nations aside from their very own.
Like most different African nations concerned within the deportation program, Congo can be among the many worst hit by the Trump administration’s insurance policies on support and commerce. At the least 70% of the nation’s humanitarian support got here from the U.S. earlier than Trump’s second time period, and support employees say American support cuts have led to avoidable deaths within the conflict-hit area.
Sean Jamshidi — an Afghan American who served within the U.S. army, together with a stint in Congo — mentioned he was deeply involved about his brother presumably being despatched from the Doha base to the war-torn nation.
“I noticed the safety scenario and what it seemed like there. I noticed the displacement camps. … I stood in locations the place the United Nations has counted the useless,” Jamshidi mentioned. “I’m telling you, as somebody who has been in uniform, the Democratic Republic of the Congo will not be a spot you ship vetted Afghan allies and their youngsters to dwell.”
Refugees are at midnight as they await their destiny
Negina Khalili, a former prosecutor in Afghanistan who fled throughout the 2021 U.S. withdrawal, has been ready to listen to concerning the resettlement standing of her father, brother and stepmother since they arrived on the Doha base in January 2025. That was simply days earlier than Trump suspended the refugee program quickly after he returned to the White Home.
Khalili informed The Related Press on Wednesday that she spoke to her household about reviews that they might be despatched to Congo.
“They aren’t giving them any info or updates concerning which nations they are going to go to,” she mentioned. “They have been so pressured and anxious about it and mentioned that Congo will not be a secure place both. They don’t know if it’s a short lived location for them there or a everlasting location. They’re anxious.”
She mentioned U.S. officers on the camp have been suggesting to refugees that they return to Afghanistan and providing them cash to take action.
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Amiri reported from New York and Asadu from Abuja, Nigeria. Related Press author Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
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