US considering sending stranded Afghans in Qatar to the Congo, advocacy group says

“US considering sending stranded Afghans in Qatar to the Congo, advocacy group says Submitted by Yasmine El-Sabawi on Mon, 04/27/2026 - 19:55 State Department only said that moving them to 'a third country is a positive resolution' US Secretary of State Marco Rubio heads into the White House in Washington, DC, on 23 April 2026 (Mandel Ngan/AFP) Off More than a thousand Afghans stranded at a US -run military base in Qatar may be getting transferred to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for resettlement, the advocacy group #AfghanEvac has said. Camp As Sayliyah (Cas) in the Qatari desert currently holds 1,100 Afghans with links to the US military and government. They had been screened and flown out to the Gulf to await immigration to the US under various visa and refugee programmes. Several of them, whom Middle East Eye previously spoke to, had their visas approved and in hand. Their wait at Cas was meant to last no longer than 21 days. But for many, it has been years, dating back to the chaotic 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Trump administration no longer wants them. It announced earlier this year that the facility would be closing on 31 March, and that these vetted, skilled, and hopeful Afghans would just have to go somewhere else. But no one knows exactly where that somewhere might be. The camp remains in operation, but given that its Afghan residents have no permits to be in Qatar, they are not allowed to leave the site, making it feel like a "prison", one Afghan there previously told MEE . 'This plan cannot stand' - Shawn VanDriver, #AfghanEvac's president "The plan under discussion right now - to relocate Afghan interpreters, former Special Operations Forces, immediate family members of more than 150 active duty or recently separated US military service members - is to a country that is currently hosting more than 600,000 refugees, and is in active armed conflict with Rwanda, and that the UN ranks among the largest displacement crises on earth," Shawn VanDiver, #AfghanEvac's president, told reporters in a virtual briefing last week. "This plan cannot stand." The State Department currently has a level three travel advisory in place for the DRC, which is effectively a strong warning against travelling there. It did not confirm the DRC as a destination, but did not deny it either, and said it is still working to "identify options" for Cas residents. "Moving the CAS population to a third country is a positive resolution that provides safety for these remaining people to start a new life outside of Afghanistan while upholding the safety and security of the American people," a State Department spokesperson told MEE via email. "We remain in regular and direct communication with residents on resettlement efforts. Due to the sensitivity of those discussions, we will not disclose any details regarding negotiations." MEE has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to ask if the agency's new chief, Markwayne Mullin, has been involved in the relocation discussions, given his past efforts to support Afghan allies. DHS referred MEE to the State Department. 'Most vetted lawful immigrants' The Trump administration has previously pinned the blame on former President Joe Biden for what it described as a rushed and flawed vetting process for Afghan allies. Biden's former deputy national security advisor, Jon Finer, rejected that characterisation at the #AfghanEvac briefing. "It wasn't an emergency evacuation," he told reporters about "Operation Enduring Welcome", which helped Afghan allies come to the US in the immediate aftermath of the 2021 withdrawal and Afghan government collapse. "It was a deliberate pipeline," he added. "The Biden administration did not dismantle the enhanced vetting frameworks that were built up over a long period of time, decades even, including during the first Trump administration. In fact, we kept those procedures and mechanisms in place, and then we made it more robust." Finer confirmed that every individual awaiting resettlement at Cas has already been fully vetted for US immigration purposes. US resumes processing Afghan visas that will result in denials, says rights group Read More » "They are, by design and by implementation, the most vetted lawful immigrants to the United States among all the categories of people who come." More than 200,000 Afghans have already been resettled under this same vetting framework, #AfghanEvac notes on its website. In February, the State Department began paying Afghans to leave the base on their own accord, assistant secretary of state Samir Paul Kapur told lawmakers in a briefing. He said 150 people had already accepted the funds at the time. MEE has been told by Cas residents that many went back to Afghanistan, risking consequences under the Taliban. "You cannot call a choice voluntary when the two options are Congo and the Taliban, civil war or an oppressor who wants to kill you," VanDiver told reporters. "That is not a choice. That is a confession extracted under duress." VanDiver led a congressional delegation to Cas over the weekend, where his organisation also collected a video plea by 14-year-old resident , Zahra. She addressed her remarks to First Lady Melania Trump, asking for "a peaceful life, a chance to get a better education, and a brighter future". Afghanistan Washington News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0

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