Afghan evacuees may face third-country plan
- Reports say the administration is weighing moving more than 1,000 Afghans who helped U.S. forces from Qatar to a third country. - Activists claim some Afghans may be told to choose between returning to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan or relocating to the Democratic Republic of Congo. - Resettlement advocates warn this indicates a shrinking, more unstable federal refugee pipeline for wartime allies and their families (winchesterstar.com, ).
The Trump administration is weighing a plan to move more than 1,000 Afghan evacuees from Qatar to another country instead of bringing them to the United States. (apnews.com) Associated Press reported on April 22 that the group includes Afghans who helped the U.S. war effort and relatives of U.S. service members. Reuters reported the administration is in talks with the Democratic Republic of the Congo about taking roughly 1,100 people now stuck in Qatar. (apnews.com) (usnews.com) Advocacy group #AfghanEvac said U.S. officials told outside groups that Congo was one option and that residents at Camp As Sayliyah had been slated for relocation by March 31. The group says more than 1,100 Afghans remain there, including about 150 immediate family members of active-duty U.S. service members and more than 460 children. (afghanevac.org) The dispute centers on a camp the U.S. set up in Qatar after the August 2021 fall of Kabul, when Afghan partners, visa applicants, and family members were routed through the Gulf state for screening and onward travel. The State Department told Congress on January 14 that Camp As Sayliyah would close and residents would be moved to third countries by March 31. (northcom.mil) (democrats-foreignaffairs.house.gov) (afghanevac.org) That marks a break from the main post-2021 policy, which brought large numbers of Afghans to the United States through Operation Allies Welcome and later Enduring Welcome. Reuters and other outlets say the Qatar group had been awaiting U.S. visas before the pipeline stalled. (northcom.mil) (usnews.com) The administration has not publicly confirmed Congo as the destination. A State Department spokesperson told Reuters that third-country resettlement would be a “positive solution” that lets Afghans start a new life outside Afghanistan, while not answering directly on whether Congo is under consideration. (newsmax.com) Critics say the choice is coercive because the alternative is return to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, where many evacuees say they fear retaliation for working with U.S. forces. NBC News reported earlier this month that some camp residents had been offered money to go back to Afghanistan as the camp closure approached. (afghanevac.org) (nbcnews.com) Congo has become the flashpoint because it is already managing a major humanitarian emergency. UNHCR says the Democratic Republic of the Congo hosts more than 600,000 refugees and asylum seekers, and the International Organization for Migration describes the country’s crisis as one of the world’s most complex and protracted. (reliefweb.int) (crisisresponse.iom.int) What happens next is whether the administration finalizes a third-country deal or restores a path into the United States for the Afghans still at the Qatar camp. For the families there, the immediate deadline already passed on March 31, and their status remains unresolved on April 23. (afghanevac.org) (rferl.org)
