The latest proposed destination for more than 1,100 Afghans who assisted US forces isn’t America—it’s the Democratic Republic of Congo. An aid worker and advocates say the Trump administration is in talks to relocate the group, which includes interpreters, former Afghan special-ops forces, and more than 400 children, from a US-run camp in Qatar to Congo, a country already struggling with massive displacement and violence, per the New York Times. The Afghans were evacuated for their safety and told they were on a path to US resettlement, a path that vanished after Trump policies froze key visa programs.
Shawn VanDiver of AfghanEvac says officials are presenting the Afghans with a “choice” between going back to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan or to Congo, which hosts more than 600,000 refugees and is in the midst of one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. VanDiver tells Reuters that choice is an unacceptable one. “This is insane,” he tells NBC News, adding in a statement that “you do not solve the world’s No. 1 refugee crisis by dumping it into the world’s No. 2 [refugee crisis].”
And indeed, many Afghans at Camp As Sayliyah are refusing the Congo option, questioning their safety and pointing to relatives already in the US, per the Times. A State Department spokesperson defended the administration’s shift, saying it aims to restore “accountability” and pursue “responsible, voluntary resettlement options.” “I worry that this is just a way for State to wash their hands of these folks, many of whom are women, children, and family of US military, that will ultimately result in them becoming stateless or having to go back to certain death in Afghanistan,” VanDiver tells Reuters.
