The Trump Administration Might Send Afghan Refugees to Danger in Congo |
Afghanistan
The Trump Administration Might Send Afghan Refugees to Danger in Congo
About 1,100 Afghans currently stranded at a military base in Qatar could be relocated to the crisis-addled African country.
Beth Bailey | 4.23.2026 12:24 PM
Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Add Reason to Google
Media Contact & Reprint Requests
(Photo: Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times/Polaris/Newscom)
Over four years after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, the Trump administration is making policy decisions that will keep Afghans who are stuck in the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) pipelines in limbo.
There are currently about 1,100 Afghans in the USRAP and SIV program who are stranded at Camp As Sayliyah (CAS) in Qatar. The U.S. Department of State flew Afghan evacuees to the base in order to carry out final vetting before relocating them to the U.S., but since the Trump administration suspended the USRAP via executive order on January 20, 2025, and ended SIV issuance in late 2025, forward movement has ceased.
Members of the Afghan National Army Special Operations Command, family members of U.S. military personnel, and 400 children reside at CAS. The State Department previously offered them financial incentives to repatriate to Afghanistan while it sought out another country that would receive CAS residents before the base's planned March 31 closure.
On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that the State Department is in talks to send CAS residents to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In the International Rescue Committee's 2026 ranking of the 20 countries "at greatest risk of new or worsening humanitarian emergencies," Congo falls at No. 7. Afghanistan appears on the list, but it is not within the top 10 countries judged at greatest risk.
In a press conference on April 22, Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac, said that the proposed pathway "is not a resettlement plan." Resettlement "requires durable legal steps. It requires community infrastructure. It requires a host government that has consented and is equipped to receive," he argued. "None of those conditions exist in Kinshasa for Afghan families."
"The families who are at CAS right now did not show up unvetted," Jon Finer, deputy national security adviser under former President Joe Biden, told reporters during Wednesday's #AfghanEvac press conference.........