After halting a U.S. resettlement program for Afghans who helped the American war effort, President Trump is in talks to send as many as 1,100 of them to the Democratic Republic of Congo, an aid worker briefed on the plan said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The group includes interpreters for the U.S. military, former members of the Afghan Special Operations forces and family members of American service members. More than 400 children are among them.<\/p>\n
The Afghans have been living in limbo in Qatar for over a year. They were taken there after being evacuated by the United States<\/a> for their own safety because they supported American forces during the war against the Taliban that began in 2001.<\/p>\n Shawn VanDiver, the president of the aid group AfghanEvac, said he had been briefed on the Congo plan by State Department officials. He said that the Afghans would be given a choice between returning to live under the Taliban or being sent to Congo, which is suffering one of the world\u2019s worst humanitarian crises.<\/p>\n More than 600,000 refugees, mostly from the Central African Republic and Rwanda, are currently in Congo, according to the United Nations. Human rights activists say that the country is not equipped to take in more in the midst of fighting with neighboring Rwanda that has displaced even more people because of attacks on refugee camps.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think this is just them wanting to send these people back to Afghanistan, where they know they will face certain death,\u201d said Mr. VanDiver. \u201cThey know that Afghans are not going to accept the D.R.C. Why would you go from the world\u2019s No. 1 refugee crisis to the world\u2019s No. 2 refugee crisis?\u201d<\/p>\n The discussions highlight the longstanding tension between America\u2019s obligation to Afghans who face grave danger in retaliation for helping U.S. forces during the war, and the Trump administration\u2019s pledge to curtail immigration.<\/p>\n Much is unknown about the plans taking shape, including whether all the Afghans would go to Congo or whether deals were coming together in other countries. Negotiations like this have stalled before.<\/p>\n A Congolese government spokesman did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman, accused the Biden administration of moving hastily in bringing Afghan allies to the United States. He said the Trump administration was working to find options for the remaining Afghans.<\/p>\n \u201cThe American people have had to pay the price for the irresponsible way hundreds of thousands of Afghans were brought into the United States,\u201d he said. \u201cOur focus now is on restoring accountability by advancing responsible, voluntary resettlement options.\u201d<\/p>\n American diplomats have been asking countries in Africa to take in the Afghans for months. But talks fell apart in many places, according to Mr. VanDiver and diplomats with knowledge of the discussions.<\/p>\n More than 190,000 Afghans who aided the U.S. effort resettled in the U.S.<\/a> between August 2021 and mid-2025, after passing background checks.<\/p>\n But a group of more than 1,100 Afghans are being housed in a former U.S. military base in Qatar known as Camp As Sayliyah<\/a>. The American government brought them there in late 2024 and promised them a path to settlement in the United States if they passed further checks.<\/p>\n Qatar was intended as a stopover, but many of the Afghans found themselves in limbo after the Trump administration ended policies that would have enabled them to resettle in the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had the expectation that within weeks they\u2019d be relocated to the U.S.,\u201d said Rina Amiri, a former senior diplomat working on Afghan human rights issues. \u201cWho is going to fight alongside the U.S. when the U.S. betrays the people who stood alongside us?\u201d<\/p>\n The Congo negotiations follow behind-the-scenes pressure from the Qatari government to find the remaining Afghan refugees a new home.<\/p>\n