KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The New York Times has reported that the United States government is engaged in negotiations to transfer 1,100 Afghan refugees from Qatar to the Republic of Congo.
According to the report, these individuals include interpreters and former collaborators of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and more than 400 children are among them.
Shawn VanDiver, head of “Afghan Evac,” an organization working to relocate Afghan refugees to the United States, told The New York Times that he has been informed of the plan by officials from the U.S. State Department.
He added that Afghan refugees will be given the option either to return to Afghanistan and live under Taliban rule or to be transferred to Congo—a country grappling with one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
“We think this is just them wanting to send these people back to Afghanistan, where they know they will face certain death,” said Mr. VanDiver. “They know that Afghans are not going to accept the D.R.C. Why would you go from the world’s No. 1 refugee crisis to the world’s No. 2 refugee crisis?”
In 2024, the U.S. government transferred more than 1,100 former collaborators of its forces in Afghanistan to a military base in Doha, Qatar, with the intention that they would be resettled in the United States after further security screenings.
However, these refugees have been left in limbo following a U.S. government decision to halt the admission of Afghan nationals.
Shawn VanDiver said that some of these individuals have completed full security screenings while others have not, but Trump-era immigration policies have prevented any of them from entering the United States.
“They had the expectation that within weeks they’d be relocated to the U.S.,” said Rina Amiri, a former senior diplomat working on Afghan human rights issues. “Who is going to fight alongside the U.S. when the U.S. betrays the people who stood alongside us?”
The New York Times reported that negotiations with Congo took place following pressure from the Qatari government to find a new location for resettling these individuals.
According to the report, many of these refugees have told officials they would not voluntarily agree to relocation to Congo; some have expressed concerns about their safety there, while others have questioned why they should go to Congo when their relatives live in the United States.
The New York Times wrote that the Congolese government did not respond to requests for comment, and Tommy Pigott, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, accused the Biden administration of acting hastily in relocating Afghans, adding that Trump is seeking options for those who remain.
“The American people have had to pay the price for the irresponsible way hundreds of thousands of Afghans were brought into the United States,” he said. “Our focus now is on restoring accountability by advancing responsible, voluntary resettlement options.”
According to the report, U.S. diplomats have been asking African countries for months to accept Afghan refugees.
However, The New York Times, citing Shawn VanDiver and informed diplomats, reported that these negotiations have often failed.
The outlet added that U.S. diplomats have been meeting with Congolese officials for months, and recently the Trump administration signed an agreement with the country to accept migrants deported from the United States.
According to the report, part of this agreement includes providing $50 million in aid to the UN refugee agency to deliver services in the Republic of Congo, but negotiations over accepting Afghan refugees are separate from the deportation agreement.
The New York Times noted that both efforts are an example of a hallmark approach of Trump’s migration policy: transferring people to distant countries, even when those countries face human rights challenges or authoritarian governance.
Following the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, the United States relocated and resettled more than 190,000 former collaborators of its institutions and forces.
However, in November of last year, after the killing of a member of the U.S. National Guard by an Afghan national in Washington, the U.S. government halted its humanitarian visa program for Afghan citizens, leaving many who were still awaiting relocation in uncertainty.
This development has raised serious concerns among refugee advocates and policymakers, who warn that prolonged uncertainty and controversial relocation plans could further undermine trust in international protection systems and place already vulnerable Afghan refugees at greater risk.
