U.S. may send stranded Afghan allies to Congo after resettlement halt

The Trump administration’s halt to Afghan resettlement has left hundreds of people who helped the United States fight the Taliban in limbo, and now some may be sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo instead of the country they were promised. Advocates say the proposal turns a rescue pipeline into a pressure campaign against wartime allies who trusted Washington.

About 1,100 Afghans are staying at Camp As Sayliyah, a former U.S. military base outside Doha, Qatar, including about 400 children. The group includes interpreters who worked with the U.S. military, Afghan military commandos and family members of U.S. soldiers. Shawn VanDiver, the president of AfghanEvac, said he was briefed on the Congo option by multiple officials with direct knowledge of it. AfghanEvac said the idea appears designed to “manufacture a refusal” by offering relocation to a country where the evacuees have no ties and where many would not safely be able to accept.

The human stakes are severe. AfghanEvac warned that sending vetted Afghan partners to a third country after years of waiting could leave them stranded again, or pressure some into returning to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, where they could face persecution, imprisonment or death. The strategic cost may be just as high: every broken promise to a wartime ally tells future partners that working with the United States can still end in abandonment.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is hardly a safe or easy landing spot. The country already has more than 600,000 refugees, according to NBC News, and about 6.9 million internally displaced people plus more than 517,000 refugees from neighboring countries, according to DW, amid years of conflict and fighting in the east. Advocates said placing Afghans there would create another layer of instability for families already uprooted by war and evacuation.

The State Department declined to confirm Congo as a destination, but said it was considering “voluntary resettlement” options from the camp and described moving the population to a third country as a “positive resolution” that would let them start new lives while protecting U.S. security. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott told The New York Times that the administration was focused on “restoring accountability” after what he called the irresponsible way hundreds of thousands of Afghans were brought into the United States.

AfghanEvac and other advocates dispute that framing, saying Trump’s January 20, 2025 executive orders paused refugee processing globally and foreign aid, stopped relocation and resettlement for Afghan allies, cut off travel funding for approved Special Immigrant Visa holders and eliminated CARE, the congressionally mandated system overseeing Afghan travel to the United States. For the families still waiting in Qatar, the message is stark: service to the United States no longer guarantees a path to safety.