(AFP) – The United States is looking to give former Afghan allies stuck in Qatar a choice between emigrating to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo or returning to their Taliban-ruled homeland, an activist said Tuesday. President Donald Trump’s administration, which has made a sweeping crackdown on immigration a signature policy, had given a March 31 deadline to close a camp where more than 1,100 Afghans were staying at a former US base in Qatar.
Afghans have been going through the base for processing while seeking to move to the United States, fearing persecution by the Taliban for having worked with US forces before they withdrew and the Western-backed government collapsed in 2021. Shawn VanDiver, a US veteran who heads AfghanEvac, a group seeking to help former Afghan allies, said he was briefed that the Trump administration was looking to offer the Afghans a choice to go to DR Congo or otherwise return to Afghanistan.
He said he expected the Afghans to decline to go to the African country, which has its own refugee crisis after years of war, including ongoing hostilities linked to Rwanda. “You do not relocate vetted wartime allies, more than 400 of them children, from American custody into a country in the middle of its own collapse,” he said in a statement. “The administration knows this. It is the point,” he said, alleging a way to force the people back to Afghanistan.
The State Department declined to confirm that DR Congo was being eyed as a destination but said the United States was looking at “voluntary resettlement” from the as-Sayliyah camp in Qatar. “Moving the (camp) population to a third country is a positive resolution that provides safety for these remaining people to start a new life outside of Afghanistan while upholding the safety and security of the American people,” a State Department spokesperson said.
Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat, said that sending Afghan allies of the United States to DR Congo would be “insane.” “We told these Afghans that we would help ensure their safety after they helped us,” he said. “We have an obligation to follow through on our promise because it’s the right thing to do, and because going back on our word will only make it harder for us to build the kinds of partnerships we may need to advance our national security in the future.”
More than 190,000 Afghans have found new homes in the United States, with the vast majority living without incident, after the Taliban stormed back to power. The program was initiated by former president Joe Biden but initially backed by many Republicans, who had largely supported the 20-year Afghan war at its onset. Trump has dismantled the broader US refugee resettlement program and ordered a halt to processing for Afghans after one Afghan, who had worked with US intelligence and suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, shot two National Guard troops in Washington last year, one fatally.
© 2024 AFP
