US Marine’s family is stuck in Qatar’s Afghan camp. Trump could send them and hundreds other refugees to the Congo, advocates fear

Hundreds of Afghans and their families stranded in a former U.S. military base in Qatar are bracing for what they describe as an impossible choice: return to Taliban rule in their home country, or settle in a war-torn African nation already suffering a humanitarian crisis.The brother of Retired U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Sean Jamshidi has been waiting for a flight to the United States for more than a year. But after years of vetting and approval for entry, Donald Trump’s administration has effectively cut off any paths to the U.S. for Afghans who supported American war efforts.Jamshidi’s brother Masoud and his family are among 1,100 Afghans inside Camp As Sayliyah in Doha who fear the Trump administration could soon force them to choose between returning to Taliban rule — or the Democratic Republic of Congo.“The Taliban will kill him for what he did,” Jamshidi told reporters Wednesday.“Kinshasa won’t kill him on Day One, but the State Department knows there’s no community for him there, no legal status, and no real protection for him or for the children traveling with these families,” he added. “They know they are offering him an option they know will be refused, just so they can say they tried. This is not a real choice. This is not policy. This is theater.”Hundreds of Afghans who supported US war efforts are stuck in limbo at a military base in Qatar. The Trump administration could force them to the Congo or back to the Taliban, advocates warn (via REUTERS)Jamshidi was previously deployed in the DRC. He fears that his family could soon be forced to endure the same humanitarian crisis he witnessed.“I saw the displacement camps, I stood in places where the United Nations have counted the dead,” Jamshidi told reporters.“The Democratic Republic of the Congo is not a place where you send vetted Afghan allies and their children to live. It is not a place you send anyone, voluntarily or otherwise,” he said. “This is a country with a long history of corruption, war and foreign exploitation that has left it deeply unstable and is lacking basic services. And the United States government knows this.”The State Department currently advises Americans against traveling to the country, citing threats of terrorism, civil unrest, armed conflict and kidnapping.“We are telling American allies — people who stood with us, who are vetted, who supported our mission — to go somewhere the United States government itself warns Americans not to go,” Jamshidi said. “This should not make sense to anyone.”The U.S. has resettled more than 190,000 Afghans who supported American war efforts between August 2021 and mid-2025.Roughly 1,100 others were moved to Camp As Sayliyah in late 2024. Then-President Joe Biden’s administration had promised them a path to settlement in the U.S. following additional background checks. The Qatari base was effectively intended as a stopover on their journey to the U.S.But refugee resettlement groups were blindsided by Trump’s abrupt suspension of refugee admissions into the U.S. within moments after he entered office last year, stranding thousands of already-vetted refugees who had prepared for years to be resettled in the country.Months later, Homeland Security threatened to cut off humanitarian protections for thousands of Afghans who fled the country following the U.S. withdrawal in 2021, claiming there have been “notable improvements” in Afghanistan’s national security and an increase in tourism.In January, Trump’s State Department said all residents at the Doha camp would be relocated to third countries by March 31.That deadline has come and gone. Afghans are now desperately urging the U.S. to keep its promise to allied service members and their families, many of whom wear American uniforms.The group includes military interpreters, former members of the Afghan Special Operations forces and approximately 150 family members of active-duty U.S. servicemembers. There are also more than 400 children among them.“We were interpreters. We were members of the Afghan Special Operations Forces. We were medics, drivers, security guards, cooks, office staff on American compounds,” Afghans at the camp said in a joint statement.“Some of us are the wives, parents, brothers and children of those who served. Some of our family members wear the American uniform today, on active duty, while we sit here waiting,” they wrote.The US resettled more than 190,000 Afghans who supported American war efforts between August 2021 and mid-2025, but the Trump administration abruptly closed the door on vetted refugees and is seeking to expel thousands in the US who were granted humanitarian protections (via REUTERS)A State Department spokesperson told The Independent it was still working to find voluntary resettlement options.“We will say this plainly. We do not want to go to the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Afghans at the camp said in their statement.“It is a country in its own war. We have been in enough war. We cannot take our children into another one,” they said. “We are not asking for charity. We are asking the United States to keep the promise it made to us.”More than 600,000 refugees, mostly from the Central African Republic and Rwanda, are currently in Congo, according to the United Nations. Human rights advocates have warned that the country cannot sustain refugee admissions as it grapples with an ongoing conflict with neighboring Rwanda that has displaced millions of people. Nearly 7 million people have been internally displaced due to the crisis, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.“You do not solve the world’s No. 1 refugee crisis by dumping it into the world’s No. 2 refugee crisis,” said Shawn VanDiver, director of AfghanEvac, which provides resources for Afghan allies and ensures cooperation between the U.S. government and volunteer groups.Former diplomat Anne Richard, who served at the State Department agency running refugee resettlement during the Biden administration, rejected the idea that the Trump administration’s alleged plan is “resettlement.”Resettlement requires a refugee’s consent to move to a country that has agreed to receive them, where they can have legal status, safety and pathway to self-sufficiency, according to Richard.“Every one of those conditions is missing here,” she told reporters. “You do not have consent when the other option on the table is a government run [by the Taliban]. … A decision made under duress is not a voluntary decision.”The Trump administration is reportedly arranging a plan with the administration of Felix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to receive hundreds of Afghans who have been stranded at Camp As Sayliyah in Doha (REUTERS)Advocates have warned that abandoning U.S. allies will also pose a critical threat to national security and U.S. credibility when America may need be seeking aid again in the future.Kyleanne Hunter, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said potential allies are likely to think twice if U.S. obligations “have the shelf life of one administration.”“You cannot win a future war with partners who watched you abandon the last ones,” she said.Jon Finer, Joe Biden’s Principal Deputy National Security Advisor and former State Department chief of staff, said U.S. allies are “less likely to rely on or trust us going forward.”“The idea we can go to those people in, God forbid, some future conflict … is going to be badly compromised at this point,” he said.