By Jessica Donati
DAKAR, April 22 (Reuters) – The Trump administration is in talks with the Democratic Republic of Congo to resettle 1,100 Afghans who have been stranded in Qatar awaiting U.S. visas, according to an advocacy organisation that works on their behalf.
The discussions underscore the legal hurdles facing Afghans who fled the Taliban after U.S. immigrant visa processing for Afghan nationals was effectively halted, leaving them in limbo more than four years after the U.S. withdrawal from Kabul.
Shawn VanDiver, founder and president of #AfghanEvac, a coalition of veterans and advocacy groups, told Reuters that U.S. officials had briefed him about the plan to resettle the Afghans in Congo, which he described as unacceptable, partly because of chronic insecurity in the central African country.
The Afghans are housed at Camp As Sayliyah, a former U.S. Army base in Qatar, where they were transferred to complete immigrant visa processing for entry into the United States. Some are relatives of U.S. citizens or worked for a U.S.-funded organization during the 20-year war.
But that processing ground to a halt after the Trump administration took office in January 2025.
Last June, the Trump administration included Afghanistan on a list of 12 countries subject to a travel ban, with a narrow exemption for Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) for Afghans who served alongside troops and diplomats.
In November, Washington stopped immigrant visa processing for all Afghan nationals following the deadly shooting of two U.S. National Guard members by an Afghan former CIA-backed paramilitary unit member.
A federal judge ruled in February that the ban on Afghan SIV visa processing was illegal, but processing is effectively at a standstill, according to VanDiver.
#AfghanEvac said in a statement on Tuesday that the 1,100 Afghans had been vetted for resettlement.
A State Department spokesperson said in an email late on Tuesday that resettling the Afghans in a third country would be a positive solution that would give them a chance to start a new life outside of Afghanistan. It did not respond directly to a question about whether Congo was among the countries under consideration.
A Congolese government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The New York Times first reported on the effort to resettle the Afghans in Congo.
AFGHANS UNLIKELY TO ACCEPT CONGO RESETTLEMENT, ADVOCATE SAYS
Congo has experienced decades of conflict and is currently fighting a Rwanda-backed rebel movement that made major incursions in the east last year.
That makes it unlikely the Afghans will accept resettlement there, VanDiver said, adding that the U.S. could potentially use their refusal as justification for sending them back to Afghanistan.
“I worry that this is just a way for State to wash their hands of these folks, many of whom are women, children, and family of U.S. military, that will ultimately result in them becoming stateless or having to go back to certain death in Afghanistan,” VanDiver said.
The Trump administration had previously sought to resettle the Afghans in the southern African country of Botswana, VanDiver said, describing that country as a more viable potential destination.
The initial plan to send the Afghans to Botswana has not previously been reported. Botswana’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The State Department did not comment on whether it had tried to resettle the Afghans there previously.
Plans to send the group to Botswana ultimately fell through, according to VanDiver, after the country objected to a new U.S. requirement that its citizens seeking to enter the U.S. post a $15,000 visa bond.
(Reporting by Jessica Donati; Additional reporting by Brian Benza in Gaborone; Editing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and William Maclean)
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