{"id":124630,"date":"2026-04-23T09:52:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T04:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=124630"},"modified":"2026-04-23T09:52:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T04:52:34","slug":"us-plans-to-send-1100-stranded-afghans-to-unstable-democratic-republic-of-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124630\/","title":{"rendered":"US plans to send 1,100 stranded Afghans to \u2018unstable\u2019 Democratic Republic of Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>WASHINGTON(National Times)-  The Trump administration is in discussions with the Democratic Republic of Congo to resettle 1,100 Afghans, who have been stranded in Qatar for years while awaiting US visas, an advocacy organisation said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The talks highlight the protracted legal and logistical hurdles facing Afghans who fled the Taliban after US immigrant visa processing for their home country was effectively halted. They have remained in limbo more than four years after the US military withdrawal from Kabul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shawn VanDiver, founder and president of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/trends\/AfghanEvac\">#AfghanEvac<\/a>, a coalition of veterans\u2019 and advocacy groups, told&nbsp;<em>Reuters<\/em>&nbsp;that US officials briefed him on the plan. He described the proposal to send the Afghans to Congo as \u201cunacceptable\u201d, citing the central African country\u2019s chronic insecurity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Afghans are currently housed at Camp As Sayliyah, a former US Army base in Qatar, where they were initially transferred to complete their visa processing for entry into the United States. Some are relatives of American citizens, while others worked for US-funded organisations during the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Their path to the US was obstructed after processing ground to a halt following the Trump administration\u2019s return to office in January 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last June, the administration added Afghanistan to a list of 12 countries subject to a travel ban, although it included a narrow exemption for Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) for Afghans who had served alongside American troops and diplomats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By November, however, Washi\u00adngton had stopped all immigrant visa processing for Afghan nationals. The decision followed the fatal shooting of two US National Guard members by a former member of a CIA-backed Afghan paramilitary unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While a federal judge ruled in February that the administration\u2019s ban on Afghan SIV processing was illegal, VanDiver said the process remains effectively at a standstill.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/trends\/AfghanEvac\">#AfghanEvac<\/a>&nbsp;said in a statement Tuesday that all 1,100 Afghans in Qatar have been vetted for resettlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A State Department spokesperson, in an email late on Tuesday, said resettling the Afghans in a third country would be a \u201cpositive solution\u201d that would allow them to start new lives outside Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The spokesperson did not directly answer a question about whether Congo was among the nations being considered. The Congolese government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The&nbsp;<em>NYT<\/em>&nbsp;first reported on the resettlement effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Congo has been plagued by decades of conflict and is currently battling a Rwanda-backed rebel movement that made significant territorial gains in the country\u2019s east last year. The ongoing violence makes it unlikely the Afghans would agree to be resettled there, VanDiver said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He voiced concern that a refusal could be used by US officials as a pretext for returning them to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI 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 US military, that will ultimately result in them becoming stateless or having to go back to certain death in Afghanistan,\u201d VanDiver said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to VanDiver, the administration had previously tried to resettle the group in Botswana. VanDiver said the deal fell through after Botswana objected to a new US policy requiring its citizens to post a $15,000 bond for certain US visas. Sources told&nbsp;<em>AF<\/em>P that Taliban officials are expected in Brussels in the coming weeks for discussions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON(National Times)- The Trump administration is in discussions with the Democratic Republic of Congo to resettle 1,100 Afghans, who have been stranded in Qatar for years while awaiting US visas, an advocacy organisation said. The talks highlight the protracted legal and logistical hurdles facing Afghans who fled the Taliban after US immigrant visa processing for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>US plans to send 1,100 stranded Afghans to \u2018unstable\u2019 Democratic Republic of Congo - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124630\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US plans to send 1,100 stranded Afghans to \u2018unstable\u2019 Democratic Republic of Congo - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"WASHINGTON(National Times)- The Trump administration is in discussions with the Democratic Republic of Congo to resettle 1,100 Afghans, who have been stranded in Qatar for years while awaiting US visas, an advocacy organisation said. The talks highlight the protracted legal and logistical hurdles facing Afghans who fled the Taliban after US immigrant visa processing for [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124630\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-23T04:52:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-23T04:52:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-38-4.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124630\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124630\/\",\"name\":\"US plans to send 1,100 stranded Afghans to \u2018unstable\u2019 Democratic Republic of Congo - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124630\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124630\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-38-4.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-23T04:52:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-23T04:52:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124630\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124630\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124630\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-38-4.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-38-4.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124630\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"US plans to send 1,100 stranded Afghans to \u2018unstable\u2019 Democratic Republic of Congo\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"US plans to send 1,100 stranded Afghans to \u2018unstable\u2019 Democratic Republic of Congo - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124630\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"US plans to send 1,100 stranded Afghans to \u2018unstable\u2019 Democratic Republic of Congo - Nation","og_description":"WASHINGTON(National Times)- The Trump administration is in discussions with the Democratic Republic of Congo to resettle 1,100 Afghans, who have been stranded in Qatar for years while awaiting US visas, an advocacy organisation said. 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