(Adnkronos) – After blocking the transfer program to the United States for Afghans who worked for the American military, the Trump administration is working to send about 1100 of them to the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is what Shawn VanDriver, president of the AfghanEvac association, which deals with the fate of Afghans, including former interpreters for the American military, members of the Afghan Special Forces, and family members of American military personnel, who have been stranded in Qatar for over a year, after US forces evacuated them from Afghanistan, which had returned to the hands of the Taliban, denounces.
VanDiver explained to the New York Times that, according to what State Department officials told her, this group of Afghans, which includes over 400 children, will be given the choice between relocating to the African country, which is experiencing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, or returning to live under the Taliban regime, where their lives would be at risk given the help they provided to the Americans.
Currently, there are approximately 600,000 refugees, mainly from the Central African Republic and Rwanda, in Congo, according to UN data. “We think they just want to send these people back to Afghanistan, where they know they face certain death – VanDiver denounces – they know that Afghans will not agree to go to Congo, because why go from the world’s number 1 refugee crisis to number 2?”
A State Department spokesperson, Tommy Pigott, when asked for comment, accused the Biden administration of being hasty in transferring Afghans to the US and defended the current administration which is seeking alternatives. “Americans have had to pay the price for the irresponsible way hundreds of thousands of Afghans were brought to the United States,” he said, without mentioning that these are people who have helped and supported US forces in the country for decades.
Between August 2021 and mid-2025, over 190,000 Afghans who helped Americans entered the US, after passing checks. But a group of over 1100, who were evacuated from the country at the end of 2024, were blocked by Trump at a military base in Qatar. In recent months, American diplomats have asked several African countries to take the Afghans, but talks with many have failed, VanDiver added. Currently, there is no confirmation on the plan with Congo, and a spokesperson for its government declined to comment to the Times.
