Afghan Refugees In Qatar Wait For Relocation After US Transfer Deadline Passes

This article was originally published in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Read the original article.

By Firuza Azizi and Sahar Lewal

Hundreds of Afghan refugees remain in limbo at the As-Sayliyah camp in Qatar awaiting information about the countries they may be transferred to after a US State Department deadline to move them passed last month.

In interviews with RFE/RL's Radio Azadi, several of those waiting said they were told that the camp near the capital of Doha would close by March 31 and that they might be transferred to other countries.

In the meantime, the uncertainty of not knowing where they may be headed looms over them, making it impossible to know what their future holds or if they even may be returned to Afghanistan despite the perils they could face.

"The authorities here told us that As-Sayliyah camp will be closed on March 31, and according to the newly announced US policy, you may be transferred to another country," one Afghan refugee, who did not want their name to be published and has been living in the As-Sayliyah camp for the past 15 months, told Radio Azadi.

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"People were waiting until March 31. Even after that, when asked, they said there was no news yet. People still ask, which are these second and third countries that we can go to? We are not told which countries they might send us to."

Fleeing After Cooperating With US Forces

According to some American officials and Afghans living in the camp, about 1,100 people are currently living at the As-Sayliyah camp. Many of the refugees at the camp are civilians who cooperated with US forces during 20 years war; more than half are women and children.

They had expected to end up in the United States after international forces left Afghanistan in August 2021. Evacuation flights got them out of the country as the Taliban regained control of the war-torn country.

Those hopes were dashed, however, after all immigration requests relating to Afghanistan were halted in November 2025 after an Afghan national shot two members of the National Guard, one of whom died a day after the shooting near the White House.

The Taliban government says it is committed to implementing a general amnesty but reports from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and other agencies show that a number of soldiers and people who cooperated with the Americans during the republican government have faced imprisonment, torture, and even death threats -- something the Taliban has denied.

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"The answer has been the same for four years. Bring them here [to the United States]. They're vetted. They earned it on the ground, in uniform, next to our people," said Shawn VanDiver, the head of AfghanEvac, a group dedicated to help coordinate relocation and resettlement efforts of Afghans impacted by the US mission in Afghanistan.

The US government has said that no one will be forcibly returned, nor has it released how many people have accepted the offer to receive money and return to Afghanistan.

Camp As-Sayliyah was established after the Taliban retook power in 2021 to house Afghans who had cooperated with US forces and were awaiting transfer to the United States.

Some members of Congress have called the closure of the camp a "deep betrayal.”

The State Department has said that Afghan refugees were not properly vetted under the Biden administration, which AfghanEvac and other advocacy and rights groups dispute.

Copyright (c)2025 RFE/RL, Inc. Used with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 

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