Taliban say Afghans stranded in Qatar can safely return home

KABUL: Afghanistan’s foreign ministry on Saturday said Afghans who helped or worked with US forces during the two-decade war and are currently stranded abroad including in Qatar can safely return home, even as reports suggest Washington is considering relocating some of them to third countries.

Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi said Afghanistan was the “shared homeland of all Afghans” and its doors remained open to those currently in limbo overseas, including individuals who assisted US forces during the war.

The statement came after media reports said the Trump administration was in talks to potentially transfer around 1,100 Afghans — including former US wartime collaborators and relatives of American service members — to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The discussions reportedly involve Afghans who have been staying at Camp As-Sayliyah, a US facility in Doha, for nearly a year while awaiting resettlement to the United States.

The US State Department said it is exploring options to “voluntarily” resettle the group in a third country but did not confirm which countries were under consideration.

The refugee support group #AfghanEvac said US officials had informed it of discussions with Congo, though Washington has not publicly confirmed any agreement.

The potential relocation has drawn concern from Afghan evacuees, who said they were not informed directly and learned of the developments through media reports.

“We do not want to go to the Democratic Republic of Congo,” the group said in a joint statement shared by AfghanEvac, citing insecurity and ongoing conflict in the African nation.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has faced prolonged violence in its eastern regions involving government forces and rebel groups.

Many of the stranded Afghans said returning home is also not an option, citing fears of reprisals from the Taliban for their work with US forces during the war.

Afghanistan’s foreign ministry, however, insisted that there were no security threats in the country and encouraged those abroad to return through what it described as “legal and dignified channels.”

It also said individuals seeking to travel elsewhere could do so through proper legal procedures and expressed readiness to engage with all countries on the matter.

The relocation discussions, first reported by The New York Times, come more than a year after the US halted parts of its Afghan resettlement programme, leaving thousands of vetted refugees stranded across multiple countries, including Qatar, after the 2021 withdrawal of international forces and the Taliban takeover.