WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is in discussions to send more than 1,000 Afghans who assisted U.S. war efforts, along with relatives of U.S. service members currently housed in Qatar, to a third country. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is among the destinations under consideration.

Camp As-Sayliyah, a U.S. base in Doha, is hosting 1,100 refugees, including Afghans who served as interpreters and with Special Operations Forces, as well as immediate family members of more than 150 active duty U.S. military personnel. U.S. officials informed resettlement advocates of talks between the United States and Congo about the refugees, who have been in limbo at the base for the past year.

The State Department said it is working to identify options to voluntarily resettle the refugees in a third country and did not confirm which nations were being discussed. Negotiations with several countries, including Botswana and Malaysia, began months ago, and talks between senior U.S. officials and Botswana's leadership fell through. In early April, U.S. officials briefed a resettlement agency executive that Congo was the primary option being discussed.

U.S. officials have offered the refugees the alternative of returning to Afghanistan, where they face likely reprisal or death at the hands of the Taliban for working alongside the U.S. during the two-decade war. President Donald Trump paused his predecessor's Afghan resettlement program as part of a series of executive orders restricting immigration, leaving thousands of refugees who had fled war and undergone years-long vetting stranded at locations worldwide, including the base in Qatar.

"You cannot call a choice voluntary when the two options are Congo and the Taliban, civil war or an oppressor who wants to kill you. That is not a choice. That is a confession extracted under duress," said Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran who heads the #AfghanEvac coalition.

Congo is facing one of the most acute humanitarian emergencies in the world, according to U.N. officials, and has experienced decades-long fighting between government forces and Rwanda-backed rebels in its eastern region. It is one of at least eight African nations that received millions of dollars from the Trump administration in deals to accept migrants deported from the U.S. to countries other than their own.

Negina Khalili, a former prosecutor in Afghanistan who fled during the 2021 U.S. withdrawal, has been waiting for news about the resettlement status of her father, brother, and stepmother since they arrived at the Doha base in January 2025. Khalili said U.S. officials at the camp have been suggesting to refugees that they return to Afghanistan and offering them money to do so. "They are not giving them any information or updates regarding which countries they will go to," she said.

"They were so stressed and worried about it and said that Congo is not a safe place either. They don't know if it's a temporary location for them there or a permanent location. They are worried," Khalili said.

"The base in Doha was always intended as a transit platform. It was never designed to hold families for months or years, which is the situation that people are currently in. What I want to emphasize is that this was intended to honor a wartime commitment," said Jon Finer, former deputy national security adviser to President Joe Biden.