DOHA: Stuck for over a year behind a perimeter fence on a defunct American base on Doha´s edge, 1,100 former Afghan allies of US forces and their families have escaped Afghanistan with their lives only to find themselves trapped in uncertainty.
“We are all living in extreme anxiety, we feel that we are in limbo, not only me and my family, but other people here,” Rasouly, a former interpreter for US forces in Afghanistan, and now a 19-month resident at Camp As Sayliyah (CAS) in Qatar, told AFP by phone.
Set in a hinterland of desert scrub and truck depots on the outskirts of the Qatari capital, CAS has served as a holding site for Afghans going through the base for processing in the hope of resettling in America since the 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The Afghans on the base, who were evacuated for their ties to the US, fear reprisals by the Taliban authorities should they return. But processing halted after US President Donald Trump paused refugee admissions in January 2025 and in November suspended all Afghan immigration cases.
“Returning to Afghanistan is not safe for us, and we do not have any clear alternative option,” said Rasouly, 36. Like other Afghans who spoke to AFP either by messaging app or over the phone from CAS, Rasouly asked to be identified by a pseudonym for fear of endangering family still in Afghanistan or prejudicing resettlement cases in the US or elsewhere.
Now campaigners say Washington is preparing to force the 1,100 inhabitants of the camp to choose between returning to Afghanistan or resettling in the conflict-riven Democratic Republic of Congo. AfghanEvac, a group supporting the Afghan allies, confirmed the proposal was under consideration by Trump´s administration after it was first reported in US media.
In an open letter shared by the campaign group on Wednesday, the Afghan CAS residents rejected the proposal. “We have been in enough war. We cannot take our children into another one. We also cannot return to Afghanistan. The Taliban will kill many of us for what we did for the United States,” the letter read.
