Around 1100 Afghans have been stuck since 2021 at a former U.S. base in Qatar. They fled fearing persecution by the Taliban authorities for collaborating with the United States under the Western-backed government that collapsed in 2021.
The Afghan Taliban government stated on Saturday that Afghans who fled to Qatar out of fear of reprisals in their country for assisting the American army can return “with confidence.”
According to reports in the media, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote on X that a number of Afghan nationals awaiting U.S. visas in Qatar were offered the choice between repatriation to Afghanistan or relocation to a third country. The ministry emphasized that Afghanistan is a shared homeland for all Afghans and invited those concerned to return with confidence and peace of mind.
They had to be registered in Qatar before being able to join the United States. Since the dismantling of the program by the Trump administration, their fate has been uncertain.
The NGO #AfghanEvac, led by a former U.S. military member, stated this week that Washington offered these Afghans relocation to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country plagued by multiple conflicts, or to return to Afghanistan.
The Taliban government claims there is no security threat in Afghanistan. The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reported in February that UN had documented “29 arbitrary arrests and detentions as well as six cases of torture and ill-treatment against officials of the former Afghan government” and former security forces, including some who returned to Afghanistan, between November 6, 2025 and January 25, 2026.
/2026/04/25/69ec9c1e4b363363672660.jpg "Shots of settlers, expansion of colonies… What is the situation in the West Bank, where Palestinians are voting in the first elections since the Gaza war?")
