Evangelical group condemns plan to send Afghan allies to DRC

The Evangelical refugee resettlement agency World Relief has opposed the Trump administration’s reported plans to resettle over 1,000 Afghans, many of whom aided the United States military during the war in Afghanistan, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as questions about the future of refugee resettlement in the U.S. remain.

A Tuesday report from The New York Times that cites an aid worker briefed on the situation outlines the Trump administration’s purported plans to resettle Afghans currently living at Camp As Sayliyah in Doha, Qatar. These include former interpreters for the U.S. military, former members of the Afghan Special Operations Forces, and family members of American service members.

They have been stationed in Qatar for more than a year after being evacuated due to safety concerns following the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s subsequent takeover of the country.

While the Afghans were expected to eventually resettle in the U.S., the Trump administration halted almost all refugee resettlement, including Afghans, upon taking office in January 2025. 

The administration also instituted a policy of reinterviewing refugees admitted to the U.S. during the Biden administration. The move follows security concerns after an Afghan national cleared for admission during the Biden administration killed a National Guard member stationed in Washington, D.C., last November. The administration has also imposed a visa ban on Afghans. 

The New York Times reports that the Trump administration plans to give Afghan refugees in Qatar the option to resettle in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or return to Afghanistan.

“If these reports are accurate, the administration is considering sending hundreds of individuals from Afghanistan — the top country of origin for refugees resettled to the United States last year — to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the number two country of origin for refugees resettled to the United States in fiscal year 2025,” said Myal Greene, president and CEO of World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, in a statement. 

World Relief is one of several nonprofits that receive funding from the U.S. State Department to resettle refugees in the United States.

Denouncing the proposal as “cruel and shortsighted,” Greene stressed that “Afghans who risked their lives to stand alongside the U.S. military were promised protection.”

“To abandon them now — either to the Taliban forces whom they fled or to a separate country beset by war, conflict and extreme poverty — is morally wrong, and I hope and pray that the administration will not pursue this reported plan,” Greene said. 

“Having operated in the DRC for roughly 25 years in partnership with local churches, World Relief has a firsthand perspective on the stark humanitarian challenges facing the country. The DRC, which has been plagued by conflict and war for decades, needs the prayers and support of the American people, not additional refugees from an entirely separate conflict.”

Afghan residents of the camp in Doha said in a statement issued through the advocacy group #AfghanEvac that they have not been formally instructed on the plan and only learned about it through the media. 

“No American official has come to us to explain what is being planned for our lives,” the statement said, as reported by KPBS. “Many of us are not well. The uncertainty has been more than some of us can carry. There is deep depression here.”

During a hearing in Washington earlier this year, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., argued that “tens of thousands of people” were admitted to the U.S. without proper vetting, saying “we have no idea of their actual background.” 

“And in many cases, we now have no idea where they are or what they’re doing, who they’re connected with, or what they’re capable of,” Hawley said. 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General stated in a 2022 report that over 36,400 Afghans had a “facilitation document” as their proof of identity that federal officials “could not define or provide an explanation for … indicating potential inaccuracies.” 

“We found missing, incomplete, or inaccurate first and last names, DOBs, travel document numbers, travel document types, and visa data in TECS,” the report states. “We questioned data in many of the 88,977 TECS records.” 

World Relief Senior Vice President for U.S. Programs Aerlande Wontamo urged the Trump administration to consider reopening the U.S. refugee resettlement program.

For nearly 50 years, Wontamo said that the U.S. refugee resettlement program has allowed faith-based organizations like World Relief to partner with local churches “to welcome and help integrate carefully vetted refugees who have fled persecution for reasons such as their service to the U.S. military, their faith or their ethnicity.”

The Christian Post reached out to the U.S. State Department for comment. A response was not received by press time.

State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggott told The New York Times that “The American people have had to pay the price for the irresponsible way hundreds of thousands of Afghans were brought into the United States.”

“Our focus now is on restoring accountability by advancing responsible, voluntary resettlement options,” Piggott said. 

Others voicing disapproval with the reported plan include Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., a former Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He told MS Now on Wednesday that sending Afghan allies of the U.S. to the DRC would be a “moral travesty and a terrible failing” for those who “worked with me and helped me do my mission and bring my soldiers home alive.”