The United States is negotiating with third countries to relocate more than 1,100 Afghans stranded at a US-run facility in Qatar and is not forcibly returning anyone to Afghanistan, a senior State Department official told lawmakers on Wednesday.
“We are not forcibly repatriating Afghans to Afghanistan. Some have gone of their own volition, but we are not forcing anybody,” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Paul Kapur said at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.
Kapur said between 1,100 and 1,200 Afghans remain at Camp As Sayliyah (CAS) in Qatar and that Washington was working to move them to third countries.
“We’re looking to relocate them. We’re in negotiations with third countries to do that. Our belief is that that is actually a good outcome. Keeping them indefinitely at CAS is not reasonable,” he said.
The State Department has said it aims to close the facility by the end of March.
More than 1,100 Afghans have been housed at the former US military base since early 2025, when President Donald Trump’s administration halted resettlement for Afghans who feared retaliation by Taliban authorities for their links to the US military.
Democrats have criticised the administration’s plan to offer payments to Afghans who agree to return to Afghanistan ahead of the camp’s closure.
Sydney Kamlager-Dove, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee holding the hearing, called the plan a “betrayal of our Afghan allies.”
Kapur said he believed about 150 Afghans had accepted payments to return but did not know what happened to them after they went back.
The State Department has not disclosed details of the payments. Shawn VanDiver, head of #AfghanEvac, a coalition of veterans and advocacy groups, told Reuters the offer was $4,500 for a main applicant and $1,200 for each additional family member.
VanDiver said the returns were not truly voluntary, alleging that staff at the facility had urged Afghans to accept the offer amid uncertainty over relocation to third countries.
