The US Got Them Out of Afghanistan. Now They’re Nowhere

Hundreds of Afghan families who aided the U.S. military during the war in Afghanistan remain stranded at a former American base in Qatar, trapped in bureaucratic limbo with no clear path forward.

The Wall Street Journal highlighted the story of Mohammed Ibrahim, who for over a decade provided transportation services to U.S. forces in Afghanistan — work that made him and his family targets for the Taliban. In 2021, the Taliban kidnapped and murdered his brother-in-law, who had worked alongside him. After years in hiding, Ibrahim and his family were finally evacuated to Camp As Sayliyah in January 2025, believing they had reached safety.

Nearly a year later, however, Ibrahim and some 1,300 other Afghans remain confined to the camp, their futures uncertain amid shifting U.S. immigration policies. The facility, located in the Qatari desert and set up inside converted hangars, is the only site where the United States maintains direct custody of Afghan evacuees.

Ibrahim arrived at Camp As Sayliyah just four days before President Trump took office. He had expected to receive U.S. refugee paperwork, but the process was frozen during a policy overhaul by the new administration.

Now, with limited options for resettlement and few officials left overseeing relocation efforts, many evacuees fear being abandoned altogether. While children at the camp have access to some schooling, adults have no jobs or structured activities. Days pass slowly in what one observer described as “a sort of stupor.”

Still, Ibrahim says returning to Afghanistan is unthinkable. “If I go back, they will call me a spy,” he said. “I’d rather die in this camp than die by Taliban hands.”

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