They fought alongside American troops. They served as interpreters for the U.S. military. They risked their lives and the lives of their families to support the United States in Afghanistan. When U.S.-led forces withdrew in 2021, America made them a promise: come with us, go through our security screening, and we will resettle you in the United States. They came. They went through the screening. More than 1,100 of them have been waiting at Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar, some for months, some for years, for the United States to keep its word.

Now the Trump administration may send them to the Democratic Republic of Congo instead.

The DRC is experiencing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. More than 600,000 refugees are already there after decades of armed conflict. The country is currently in civil war. There are no jobs. There are no ties. There are no protections against the Afghans being deported back to Afghanistan by the DRC government once they arrive. Advocates for Afghan refugees say the plan is not a solution. It is a pressure tactic, deliberately designed to be so bad that these men, women, and more than 400 children will choose to return to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan rather than accept it, even knowing that return means risking persecution, imprisonment, and death.

That is not a policy. That is coercion. And it is being applied to people who earned the right to be here by fighting for us.

The State Department has described the DRC plan as a positive resolution that provides safety and allows people to start a new life. A country in active civil war with one of the world's worst humanitarian crises is not safety. An executive at a U.S. resettlement group who was briefed on the plan put it plainly: it is a false choice for incredibly vulnerable people who deserve better. The choice between the DRC and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan is not a choice between two options. It is a choice between two forms of danger, offered by a government that has the power to offer something entirely different and is choosing not to.

Most of the people at Camp As Sayliyah have already passed the extensive security screening required for U.S. resettlement. Many have family members in the United States, including relatives of American service members and veterans. There is nothing preventing the administration from bringing them here as promised. Nothing except the decision not to.

That decision has consequences beyond the 1,100 people at the camp. America's willingness to honor its commitments to the people who fight alongside its forces is not just a moral question. It is a national security question. Critics of the administration's treatment of Afghan allies warn that this betrayal will make local populations in future conflict zones less willing to work with U.S. forces. The credibility of America's promise to its partners is a strategic asset. Every time it is broken, that asset is diminished. The next time American forces need local partners willing to risk their lives to help them, those partners will remember what happened to the people who helped in Afghanistan.

They are reaching their breaking point, an advocate said. America should not let them reach it.

Sign this petition to demand the Trump administration honor its commitment to Afghan allies at Camp As Sayliyah and bring those who have passed security screening to the United States as promised, reject the plan to send Afghan refugees to the Democratic Republic of Congo as a coercive pressure tactic designed to force them back to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, and affirm that America's promise to those who fight alongside its forces must be kept as a matter of both moral obligation and national security.