Editor's note: this story was translated from the original VOA Dari article.
The U.S. says it is working to relocate more than 1,000 Afghans who remain at a camp in Qatar.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told VOA Afghanistan in an email on Wednesday that Washington is working “to identify options for voluntary resettlement” outside Afghanistan for the remaining Afghans held at Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Camp As Sayliyah, originally scheduled to close at the end of the U.S. fiscal year on September 30, would remain open for another nine months.
More than 1,000 Afghans are currently staying at the camp. Some of these Afghans worked with the U.S. government in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021, while others are family members of the U.S. military personnel.
More than 70 percent of the camp’s residents are women and children, according to #AfghanEvac, a group advocating for U.S. Afghan allies.
After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, Camp As-Sayliyah in Qatar became a screening-and-transfer center for those Afghans awaiting resettlement to other countries.
The U.S. State Department neither confirmed nor denied an extension of the camp’s operation for nine months but said it is working to find a “positive resolution” to relocate the remaining residents.
“The State Department continues to work toward a positive resolution that provides safety for these remaining people to start a new life outside of Afghanistan while upholding the safety and security of the American people.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress in June that Washington was in talks with several countries about the transfer of the Afghans in Qatar. These Afghans have been waiting in Qatar for the past year to be relocated to other countries.