US offers payments to Afghans stranded in Qatar to repatriate

KABUL (Pajhwok): The United States has begun offering financial assistance to Afghan nationals willing to return home, as part of efforts to close a camp in Qatar where many have been stranded for years.

According to Reuters, Paul Kapur, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, told a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia that the State Department had initiated the payments to facilitate the camp’s closure. The facility has housed Afghans who have been awaiting resettlement for several years.

Kapur said approximately 150 individuals have already agreed to return under the program.

He emphasized that participation is entirely voluntary. “We are not compelling Afghans to go back to Afghanistan; some have chosen to do so voluntarily, but we are not forcing anyone,” he stated.

Kapur did not disclose the amount being offered to those who opt to return.

hz/sa