US to close Qatar transit site for Afghan evacuees

ISLAMABAD: The US State Department is moving to close Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar, a transit facility established after the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of Kabul to process and temporarily shelter Afghan evacuees awaiting resettlement.

According to Bloomberg, a State Department spokesperson said the administration plans to shut down CAS by March 31, with the facility fully demobilized by the end of the current fiscal year.

Democratic lawmakers say the State Department also notified Congress of an intent to close CAS by the end of September, and urged the administration to ensure no evacuees are involuntarily sent to Afghanistan or any other country, the House Foreign Affairs Committee said in a press release.  

Why is it being closed?

The Trump administration has framed the decision as a relocation and demobilization plan rather than a return policy.

 According to Bloomberg’s report, the US intends to relocate those housed at the site and has said it has “no plans to send evacuees back to Afghanistan”. 

In Washington, the announcement triggered immediate political pushback over process and safeguards. 

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the site is being closed “without any plan to safely resettle” hundreds of at-risk Afghans, and argued most have “clear pathways” to resettle in the United States.

Importance of the site

A Congressional Research Service report says CAS became a key “lily pad” in the US-Afghan relocation architecture after the withdrawal. 

The report, authored by Kenneth Katzman, notes that the As Sayliyah facility was closed in June 2021, but soon reopened in August to help evacuate US Afghans and third-country nationals, with some remaining there as onward migration was arranged.

Qatar’s role in the evacuation made the site strategically and logistically significant. In a US Department of Defense account of US–Qatar defense cooperation, former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin credited Qatar’s support at As Sayliyah and Al Udeid Air Base as central in the evacuation of more than 124,000 people from Afghanistan.

The NGO 'AfghanEvac' says that roughly 1,100 people remain at Camp As Sayliyah, and about 800 are classified as refugees with approval to go to the US.