Rebecca Santana and Farnoush Amiri are among the few reporters still consistently covering the fate of Afghans who supported the U.S. war effort and continue to face obstacles in their journey to America.
Earlier this year, they reported on how the Trump administration’s suspension of the refugee program left many Afghans and other refugees stranded. A few months later, Santana was speaking with a source familiar with Afghan immigration issues when she asked what had become of Afghans awaiting relocation. From previous reporting, she knew most Afghan refugees were flown first to a U.S. base in Qatar for processing before continuing on to the United States.
The source revealed that 1,200 Afghans who had arrived at the base before Jan. 20 were still stuck in Qatar—three months later.
Thanks to the trust Santana had built with American organizations helping Afghans emigrate, she was able to locate a woman stuck at the base with her family, as well as another woman in the U.S. whose parents remained in Qatar.
Amiri, fluent in Farsi, conducted the interview with the woman at the base, who spoke Dari. Through the interview, Amiri uncovered critical details—including the woman’s history of granting divorces to Taliban wives, which made her a target for threats.
Their story drew renewed attention to the ongoing challenges facing Afghan allies and highlighted the human toll of bureaucratic delays.
Related articles
