A 14-year-old Afghan girl has made an emotional appeal to US first lady Melania Trump, asking her to intervene on behalf of hundreds of vulnerable Afghans who risked their lives to support the Nato mission in Afghanistan.
Zahra has lived in a US-run camp for Afghan refugees called Camp As Sayliyah (CAS) in Qatar for the past 18 months, and has been out of school for more than four years.
She is the daughter of an Afghan army officer who served alongside US forces before the Nato-backed government collapsed in August 2021, and control of the country fell to the Taliban.
There are now concerns that she and around 1,100 other Afghans with ties to the Nato mission could be moved to a third country, after the Donald Trump administration halted a programme for them to be processed to the US. Many are now likely to be moved to central Africa’s Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to reports.
A spokesperson for the US state department did not deny that relocating the refugees to a third country was an option under discussion.
Zahra said conditions for refugees in the camp are already difficult, but the news of their possible relocation to Africa has caused a great deal of stress to the CAS residents. She called on Ms Trump to help convince the US president to give them the chance of “a brighter future”.
“Dear Mrs Melania Trump, I send this message with deep respect, honesty and hope, not only for myself but for my family, and other people who live in the same difficult situation. We do not ask for anything big, only a peaceful life, a chance to get a better education and a brighter future,” she said in a video message for the first lady.
“That's all that we want. So I kindly ask you, if my message reach you, please hear our voice and do not forget us in this situation. A tired heart but still hopeful heart.”
The Afghans living at CAS, a former US army base outside Doha, include those who served as interpreters and with Special Operations Forces as well as the immediate families of more than 150 active duty US military members.
Today is Zahra’s 15th birthday. Her story must to be heard. Families like hers are living with unacceptable uncertainty—threatened with deportation to the Congo or Afghanistan where they face torture & death. The US must stand by our Afghan allies & pass my Afghan Adjustment Act. pic.twitter.com/D9Pw4VHWg3
— Richard Blumenthal (@SenBlumenthal) April 29, 2026
In the two-minute video message, the Afghan teenager said: “This is not just a simple greeting. It's a message from the heart of someone who, despite hardships, still believes in humanity and dignity. You are not just a well-known figure to me, but a symbol of calm in the midst of a storm.”
Zahra said most of the past two years had been lived in a military camp with no meaningful protections for teenage girls like her, or any hope of formal education. Her schooling had already been disrupted before she and her family fled Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, because the Islamist group bans girls from attending school.
“I have been away from education for four years. Four years, that for a teenage is full of longing, waiting, and sadness. And now, for more than a one and a half year, we have been living in Al Sayliyah Camp in an uncertain situation. Days pass but our futures are still unclear,” she said.
“I'm still a teenager but the pressure of this condition has made me feel older than my age, and I even have to take medication for my stress just to cope with the situation,” she said in the video.
Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran who heads a non-profit coalition to help Afghan resettlement efforts called #AfghanEvac, says the refugees have been told they may need to either accept being relocated to a third country or be returned to Afghanistan, where they would likely face reprisals from the Taliban for assisting the previous Nato-backed administration.
“These are wartime allies, U.S. military family members, women, and children. Many are already approved to come to the United States. The barrier is not law. It is policy. The reported plan to send these families to the DRC is not a solution. It is a refusal plan,” Mr VanDiver told The Independent.
“This is not resettlement. It is an attempt to force refusal and justify return to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. You do not solve the world’s number one refugee crisis by dumping it into the world’s number two,” he said.
In an earlier interview with CNN, Zahra said the outbreak of the Iran war had only heightened the sense of fear in the camp. Missiles have flown over the facility, and some debris fell within the camp perimeter. “My brother was really terrified, he was telling my mom and dad that I don’t want to die, I am still a kid, an 11-year-old,” she said.
Qatar is just one of many countries to have been attacked by Iranian forces, with hundreds of missiles and drones launched at targets in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, leaving thousands stranded abroad and damaging civilian targets, including hotels and airports.
When approached by The Independent, a state department spokesperson did not directly acknowledge Zahra’s video message for the first lady. The spokesperson said the US continues “to work to identify options for voluntary resettlement of all Camp As-Sayliyah (CAS) residents”.
“We remain in regular and direct communication with residents on resettlement efforts. Due to the sensitivity of those discussions, we will not disclose any details regarding negotiations,” they said.
“Moving the CAS population to a third country is 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.”
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