In the Deadline’s Final Days, Ex-U.S. Marine Seeks His Brother in an Afghan Refugee Camp in Qatar

Mohammad Masood Jamshidi was part of the security detail at the U.S. consulate in Herat when it was bombed by the Taliban. He hoped to receive asylum in the United States, but now fears he will be deported to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

His brother, former U.S. Marine Sean Jamshidi, recently went to Qatar, where Masood is being held in a camp along with nearly 1,100 other Afghans. To Sean’s surprise, he was denied access, and he spent several days desperately trying to find someone who would let him in.

Camp As-Sayliyah, a former U.S. military base, is expected to close on September 30, while its residents still do not know what will happen next.

“They are traumatized by this situation, and I want to come meet them and bring them some money,” Sean told Radio Free Europe on September 23, referring to his brother’s family.

“We don’t know where they might be moved. They keep talking about a third country that is not the United States, maybe in Africa, like the Democratic Republic of Congo… When I came here, they told me my permission to enter the camp had been denied,” Sean said.

During a previous trip, in February, he had been granted permission to enter the camp.

Fighting for freedom

Many of the Afghans in the camp worked for U.S. forces during the U.S.-led international military presence in Afghanistan, from 2001 to 2021. The rest are mostly their family members.

After being evacuated from the country following the withdrawal of U.S. and international forces in 2021, they expected to be welcomed in the U.S.

But all immigration requests related to Afghanistan were suspended by a presidential executive order in November 2025, after an Afghan national shot two National Guard members, one of whom died a day after the shooting near the White House in Washington.

A U.S. State Department official told Radio Free Europe that the United States “has kept its promise to Afghans who risked their lives to support the U.S. government during our efforts to help Afghans build a better country for themselves,” adding that around 400,000 Afghans have been relocated to new countries since 2001.

A 2013 photograph shows Masood with the then U.S. ambassador, James Cunningham. The photograph also shows the U.S. seal, damaged during a car-bomb attack on the consulate, in which eight Afghan guards were killed in September of that year.

“Fear and loss would have kept most people from returning, but Mr. Jamshidy showed his courage and dedication by returning a few weeks later,” his supervisor wrote in a letter with which, in December of that year, he recommended that he be granted a visa to enter the U.S.

Masood has been in Camp As-Sayliyah for two years, together with his wife, three children, son-in-law, and three-year-old grandson.

“He risked his life. So it is certainly sad that they are talking about a third country, when a person like him risked his life for our policies, for our cultural values, for our freedom,” Sean said.

“Welcome to the USA”

The question of the fate of the people in the camp has also been raised in congressional hearings.

In June, Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware said that among them were “400 children and 150 family members of active U.S. forces members currently serving.”

Responding, Secretary of State Marco Rubio referred to the executive order but said Washington had talked with “several countries” about giving the Afghans shelter. He said he wanted them to find “the right countries to go to.”

The State Department official who spoke to Radio Free Europe described As-Sayliyah as “a legacy of the [former U.S. Democratic president Joe] Biden administration’s effort to move as many Afghans as possible to America, without properly vetting them.”

Physical conditions in the camp are not reported to be a problem. But people there have told Radio Azadi they are angry about staying for so long in a state of uncertainty and about the emotional toll the uncertainty about the future causes, as the September 30 deadline for the camp’s closure approaches.

“Every person here in the camp is anxious. We are all asking ourselves what will happen to us and what our fate will be,” said one of the camp’s residents, who declined to be identified.

“We cannot trust these people. Will they take us to America, or will they send us to another country, maybe somewhere in Africa?” he continued.

The man said his family had been separated by the chaos of war and international politics since the Taliban retook Kabul in 2021. Two of his children, he said, are in the U.S., he has a daughter in Iran, and two other children in Afghanistan.

“They call us constantly and ask what is happening. They live hidden in a house in Kabul. That fact alone is a huge source of worry. Then there is also our situation here. We sold everything we had, the house, our things and everything else… because we believed we would go to America,” the man said.

A man who chose to identify himself only by his first name, Faraidoon, 42, said camp authorities held regular meetings with residents, but “in every meeting they say there is no information.”

Faraidoon has been in the camp for about “two years,” along with his wife and three children.

“When we arrived, there was even a sign inside the camp that read: ‘Welcome to the USA.’ Now they have simply isolated us and we don’t understand what is happening,” he said.

“Yesterday we had a meeting with the camp leader and other officials. We asked many questions, but nothing is clear. They told us they have not yet received any order saying the camp will close on that date. Also, no one has told us anything about a third country,” a 65-year-old camp resident said on September 23.

Such accounts are typical for the people in Camp As-Sayliyah.

The State Department official told Radio Free Europe that U.S. authorities are in “regular and direct communication with residents about efforts for their resettlement,” saying they “continue to work to identify opportunities for the voluntary relocation of all Camp As-Sayliyah residents.”

“Other countries have no obligation to these people, and they have no ties to other countries besides Afghanistan, where it is not safe for them to go because of their relationship with the U.S. government. So these people are truly caught between two bad alternatives,” Shawn VanDiver, a former U.S. soldier who as head of AfghanEvac is campaigning for Afghans to be brought to the U.S., told Radio Free Europe.

Sean Jamshidi, the former U.S. Marine, said the consequences for his family have been enormous.

“We lost our father in America while my brother was in the camp… [My brother] couldn’t be there for the funeral,” he said, adding that their mother has suffered two strokes in the last two years.

“It has been very difficult for our family not being able to see each other,” he said.

“I hope they are sent somewhere where they are safe, not just sent to another third country that has its own problems. And I will continue to fight for this.”