In August 2021, the Taliban seized Kabul, bringing an abrupt end to the 20-year U.S.-led war in Afghanistan and triggering a nationwide rollback of civil liberties, especially for women and girls.

In the months that followed, the United States launched a large-scale evacuation and resettlement program for Afghans who had worked with U.S. agencies or were at risk of reprisals under the new regime.

Evacuees were transferred to regional transit hubs, including the U.S. military base at Camp Al-Sayliyah in Qatar, where humanitarian organizations provided emergency support as security screenings and immigration processing took place. After months of waiting, the majority of people received refugee or humanitarian parole status and were resettled across the United States. Still, others were denied approval and in some cases returned to Afghanistan.

I spent a month at the camp in March 2023, working as a consultant for the International Organization for Migration (IOM). I had to develop communications materials that would guide U.S. service providers on humanitarian standards and help them better understand what evacuees had endured, ensuring that people in the camp were treated with dignity and respect.