The Afghans stranded at a luxury resort

For 780 Afghan evacuees stuck at a beachside resort in Albania, the future is unclear. They might never make it to the U.S. All because they took the wrong plane out of Afghanistan.

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The Afghans living at the Rafaelo Resort were evacuated from Afghanistan by nonprofits and organizations that expected Albania would be a stopover — a temporary landing pad as evacuees were processed for permanent resettlement in the United States. The Biden administration, which faced intense criticism for the way it ended the U.S. war in Afghanistan and failed to evacuate many of its Afghan allies, says it never promised to provide refuge for everyone.

This year-long bureaucratic mess is only now moving toward a resolution — for some. In the meantime, day-to-day life at tThe Rafaelo has become the strangest of limbos, as senior producer Ted Muldoon reports with national security reporter Abigail Hauslohner. Surrounded by tourists on the sun-drenched coast of the Adriatic Sea, they are profoundly grateful but , and also frustrated that they can’t yet start building a new life.

“People told us about just the monotony of the same thing over and over again,” said Hauslohner, “and the uncertainty about the future kind of destroys you.”