Alcocer arrived in Zimbabwe on February 12 with two other Americans to meet a group of 22 Afghans who were fleeing the Taliban.
The Afghans had arrived on traveler visas to Zimbabwe on January 21. They spent a week decompressing at a safari park after being confined to the four walls of their Afghan safe houses for 18 months.
Because of their high-level positions in the former government, the Afghans were threatened by reprisal killings, which commenced shortly after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021.
After meeting their American handlers, the group members intended to go by bus to the South African border, where they would claim asylum. "Everything had been done legally," Alcocer said, explaining that the nonprofit The Lifeline Foundation funded the journey and organized the route. They hoped to establish a pathway other at-risk individuals could use to escape Afghanistan.
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However, four days later, Alcocer said the bus was "flat out denied entry" by South African officials. In the legal battle that followed, however, he said South Africa was found to have violated international law by refusing to grant the refugees asylum. "As soon as anybody hears 'Afghan,' there's little that they can do, or want to do," Alcocer explained.
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Zimbabwean officials then directed the group's hired driver to park the bus in a remote area between Zimbabwe and South Africa. Officials collected passengers' passports. Over the following three days, adults aboard were interrogated. When the bus ran out of gas, the driver was forbidden from purchasing more. The passengers suffered in the intense heat without air conditioning and had no access to food or water. "Things were nasty," Alcocer said.
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Then within a few days, Alcocer said four Zimbabwean officials "shoved" the group of 25 onto a smaller 15-person bus with a new driver. Along the route to Harare, Alcocer said officials and the driver "were playing psychological operations with us," trying to provoke the adults into behavior that would justify their arrest and deportation. They played pounding music at excessive volume. The driver and officials consumed alcohol inside the bus and stopped to buy additional drinks at a bar swarming with prostitutes. Each time the driver stopped to relieve himself, Alcocer saw him expose his genitals to the children.
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Children were forbidden from leaving the bus to use the restroom for the drive. "I had kids sitting in their urine and feces for roughly six-and-a-half hours," Alcocer said.
Eventually, Alcocer said officials took the group to police headquarters. When the Americans and refugees refused to bribe the officials, they were transported to an immigration building, where officials gave the group seven hours to exit the country.
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After the entire party arranged means to go within this timeframe, officials cut the timeline to four hours. They were complying with the shortened timeline proved impossible. Zimbabwean officials charged all three Americans with 22 counts of human trafficking, each carrying a two- to three-year sentence.
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Eventually, Alcocer said two officials from the U.S. Embassy arrived to de-escalate the situation. Zimbabwean officials dropped the charges. They told the group they could depart the country the following day and would be given a room for the night. Alcocer said the room was "a detention cell in the basement of the airport."
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He said, "U.S. Embassy [officials] watched" as Zimbabwean officials padlocked Alcocer and 22 Afghans into a confinement cell, where the temperature was around 90 to 100 degrees. For a little over 24 hours, "all they would give us [were] apples, which we had to pay for, and bottles of water," Alcocer said.
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Responding to questions about Alcocer's allegations, a State Department spokesperson acknowledged that U.S. citizens "were briefly detained in Zimbabwe and released" and that personnel in the airport had "raised… concern that U.S. citizens detained in Zimbabwe be treated fairly at all levels." The Zimbabwean Department of Immigration did not respond to requests for comment.
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Alcocer remained in Zambia for weeks to ensure the Afghans secured haven—the SIV applicants in his care feared being killed if forced to return to Afghanistan. Two applicants are former commandos who have survived in hiding only through the financial, medical, and other support of evacuation volunteers with Operation North Star, Flanders Fields, and the Moral Compass Federation.
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Late last month, Alcocer could return to the U.S. after Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema helped him secure one-year renewable visas for the Afghans in his care. "Words can't describe the emotions I felt knowing that the families [are] safe," Alcocer said.
The 22 Afghans remain in Zambia as they await the processing of special immigrant visas to the U.S., eventually leading to a path to citizenship. Still, that process is reportedly facing a significant backlog of several years.
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