As Elon Musk’s DOGE team continues its efforts to dismantle the US government’s primary agency for distributing foreign aid, its overseas employees are stuck in limbo. Workers at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are stationed in dozens of different countries around the world, but reports from ABC and CBS News indicate that the majority will be imminently summoned back to the United States.

Both in the US and abroad, some USAID employees’ email and systems access have been abruptly cut off, making it harder to get official information about what might happen next. “Everybody is rightfully very concerned for our overseas staff that are essentially just being left stranded,” a current USAID employee in the US told WIRED. “We're not sure how we're going to get them home safe.”

WIRED has seen internal information showing that USAID leadership attempted to compile a list of overseas employees worldwide on Monday. On Tuesday, Pete Marocco, the State Department’s newly appointed foreign assistance director tapped to oversee USAID, convened with senior State Department leaders and