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A30 world news
Diahuebs 9 December 2021

Afghans wait and worry at US bases after frantic evacuation

get out as soon as possible.” those requests are straining resettle-
ment efforts there and contributing
Among the refugees are new arriv- to the delays.
als as well. Ghulam Eshan Sharifi,
a microbiologist, came on Nov. 14 “That’s natural, because we always
with his wife and two children after gravitate towards our culture toward
23 days in Qatar. He was relieved but people who can help you,” Rahel
worried about his adult daughters said. “But we try to give them some
back in Kabul who held government comfort that regardless of where they
jobs before the Taliban returned. go, American society is such a forgiv-
ing and giving society that people will
“They have no jobs now. They can- be there to help them out.”
not even go outside so we are obvi-
ously afraid about what will happen Given the extent of the challenge,
to them,” Sharifi said. “We are hoping the agencies have enlisted help be-
that God will solve the problem.” yond groups that typically work with
refugees, including veterans groups
He said he hopes to settle in the Den- and even local sports clubs to spon-
ver area but does not yet know when, sor families to help them get situated.
or if, that will happen. “This is just Resettlement officials say it might
the beginning for us,” he added. have been easier if the entire process
had been shifted to a U.S. territory
(AP) — The former interpreter really, really long period,” said Erol Many refugees are also recovering such as Guam, which has been used
for the U.S. Army counts himself Kekic, a senior vice president with from what was for many a traumatic for that purpose in the past, or if there
among the lucky as an Afghan Church World Service, one of nine escape from a country that collapsed had been more time to prepare in ad-
who managed to make it through national resettlement agencies work- much more quickly than the U.S. vance for their arrival.
frantic crowds outside the Kabul ing with the government in what is government, at least publicly, antici-
airport to board a military evacu- formally known as Operation Allies pated. “This thing should have been
ation flight out of the country Welcome. planned before they announced the
with little more than the clothes “Most, if not all of them have worked withdrawal. Right? So in that sense, it
on his back. The resettlement organizations and with our forces and they have been is taking longer than it should,” Mark
the Department of Homeland Se- part of the U.S. effort in some way,” Hetfield, president of HIAS, another
Esrar Ahmad Saber now waits, along curity, the lead federal agency in the said Air Force Col. Soleiman Rahel, of the nine resettlement organiza-
with 11,000 other Afghans, from the effort, are working toward a goal of who came to the U.S. with his fam- tions, said. “But considering they de-
safety of a U.S. base in central New having everyone off the bases by Feb. ily as a refugee from Afghanistan cided to plan for this after they made
Jersey, while worrying about family 15. The New Jersey installation now when he was a teenager and is on a the decision to withdraw, given the
members left behind and enduring a hosts the largest number, down from temporary assignment working with depletion of the capacity of the U.S.
prolonged resettlement process. a high of 14,500, followed by Fort the refugees at the base. “So, it’s very refugee program over the last four
McCoy in Wisconsin with 7,500. traumatic. It’s very hard for them.” years, none of this is surprising.”
Saber has been at Joint Base Mc-
Guire-Dix-Lakehurst in central New There are 3,200 more at overseas Rahel said he can appreciate the chal- While refugees receive temporary as-
Jersey since Aug. 26 as has nearly ev- transit points awaiting flights to the lenges the new arrivals will face since sistance after being resettled, most
eryone else at one of the three “villag- U.S. as well as some still making it his own parents confronted similar are expected to achieve self-sufficien-
es” set up there for refugees. “They out of Afghanistan. ones, including being forced to take cy. That proves to be difficult when
want to go to their new homes and lower-level jobs than they were ac- many don’t speak English well, have
start their new lives,” the 29-year-old “I feel pretty good about our chances customed to back in Afghanistan so academic credentials that won’t be
said. “They are really excited about of moving everybody off the base be- they could support their family and recognized in the U.S. and lack the
it. But the fact is, the process is very fore that day,” Kekic said. “Whether the kids could go to school. job and credit history needed.
slow.” or not we get there by Feb. 15, I think
remains to be seen.” He also can understand why so many Saber said he hopes his experience as
The slow pace has become a defin- of the refugees want to move to areas a military interpreter will allow him
ing characteristic of Operation Allies The government last week conduct- where there are established Afghan to join the Army. He recently learned
Welcome, the largest U.S. refugee ed a guided tour for journalists of the communities — particularly North- that he would be getting resettled in
resettlement effort in decades, which New Jersey installation, where refu- ern California, the Washington, D.C., Phoenix, but has no idea when he’ll
follows the Aug. 30 withdrawal of gees stay in brick buildings previously area and Houston — even though leave. “I’m just waiting for a flight.”
troops from the country and an end used as barracks or in sprawling tent-
to America’s longest war. Even as Af- like prefabricated structures.
ghans still arrive, thousands remain
in limbo, anxious about their future There are fields for soccer, courts for
as they fearfully follow the news of basketball and cavernous warehouses
Taliban reprisals and economic col- where refugees receive clothes and
lapse back in their homeland. other supplies. There are also class-
rooms for the children, who make up
Operation Allies Welcome reached a about 40% of the population, as well
milestone this week as the number as language lessons and job training
resettled in American communities for adults and a medical clinic.
— 37,000 — surpassed the 35,000
at six bases around the country. But Afghans staying at the base go through
people involved with the effort read- immigration processing as well as
ily concede it’s been a challenge for a health screening and vaccinations,
number of reasons, including a scar- including for COVID-19. More than
city of affordable housing, cutbacks 100 babies have been born to women
to refugee programs under President at the base.
Donald Trump as well as the sheer
number of refugees. Saber, who came from Afghanistan by
himself and left a brother and sister
“It’s been a shock to the system be- behind, says the refugees are happy,
cause we just haven’t had this many just eager to move on. “It’s a dream to
people arrive at the same time in a be here,” he said. “They just want to