Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
US Faith Groups Unite to Help Afghanistan Refugees After War
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 3 years ago on
September 4, 2021

Share

America’s major religions and denominations, often divided on other big issues, have united behind the effort to help receive an influx of refugees from Afghanistan following the end of the United States’ longest war and one of the largest airlifts in history.

Among those gearing up to help are Jewish refugee resettlement agencies and Islamic groups; conservative and liberal Protestant churches; and prominent Catholic relief organizations, providing everything from food and clothes to legal assistance and housing.

“It’s incredible. It’s an interfaith effort that involved Catholic, Lutheran, Muslim, Jews, Episcopalians … Hindus … as well as nonfaith communities who just believe that maybe it’s not a matter of faith, but it’s just a matter of who we are as a nation,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.

History of Religious Involvement in Refugee Policies

The U.S. and its coalition partners have evacuated more than 100,000 people from Afghanistan since the airlift began Aug. 14, including more than 5,400 American citizens and many Afghans who helped the U.S. during the 20-year war.

The effort by faith groups to help resettle them follows a long history of religious involvement in refugee policy, said Stephanie Nawyn, a sociologist at Michigan State University who focuses on refugee issues.

Decades before the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program was created in 1980, faith organizations advocated for the resettlement of Jewish refugees during World War II. Religious groups also helped receive people who fled wars in Vietnam, the Balkans and elsewhere.

Besides helping distribute government resources, the groups mobilize private assets such as donations and volunteers and work with other private entities to provide supplies and housing, Nawyn said.

Agencies Scrambling to Expand Capacity for Incoming Afghan Families

U.S. resettlement agencies were gutted under former President Donald Trump, who slashed refugee admissions yearly until they reached a record low. Now agencies are scrambling to expand capacity so they can handle the influx from Afghanistan.

“It’s a historic effort, and there are and have been challenges — especially after rebounding from four years of what was a war on immigration, which decimated the refugee resettlement infrastructure,” O’Mara Vignarajah said.

“Some of our local offices might have resettled 100 families throughout the entirety of last year, and they may now be looking at 100 families in the next few weeks,” she said.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Charities and other agencies have been welcoming Afghan families at U.S. military bases where they’re being housed temporarily.

A major challenge is finding affordable housing in areas where Afghans have typically resettled, including California and the Washington, D.C., region.

“I’m very concerned about children, getting them into schools,” said Bill Canny, executive director of the USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services program.

‘A Moral Imperative to Keep Our Promise’ to Afghan Allies

World Relief, a global Christian humanitarian organization, has helped resettle about 360 Afghans in the past month and is expecting many more, said Matthew Soerens, the group’s U.S. director of church mobilization.

“These are individuals in many cases who have put their lives at risk and their families’ lives at risk for the people of the United States of America,” he said. “Now that they’re facing the risk of retribution and retaliation from the Taliban … I think most Americans of all religious traditions see it as a moral imperative for us to keep our promise.”

Among the evacuees are Afghans who obtained special immigrant visas after working with the U.S. or NATO as interpreters or in some other capacity; people who have applied for the visas but not yet received them; and those who might have been particularly in danger under the Taliban.

Thousands Left Behind Due to Backlogged Applications

But thousands of others who also qualified for visas have been left behind because of a backlog of applications, and faith-based groups have called on President Joe Biden’s administration to get them safely to the U.S.

“Some of the cases we are involved with have gotten out, but many have not,” said Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of the Jewish refugee agency HIAS, one of nine groups that contract with the State Department on resettlement.

“We have a girl who was literally shot by the Taliban and is now severely disabled who can’t get out,” he said. “We are aware of many, many others who are trapped — and the U.S. has left them behind.”

Biden says he has tasked Secretary of State Antony Blinken to coordinate with international partners to hold the Taliban to their promise of safe passage for those who want to leave in the days ahead.

The president has historically supported receiving refugees, co-sponsoring legislation that created the government’s program in 1980. This June, for World Refugee Day, Biden said that “resettling refugees helps reunite families, enriches the fabric of America and enhances our standing, influence and security in the world.”

Resettlement Programs Bracing for More Refugees to Arrive

Ardiane Ademi, director of the Refugee Resettlement Program for Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, said it recently resettled several families who left Afghanistan before the airlift and is bracing for hundreds more.

John Koehlinger, executive director of Kentucky Refugee Ministries, said his agency has received two families through the special immigrant visa program and has begun receiving additional evacuees. But other families the agency had been expecting have not yet arrived.

“Hopefully some or all of them are on a U.S. military base being processed,” he said.

Ademi and Koehlinger said individuals and local congregations have volunteered to help with resettlement. Some have worked with refugees before, while others are newcomers motivated by the desperate news out of Afghanistan.

“It’s a huge response,” Ademi said.

Many Churches Also Preparing ‘Welcome Boxes’ of Necessities

The humanitarian arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been providing personal hygiene items, underwear, sandals and toys to refugees at an air base in Qatar, church spokesman Doug Anderson said.

Widely known as the Mormon church, it has also been distributing supplies to the thousands of Afghans temporarily sheltered at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. And it is working with the U.S. military to provide aid to the 10,000 refugees expected to arrive at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, from where they will be relocated in communities across the country.

Hala Halabi, national director of refugee facilitation for the Islamic Circle of North America Relief USA, said Muslim Americans have been flooding the group with calls, emails and text messages offering to make donations, mentor refugees or prepare welcome boxes.

The nonprofit recently furnished three apartments in the Dallas area with everything from the “doormat to the food in the fridge,” Halabi said, and is collecting supplies from pots and microwaves to pasta, sugar and cleaning agents as it prepares for additional arrivals.

Beyond the response from Muslim Americans, Halabi said she is heartened by how different faith groups have mobilized to help refugees: “It’s amazing from everybody.”

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

CHP Car Struck by Drunk Driver While Investigating Another Crash

DON'T MISS

Fresno Man Ejected From Car Dies Off McKinley Avenue

DON'T MISS

‘Leave It the Way It Is’: Off-Roaders, Hikers React to Proposal to Change 1.4M Acres of Sierra Forest

DON'T MISS

Yankees Retain Cole, Add $36 Million Extension to Keep Ace

DON'T MISS

5 Reasons Early Voting Is Overwhelmed With Falsehoods

DON'T MISS

Christian McCaffrey Returns to Practice for the 49ers From Achilles Tendon Injury

DON'T MISS

California Sues LA Suburb for Temporary Ban of Homeless Shelters

DON'T MISS

You May Have Blocked Someone on X but Now They Can See Your Public Posts Anyway

DON'T MISS

Some Republican-Led States Refuse to Let Justice Department Monitors Into Polling Places

DON'T MISS

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect in Fatal NW Apartment Shooting

UP NEXT

US Confirms Reports That Iran Arrested an Iranian-American Citizen

UP NEXT

Israel Says It Carried out Ground Raid Into Syria, Seizing a Syrian Citizen

UP NEXT

Russia’s Swift March Forward in Ukraine’s East

UP NEXT

North Korea’s Long-Range Missile Test Signals Its Improved, Potential Capability to Attack US

UP NEXT

Death Toll From Spanish Floods Climbs to 205 as Shock Turns to Anger and Frustration

UP NEXT

Nearly a Quarter of Lebanese Border Villages Destroyed in Israel’s Military Campaign

UP NEXT

Waves of Rocket Fire From Lebanon Hit Israel, Killing 7 in Deadliest Strikes Since Israeli Invasion

UP NEXT

At Least 95 People Die in Devastating Flash Floods in Spain

UP NEXT

Middle East Latest: Israel Issues Evacuation Warning for the Entire Baalbek City in Eastern Lebanon

UP NEXT

Russia and Ukraine Exchange Drone Strikes as North Korea’s Top Diplomat Visits Moscow

Yankees Retain Cole, Add $36 Million Extension to Keep Ace

8 hours ago

5 Reasons Early Voting Is Overwhelmed With Falsehoods

8 hours ago

Christian McCaffrey Returns to Practice for the 49ers From Achilles Tendon Injury

8 hours ago

California Sues LA Suburb for Temporary Ban of Homeless Shelters

9 hours ago

You May Have Blocked Someone on X but Now They Can See Your Public Posts Anyway

9 hours ago

Some Republican-Led States Refuse to Let Justice Department Monitors Into Polling Places

9 hours ago

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect in Fatal NW Apartment Shooting

9 hours ago

Fresno Murder Suspect Stopped in Las Vegas, Others Wanted

10 hours ago

Trump’s Crowds Are Dwindling as His Campaign Winds Down

10 hours ago

Trump Threatens 25% Tariff on Mexico to Curb Immigration

11 hours ago

CHP Car Struck by Drunk Driver While Investigating Another Crash

A driver suspected of being under the influence crashed into a California Highway Patrol car early Sunday, officials said. Officers were inv...

5 hours ago

A driver suspected of DUI crashed into a parked California Highway Patrol car at a fatal crash scene in Fresno County, sustaining minor injuries and later being cited. (Fresno County SO)
5 hours ago

CHP Car Struck by Drunk Driver While Investigating Another Crash

fresno
6 hours ago

Fresno Man Ejected From Car Dies Off McKinley Avenue

6 hours ago

‘Leave It the Way It Is’: Off-Roaders, Hikers React to Proposal to Change 1.4M Acres of Sierra Forest

New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole throws against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the first inning in Game 5 of the baseball World Series, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024, in New York. (AP/Ashley Landis)
8 hours ago

Yankees Retain Cole, Add $36 Million Extension to Keep Ace

Voters cast their ballots at Desert Breeze Community Center in Las Vegas during the last day of in-person early voting in Nevada on Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. Nearly 75 million people have cast early ballots, making their voices heard amid worry about the process, the outcome and democracy itself. (Bridget Bennett/The New York Times)
8 hours ago

5 Reasons Early Voting Is Overwhelmed With Falsehoods

8 hours ago

Christian McCaffrey Returns to Practice for the 49ers From Achilles Tendon Injury

9 hours ago

California Sues LA Suburb for Temporary Ban of Homeless Shelters

9 hours ago

You May Have Blocked Someone on X but Now They Can See Your Public Posts Anyway

Search

Send this to a friend