United States admitted 76,000 after the Taliban takeover in 2021
The Biden administration on Saturday relocated the last group of thousands of Afghan evacuees from a military site in New Jersey who awaited resettlement since the chaotic evacuation from Kabul in August. Children made up about 40 percent of the refugees at the New Jersey base.
This mark then completion of the first phase of six-months-long operation to resettle vulnerable Afghans following the collapse of the U.S.-aligned government in Kabul and the end of America’s longest war.
The U.S. admitted 76,000 Afghans as part of Operation Allies Welcome, the largest resettlement of refugees in the country in decades.
“It’s a really important milestone in Operation Allies Welcome but I want to stress that this mission isn’t over,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, one of nine national resettlement organizations. “Successful resettlement and integration won’t happen in just a matter of days or weeks,” she said. “Our new Afghan neighbors are going to need our support and friendship for months and years to come because the challenges they face won’t disappear overnight.”
The U.S. plans to admit thousands of Afghan refugees over the next year but they will arrive in smaller groups and will be housed in a facility at a location yet to be determined, the Department of Homeland Security said.
Most of the refugees have settled in established Afghan communities in northern Virginia and the surrounding Washington area, as well as Northern California and Texas.
Around 40 percent of the Afghans will qualify for the special immigrant visa for people who worked as military interpreters or for the U.S. government.
