It’s a picture that went viral and stunned people around the world earlier this week: Approximately 820 Afghan refugees packed aboard a US military C-17 plane. Men, women, and children all huddled together as they escape Taliban rule for a new life in the United States.
As Americans watch Afghans desperately flee their country, groups that provide services for refugees are scrambling to help them. Since President Joe Biden announced in April that the US would withdraw all troops from Afghanistan, refugee advocates have urged the federal government to speed up the immigration process to ensure as many Afghan evacuees as possible can get out safely and quickly. Getting visas for Afghans trying to leave the country will likely be a lengthy procedure, one that in this case will mostly require Special Immigrant Visas, or SIVs. It’s unclear how many Afghans will arrive in the US. The International Refugee Assistance Project estimated on Wednesday that some 100,000 Afghan SIV applicants and their families are eligible to relocate to the US. Roughly 2,000 Afghan refugees have relocated so far, a majority to Fort Lee, Virginia. Additionally, there are 20,000 SIV applicants in the pipeline, with about 10,000 of those at the beginning stages of the process, according to the State Department. The influx of Afghans comes after years of record low admittance caps in the US, which some experts say leaves the system unprepared for this expected wave of evacuees. Now, refugee support groups dealing with what they say is a weak immigration system, health advisories and a slow visas process are working around the clock to prepare for a traumatized population that will need help adjusting to their new home. Refugee support groups working around the clock Lutheran Social Services National Capital Area (LSSNCA), a refugee and immigrant resettlement group that serves the Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia area, has already welcomed 68 Afghan families, about 300 people, according to CEO Kristyn Peck. The group is expecting roughly 160 more people in the next 10 days. Peck believes that most Afghan evacuees will filter in through Fort Lee for SIV-completion purposes. She says they will ultimately settle in the DC metro area because many of them helped the US government with their missions abroad and have a connection to the country’s capital.
