Afghan refugees arrive at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia on August 31, 2021.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
WASHINGTON – More than 23,000 Afghan refugees deemed “at risk” have arrived in the United States, State Department spokesman Ned Price said Wednesday, a number that accounts for more than one-sixth of all evacuees relocated from Kabul in the last two months.
Price told reporters that 4,466 U.S. citizens have also arrived in the country as part of the airlift, along with 2,785 permanent legal residents. The total number of people who have entered the United States after leaving Afghanistan as of August 31 is 31,107.
Price said those numbers are likely to increase as more people, both Afghans and Americans, are processed through customs.
The vast majority of Afghan refugees are housed at seven military bases across the country, Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Mark Milley told reporters during a Pentagon briefing on Wednesday.
About 20,000 more evacuees are currently at seven distribution bases in the army’s command region that includes the Middle East, with an additional 23,000 at seven distribution bases in Europe, he said.
The new numbers offer a preview of the massive humanitarian and immigration effort that will be required in the coming days and weeks, as the international community seeks to find permanent refuge for families facing imminent danger at the hands of the new Taliban government in Afghanistan.
They also serve as a counter-argument to critics of President Joe Biden, who say the White House has not done enough to help vulnerable Afghans.
The U.S. military alone is preparing to house and prosecute a total of 50,000 evacuees, many of whom served alongside U.S. forces during 20 years of war in Afghanistan.
“Some of these brave Afghans will come to make new lives with their families in the United States,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in Wednesday’s briefing.
He added that potential immigrants to the United States will be subject to “careful review and security screening.”
Afghan citizens arriving in the United States will temporarily stay at Quantico Base in Fort Lee, Fort Pickett and Marine Corps in Virginia, Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, the McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Joint Base in New Jersey, Fort Bliss in Texas, and the Holloman Air Force Base. in New Mexico.
The military bases are not “a place where people would live,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday. “This is a place where people would go, receive medical care and assistance, and connect with refugee resettlement organizations that play a vital role when refugees arrive in our country from anywhere in the world.”
Psaki said the United States is also working with third countries to determine its capacity and willingness to take in refugees from Afghanistan.
Canada has already announced its readiness to accept 20,000 Afghan refugees. Australia has offered to grant asylum for about 3,000. And the UK says it will host up to 5,000 refugees next year, with a long-term goal of 20,000.
Just 48 hours after the United States formally withdrew its last soldier from Afghanistan, there are still many unanswered questions about the next steps for the evacuees.
Many of them left their country of origin with their clothes and travel documents. Some of the evacuees have no documentation.
What began as a huge military airlift has been transformed into a massive immigration screening project.
The main agency of the resettlement effort will be the Department of Homeland Security, which has already begun assembling a unified multi-agency coordination group.
The State Department is also expected to play an important role in the first phase of resettlement, which will include the processing of thousands of “special immigrant visas” that were granted to Afghans working in the United States.