Afghan community and nonprofits rally to welcome refugees to North Texas — and push for more visas

Diana Neak was tired. She had to forward furniture donations for incoming Afghans to a warehouse and other donations to a nonprofit organization. A political rally was planned for Saturday. Most of all, however, she was worried about her family in Afghanistan, who have now gone into hiding.

Neak is a person involved in the scramble to resettle incoming refugees while their home falls apart in chaos.

Aid organizations in the Dallas area are trying to provide arriving Afghans with food and household items when the crisis worsened with the fatal suicide bombing outside Kabul airport on Thursday.

Some local efforts are small and surgical, such as a call to Afghan-American business owners to create jobs. Other efforts have been great and were launched by the leading resettlement organizations of Dallas, which has long been a welcome home for refugees from around the world.

American and Southwestern airlines have also started operating, providing airplanes to take the refugees to their likely new homes.

“For the Afghans who have been here a long time, we hope they come out and show their support and make sure people know we are loud and proud,” Neak, an Afghan American in Grand Prairie, told the organization of relief efforts by Afghan Unity-DFW.

“We asked Afghan-American business owners to help provide jobs,” said Neak, adding that some have agreed. They range from restaurateurs to grocery store owners to larger businesses, Neak said.

Housewares and clothing for arriving Afghans can be sent to Afghan Unity-DFW and DFW Refugee Outreach Centers, she said.

“We are an extension of the voice of everyone who stayed behind in Afghanistan,” said Neak, who was born in the United States to Afghan parents and is married to an Afghan man. She estimated the Afghanistan-born community, including their US-born children, in northern Texas has grown to between 10,000 and 12,000.

Megan Carlton of Refugee Services of Texas walks through a house her organization set up for an Afghan refugee family in Dallas on Tuesday, August 17, 2021. (LM-Otero)

The three resettlement agencies in Dallas, whose headquarters have agreements with the State Department, are also accepting donations, and every day their hopes rise and fall as they wait for families to arrive. Many refugees are already here after arriving earlier this month ahead of the stunning, almost complete takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban.

After more than a dozen Afghans have settled in Dallas in the past few weeks, Dallas Catholic Charities are expecting a family this week, Catholic Charities CEO Dave Woodyard said in an email. There is a great need for donations for rent and supply assistance as well as donations for the furnishing of apartments. Volunteers to help the mentor handle airport pickups and interpret Dari and Pashto are also needed, he said.

More Afghans are expected in the next two to six weeks, Woodyard said. “It really all depends on how quickly the State Department and other families can process for relocation to the US,” he said.

Nearly two dozen Afghans were arrested at the Dallas Refugee Services office in August this year as the Taliban began to invade large parts of Afghanistan. They were part of about 75 relocated across the state on special immigrant visas, a coveted status for those who worked for the US government in Afghanistan. It also includes family members. Like the Catholic charities, the Refugee Services of Texas also stated that they received donations and created a “wish list” on Amazon.

Director Suzy Cop said that Afghan families with special immigrant visas were constantly arriving at the International Rescue Committee’s office in Dallas. In the past few months, the group had resettled dozens of people from Afghanistan. Last week, Cop said some families had escaped the country privately but did not provide any further details.

The IRC also accepts donations, including gift cards, and has a Dallas IRC “wish list” on Amazon. They also need volunteers in Dallas, according to their website.

An agreement with the Trump administration and the Taliban in February 2020 stipulated the withdrawal of US troops. President Joe Biden then decided to unconditionally withdraw all troops by September. At the beginning of August, the Taliban began to conquer provincial capitals.

Neak watched in horror. A family member has been flown to safety in Italy in the past few days, she said. But another is waiting for his special immigrant visa to be processed, and this relative has now gone into hiding after a neighbor was taken away by the Taliban in the middle of the night, she said.

“All my cousins ​​could hear was the neighbour’s wife and children crying and moaning all night,” said Neak.

Neak is also reaching out to congressional officials and senators for more help and applying for more visas. “We also want constant surveillance of women and girls,” said Neak, who has a career as a financial advisor. “My aunts and cousins ​​in Kabul cannot go to work,” she said for fear that the Taliban would harm them.

Afghan Unity DFW urges the government to allow more Afghans to enter the country beyond the special immigrant visa program because they have worked for the US government. Another Dallas rally is planned for this Saturday at Belo Garden from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. The group is planning another protest rally next Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Austin capital.

[ad_1]