Thousands of Afghans are fleeing the country to escape Taliban rule, and some are likely to end up in Buffalo. Although the federal government has struggled to get them out, local organizations say they are ready to help them once they arrive.
Buffalo area resettlement organizations gathered Friday outside Jericho Community Health Center’s Barton Street location on the West Side to discuss their plans for responding to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan since the country fell to the Taliban last week.
“We have been, we are, and we will be ready to welcome and support refugees,” said Eva Hassett, executive director of the International Institute of Buffalo, one of the organizations that helps refugees resettle here.
Fifty-seven Afghan refugees have arrived in New York state so far in 2021, according to theU.S. Department of State. An estimated 30,000 Special Immigrant Visa holders currently need evacuation from Afghanistan, many of them Afghan interpreters and other personnel who helped the U.S. military during the war and might face retaliation from the Taliban.
Just 19 cities in the U.S. take in these kinds of Visa holders, and Buffalo is one of them.
Buffalo has taken in over 16,000 international refugees since 2002. Refugees were part of the reason Buffalo’s population, according to the 2020 census, increased for the first time since 1950.
However, the number of refugees coming to Buffalo dropped significantly during the Trump administration, from nearly 2,000 in 2016 to a low of just 153 in 2020. Last year’s total was partially due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Biden administration, after criticism from resettlement groups, in May raised the cap of refugees nationally from 15,000 to 62,000.
“To stand again with this group and be saying, ‘We have more refugees coming in and we're so excited and we're ready to receive whatever Afghani community members we can receive during this crisis,’ is a beautiful moment after a difficult number of years working in this field,” said Dr. Anna Ireland Mongo, chief program officer at Jericho Community Health Center, which also assists refugees.
Most refugees go through a 90-day program, which helps them find an apartment and employment, get health care, register their kids into school, and even just shows them how to shop at a grocery store.
“Shopping in a grocery store in Buffalo is a lot different than how food was obtained in a camp and in many cases we have people who've lived in a refugee camp for decades, children who were born in a refugee camp and who know nothing besides that particular life experience,” Hassett said. “So coming here is very, very, very different.”
In recent years, local agencies have been able to help refugees even past the 90-day window, thanks to the New York’s Enhanced Services to Refugees Program.
Since it was founded in 2017, $2.5 million of the total $7 million allocated to the program so far have gone to Western New York agencies. The program received its largest-ever allocation, $3 million, in this year’s state budget.
“We knew that the Biden administration would be increasing refugee admissions to America, and we made it a priority to make sure that program through the state was funded,” said state Sen. Sean Ryan, D-Buffalo,
Hassett said if you know an Afghan immigrant or refugee, or someone with family in Afghanistan, reach out and ask if they need anything.
“To say, ‘I'm here for you. What do you need? You're not alone,’” she said. “This is incredibly traumatic and it’s re-traumatizing for people who already went through what it was like living with the Taliban. This is traumatizing for women and girls. And so anything that we can do here to show our love, and support for each other, for people from Afghanistan, but for each other, in general, always, always always helps.”
Ryan said they have no way of knowing just how many Afghan refugees will end up in Buffalo.
