Local News

Afghan Refugees Coming to the Area

(St. Joseph County, IN) - With the sudden evacuation of Afghanistan a few months ago, thousands of refugees wound up at Camp Atterbury, south of Indianapolis. Soon, dozens of them will migrate to St. Joseph County.

 

Nearly 7,000 Afghan refugees came to Indiana in August. Since then, roughly half of them have dispersed. Andrea Cramer is CEO of Neighbor to Neighbor, a group in South Bend that helps refugees and immigrants. She said the refugees "were only supposed to be in camps for a week or two before being resettled in cities throughout the country." But the process has taken longer than expected, with the country's refugee resettlement infrastructure being overwhelmed by the influx.

 

Two agencies in St. Joseph County have been approved to resettle refugees. According to Cramer, "We are expecting to get about 30 Afghan families in our area over the next year. We are still waiting on some paperwork to be done before we receive those families."

 

State agencies and groups like Cramer's are busy lining up housing and job opportunities for the refugees in this area. "Normally, with refugee resettlement, an organization is given about a month's heads-up," she said. "Since folks are already here from Afghanistan, we've been told that we might have about six days' notice before someone is in our community. So we're trying to prepare for that, and we're hurrying up and waiting at the same time."

 

The first refugees are expected to arrive in South Bend in mid-December.

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