After the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, more than 120,000 Afghan allies were evacuated in one of the largest airlifts in U.S. history. Of those evacuated, more than 70,000 are to resettled in the United States. And of those approx. 70,000, about 1,500 Afghan evacuees are expected to arrive in Missouri before the end of February 2022, with most arriving by the end of this month.

For context, Missouri resettled 368 refugees in 2021. And about 1,500 Afghans had been resettled in Missouri since 2001 prior to Operation Allies Welcome, the federal coordination effort to manage the resettlement of Afghan evacuees.

But some good news: Afghan Humanitarian Parolees are now eligible for the same benefits as refugees through the Afghan Placement and Assistance Program!

As the local resettlement agencies continue to rapidly scale up, they’ve also had to utilize new tools, such as community sponsorship, to support this increase in arrivals. And the Biden administration has encouraged private groups to sponsor Afghan evacuees through the Sponsor Circle Program. The administration also put a pause on booking refugees for resettlement in the U.S. in November through early January 2022 to help agencies prioritize services for Afghan evacuees.

The administration also just released this helpful list of 6 Ways to Welcome Our Afghan Allies.

In November we honored Veterans Day, especially recognizing all the veterans doing everything they can to evacuate and support Afghan allies as well as the more than 900,000 immigrants who have served or are currently serving in the military.

And finally, the U.S. officially reopened its borders to vaccinated international travelers! Although travel restrictions continue to be put in place as new variants are discovered, hopefully those borders won’t be firmly closed again anytime soon.

CCCNMO has appreciated the invaluable support of an AmeriCorps NCCC team for the past 10 weeks. With their help, the Refugee Services team at CCCNMO was able to resettle more than 230 refugees in a matter of weeks. From organizing clients' paperwork to housing setups and rapidly assembling Thanksgiving care packages, their support has been invaluable.

Records have been set all across the state as resettlement agencies received unprecedented numbers of arrivals. In St. Louis, the week of Nov. 15 was the busiest week for new arrivals since the Bosnian resettlement effort in the late ‘90s. From November 15-20, IISTL welcomed 158 Afghans to St. Louis, which surpasses their 2005 record of 99 arrivals in one week.

As the agencies were receiving record numbers of arrivals, MO-ORA tried to lend a hand by sending members of the MO-ORA team across the state to visit local resettlement agencies and assist with Afghan refugee resettlement.

Stay up to date on the latest Missouri refugee news and what the LRAs are up to on our News page.

Missouri received a visit from Jack Markell and the Operation Allies Welcome (OAW) team in December. They came to Kansas City to learn more about Afghan refugee resettlement on the ground, and they met with Missouri resettlement agencies, service providers, veterans, and community partners who gladly welcomed the opportunity to highlight some of the innovative work they’ve been doing and report back about any challenges and opportunities for improvement.

RESOURCES: Read, Watch, Explore

OPPORTUNITIES: Get involved

While you’re finishing up holiday shopping, check out these needed donations and wish lists to see if there’s anything you’d like to contribute:

Many of the agencies are looking for volunteers, so their sign-up portals and platforms are linked below. You’ll find opportunities to lend administrative support, do housing setups, become a community sponsorship group, handle food pickups/drop-offs to new arrivals and more!

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Our brand new social media accounts are linked at the bottom of this newsletter! Follow @MORefugeeOffice on Twitter and Facebook for more frequent updates between newsletters.

on what you may have missed in our previous newsletters here.