About half of Camp Atterbury's Afghan refugees have left to settle into new lives
EDINBURGH, Ind. — After calling Indiana home for several weeks, more than 3,000 Afghan evacuees have left Camp Atterbury to permanently resettle across the United States.
“It has been a fantastic team effort" helping Afghan evacuees get “from a pretty chaotic situation to one where they have some hope for the future,” Col. Mike Grundman, Camp Atterbury’s installation commander, told reporters in a media update Tuesday.
The Johnson County base usually serves as a training site for the Indiana National Guard, but in September, it was hastily transformed into a temporary housing site for Afghan evacuees fleeing the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.
Since then, about 7,200 Afghan evacuees have come to Camp Atterbury — a fraction of the 82,000 people spread out across several other American sites assisting with "Operation Allies Welcome."
While many people have left the camp to permanently resettle across the U.S., about 4,100 people still remain there, Aaron Batt, federal coordinator for the Department of Homeland Security, shared Tuesday.
So far, about 250 people have permanently settled in Indiana, officials said, with several resettlement agencies — including Exodus Refugee Immigration and Catholic Charities Indianapolis — helping with the effort.
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"We're preparing people for how to budget finances in the U.S., how to prepare themselves for employment, get ready for a job ... that will help lead them to self-sufficiency," Cole Varga, executive director of Exodus Refugee Immigration, said. He noted beyond immediate help, agencies like his also work on long-term needs, such as mental health services and youth programs.
In Indiana, the goal is to have more than 700 people permanently in cities including Muncie, Bloomington, Hammond, South Bend, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis.
At Camp Atterbury, the Department of Workforce Development has been working to connect evacuees with local jobs and employers, commissioner Fred Payne explained.
The base isn’t planning on taking in any more evacuees, officials said, and they hope to have everyone resettled by the end of the year — though the timeline could change as the holidays approach.
While the operation has been unprecedented, it's been emotional, too.
“My journey was long and scary,” said Nahid Sharifi, who has been at Camp Atterbury since early September. She's tearful recounting the journey of getting separated from family members in Afghanistan, yet she's grateful for her experience in the U.S. so far.
“I’m very excited (to) start my new life in Indiana,” Sharifi said. “People in the United States have the heart of gold. In difficult condition(s), they never leave Afghan people alone.”
Contact Rashika Jaipuriar at rjaipuriar@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @rashikajpr.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Camp Atterbury still has about 4,000 Afghan refugees
