The University of Maryland is working with an international aid group to temporarily house 25 Afghan refugees on its College Park campus, officials said Tuesday.
The families, each with at least seven members, will start settling on campus over the next few weeks and stay for up to one year, officials said. Among the arrivals are people granted “humanitarian parole” who were evacuated through Operation Allies Welcome — a Biden administration effort to resettle Afghans who worked alongside U.S. personnel — and those who face persecution in Afghanistan because of their work as interpreters, drivers or cultural advisers.
“The University of Maryland is part of a global community, and when we have the opportunity to support humanity, we embrace it,” Darryll J. Pines, the university’s president, said in a statement. “We look forward to providing on-campus housing and being good neighbors to Afghan families. They are U.S. allies who have braved a terrifying situation, and we are happy that we can offer them a welcoming community as they seek permanent housing.”
University officials declined to say where exactly the families would stay, citing safety concerns. The arriving families include infants and teens, officials said.
The university this week provided a welcome meal for the Afghans and provided them with staples such as beans and cooking oil, officials said. The school’s library system is assembling a collection of bilingual books to deliver to the families, along with snacks, toys and kitchen items.
U-Md. is hosting evacuees through a partnership with the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian aid group. The organization will help the families find permanent housing, employment, education, counseling and social services.
Thousands of Afghans have arrived in the Washington region since August, when the United States pulled the last of its troops from Afghanistan and the country’s government fell to the Taliban. But in the months after the Afghans’ arrival, overwhelmed resettlement groups have struggled to find many of the families permanent and affordable housing. Read more at The Washington Post.
Photo: Afghan refugees will live on the University of Maryland’s College Park campus. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
