Fort McCoy is now hosting 8,000 Afghan evacuees
Some taken to hospitals, many need medical care
Fort McCoy is now hosting more than 8,000 Afghan refugees, many of whom required medical care in the days after arriving in Wisconsin.
As of Friday, 8,780 Afghan refugees were at the base, said Cheryl Phillips, a spokeswoman for a task force overseeing the refugees at Fort McCoy.
A senior Army official representing Task Force McCoy and a State Department official said Thursday evening that refugees continue to arrive, and that the Fort’s capacity has been expanded to hold up to 13,000 people. The base will have space prepared for that many refugees by Sunday.
The officials spoke with members of the press with the understanding that they would not be named.
After arriving at the base, all refugees are given a medical evaluation, and many people have needed additional health care, a State Department official said.
“People that are arriving here are in pretty rough condition,” the official said. “They’ve been through an extraordinary experience and a lot of emotional trauma, having fled under the circumstances that they had to.”
Army medical personnel are being assisted by civilian health care workers, in addition to Red Cross workers. Though the level of health care available on the base is high, some refugees have been sent to area hospitals for higher levels of care.
In addition to a health evaluation, all refugees are being brought up to date on required childhood vaccines for the U.S., and are being tested for and vaccinated against COVID-19, the State Department official said. Each refugee is tested when they enter the U.S., at the time of arrival at the military base and on a rolling basis during their time at the base.
Most of those who have already arrived at the base are still there, housed in barracks typically used for members of the military. None of the refugees at the base have Special Immigrant Visas, so they are undergoing immigration processes to ensure they’re ready to be settled and create new lives in the U.S. Once that immigration paperwork is completed, resettlement agencies will be called in to help.
“These are really reception centers,” the State Department official said. “And people will go to all 50 states, communities across our country, where local sponsors will help welcome them and set them up in a new life where they can enroll their children in school and find employment.”
Even though those arriving at Fort McCoy weren’t able to secure the Special Immigrant Visas before coming to the U.S., most of them had applied and were somewhere in the process of being confirmed, which can take up to two years. But that doesn’t mean those entering Wisconsin aren’t vetted.
After being airlifted out of Kabul, all of the evacuees were taken to a thirdparty country like Germany or Qatar, the State Department official said, where they underwent security vetting including biometric and biographic screenings to ensure their identity. After their identity is confirmed, the evacuees are then flown to Dulles International Airport in Virginia, and then separated based on which military installation they’re being sent to.
For those coming to Wisconsin, they’re flown to Volk Field and then bussed to Fort McCoy.
“Then our goals here are to number one, take care of the urgent humanitarian needs that they have,” the State Department official said.
About 1,300 service members from multiple units of the U.S. Army and
Army Reserve are slated to assemble at the base to provide support to the refugees, in a mission dubbed “Operation Allies Refuge.” Some military members based at Fort McCoy are assisting in refugee efforts, as are members of the Wisconsin National Guard.
The massive evacuation from Afghanistan is one of the largest airlifts in history, and in order to get people to safety, Fort McCoy is one of the places accepting refugees and giving them temporary shelter before a resettlement agency can help them. By the time the U.S. pulled its last troops out of the country earlier this week, about 123,000 people had been evacuated, of which 6,000 were U.S. citizens.
Refugees began arriving in late August,
after fleeing the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Those coming to the base are a mix of those with Special Immigrant Visa applications that have reached a certain point in the acceptance process, submitted by those who worked along U.S. troops in Afghanistan, as well as other vulnerable populations being evacuated, including women, journalists, professors and attendees of girls’ schools.
Officials said that security is tight at Fort McCoy, and local law enforcement has been called in to aid military police. No one is allowed onto the base without proper identification, and though the refugees aren’t confined, they’re remaining on the base to complete their paperwork.
“A lot of steps that have been taken by the garrison to make sure that we allow (the refugees) to feel safe and secure,” the Army official said. “Because it’s clearly better for them if they finish the steps of the process before they decide to leave.”
There isn’t an estimated amount of time that the paperwork process will take, officials said, but the base will not serve as a long-term home for the evacuees.
“What I tell the Afghans is that we’re not talking about a matter of days, in most cases,” the State Department official said. “We’re talking about a matter of weeks.”
The Army official said Fort McCoy, which is located between Sparta and Tomah on 60,000 acres, was chosen because it was hosting military troops for training and deployment before the refugees began to arrive, so it had prepared quarters to host people. The facility also had the capacity to host a large number of people within barracks that had been recently renovated.
Refugees are currently staying in two-story buildings, able to host up to 30 people per floor. Those floors are open quarters, but private bathrooms and changing facilities are available. The buildings are arranged into small groupings, too, the official said, which has allowed people to start getting acquainted with each other and the landscape.
“We’re starting to call them neighborhoods, so it’s a little friendlier,” the Army official said.
The State Department official said he’s witnessed families being reunited, and friends finding each other once within the gates of the base.
“Even in a really short period of time, people are finding out who’s here and connecting, people are contributing, volunteering to translate and to help others who have arrived who need help, making sure people get to the dining hall,” the State Department official said.
The official said the other night, a well-known Afghan folk singer was even found to be on the base, and he played music for others housed there.
“They’re building a little bit of a community and people are processing what they’ve been through together,” the official said. “And our responsibility is to prepare them for the transition to the next chapter in their lives in America.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.