JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The state department is dealing with more than 80,000 visa applicants from Afghanistan.
These are people who either worked for the U.S. government or believe their lives are in danger under the Taliban.
More than 7,000 miles away, a Jacksonville group is working to find Afghan refugees new homes.
Lutheran Social Services has spent decades helping refugees find homes in the United States, but time is key in this situation.
Currently, the group has a backlog of roughly 18,000 applicants.
“We have already resettled 20 Afghans with Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) here in Jacksonville in the past two weeks and we’re probably going to settle a lot more,” said senior refugee service manager Laura Cook.
In a matter of days, Afghanistan fell to the Taliban.
Thousands flooded the airport in Kabul in a frantic attempt to get out of the country.
Some avoided the chaos by finding help in the U.S. weeks ago.
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“There are about 18,000 SIV applicants that are backlogged in the system,” Cook said. “That equates to about 50,000 family members that are waiting in Afghanistan to come.”
With more flights leaving Afghanistan every day, the group is finding very little time to get people settled.
“For these individuals because of the urgency of the situation, we’d say yes to a case, and they’d travel in two to three days,” Cook said.
Under normal circumstances, LSS would have at least five weeks to settle a family.
To help with this unexpected urgent need, Biden has authorized up to $500 million from an emergency fund for Afghan refugees.
Lutheran Social Services is taking donations.
The group needs money, furniture, and volunteers.