U.S. Military Building "Eight Small Cities" to House at Least 50,000 Afghan Refugees
Military bases across the United States are welcoming tens of thousands of Afghan refugees, fashioning what amount to “small cities” on-base to address housing, food, medical care, sanitation, and other vital needs.
As of Friday, over 25,000 Afghan evacuees were being housed at eight U.S. bases, Air Force General Glen VanHerck, head of the U.S. Northern Command, told the Associated Press.
At Fort McCoy, the only Army installation in Wisconsin, between 8,000 and 8,800 refugees were on-site at the start of the weekend. A State Department official said that number would increase by Sunday; right now the base has a capacity to host up to 13,000 people. The effort is part of the Department of Defense and U.S. State Department’s efforts to support what has been dubbed Operation Allies Refuge.
“As more and more people arrive, there are people who know each other,” the official told the La Crosse Tribune. “People are finding out who are here and are connecting.”
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