the pentagon
says it has now completed a withdrawal
of u.s troops from afghanistan ending
america's longest war as the final
military planes have left the airport
military officials say they have
evacuated 6 000 american citizens
representing the quote vast majority of
americans who wish to leave but as u.s
military operations end thousands of
afghans eligible for special immigrant
visas and their families have not been
able to get out evacuations will
continue but without u.s military
assistance meanwhile thousands of afghan
evacuees have made their way to u.s
military installations which are
building out capacity to house 50 000
people up to 10 000 are expected at
joint base mcguire dix lakehurst in new
jersey nearly 1200 have already arrived
as of friday and efforts are underway to
provide them with assistance as they
begin new lives here in new jersey leah
mishkin reports as part of our ongoing
series chasing the dream
at the islamic center of passaic county
volunteers moved car to car taking in
donations from baby food to diapers to
tooth brushes and clothing a lot of
families basically
ran out of their homes try to get into
kabul airport some of them are missing
shoes there are hundreds of kids coming
in without parents their female male
with ripped clothes they came literally
with nothing secander khan the founder
of global emergency response and
assistance one of the organizations
running this donation drive worked as a
contractor with the u.s special forces
for about a year in afghanistan in 2014.
he's been up every night over the past
few weeks communicating with people
looking to get out of the country and
miss the taliban takeover we're
listening to people crying
playing for help during the day he says
he's in constant contact with joint base
maguire dick's lakehurst to find out
what additional items are needed for the
nearly 1200 afghan refugees who have
already arrived including an afghan
mother who gave birth on sunday
i can't even imagine what they're going
through so this is the least i could do
we went through our house we donated
whatever that wasn't used that's brand
new elizabeth resident Dr. Nozrin Laskar
says all she can feel is numbness
watching the images coming out of kabul
i cried when i see some of those images
it's really hard my parents are indian
so they came to this country for a
better life and it's not easy there's a
current capacity for up to 3 500
evacuees at Joint Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst
but the base is building around
378
tents to increase capacity to up to ten
thousand red cross and the dod military
is working on logistics
to
settle them into their rooms
to do medical screening we'll just do
what we have to do here the response
that we're getting is is amazing not
only from the afghani community but from
other individuals as well
we're working with north jersey
interfaith care which is a coalition of
churches and synagogues and you know
they're participating and then in the
next week or two we'll be requesting
access to go in provide translators khan
says in just 24 hours they were able to
register more than 400 people to help
translate and more than 90 percent of
those translators say they're willing to
adopt orphans that came in we were told
that there are plenty of kids without
parents we don't know if uh
you know kids parents just handed off
their kids over to the military for
their safety or if the kids are actually
missing parents because a lot of kids
did lose
their parents in the ongoing conflict
you see those babies getting hung over
fences like that could have been my
sister volunteer cameron bear says his
parents and older sister are afghan
refugees they arrived to the united
states 39 years ago and it was these
kinds of donations that helps them
significantly everyone who's coming here
now who's coming as refugees the way
that i see it it's just that was my
parents this is like my way of giving
back his mom's cousin is still in
afghanistan trying to get out we've seen
the airport images in the videos it's
very difficult for them to get there the
other option is going to pakistan and no
one really has the news actually hasn't
covered the like borders at pakistan
which are arguably worse so we're just
kind of taking it day by day and that's
all we really can do it's
the worst humanitarian crisis
that's taking place right now we all
have to do our part i'm very passionate
about refugees i'm actually a refugee's
grandchild Saddle Brook resident Eda
Tkeoglu arrived with bags of items to
deliver i even bought crayons and
notebooks and even though it wasn't on
the list but i feel like art therapy is
really important and kids really have to
you know get a fresh start this drive
was extended to wednesday morning
because of the need organizers say the
items collected will be delivered that
same day for NJ Spotlight News
I'm Leah Mishkin
