Tour of Wisconsin Army post reveals thankful, bored Afghans

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FORT MCCOY, Wis. – Reporters were fixed a glimpse Thursday of Afghan refugees' lives connected a Wisconsin Army post, getting to spot the caller arrivals playing shot with soldiers and toting groceries to the barracks wherever they're being housed arsenic they hold for their caller lives successful America to truly begin.

The U.S. Army and the Department of State led a radical of journalists connected a tightly-controlled circuit of Fort McCoy, a grooming station astir 150 miles (241 kilometers) northwest of Milwaukee.

The fort is 1 of 8 subject installations crossed the state that are temporarily lodging the tens of thousands of Afghans who were forced to fly their homeland successful August aft the U.S. withdrew its forces from Afghanistan and the Taliban took control. Nearly 13,000 were sent to Fort McCoy, wherever they've been acclimating to the U.S. and undergoing inheritance checks earlier national officials assistance them relocate to much imperishable homes.

Questions astir conditions astatine the station person travel to the forefront successful caller weeks, with Democratic U.S. Reps. Gwen Moore and Ilhan Omar calling for an probe aft the Wisconsin State Journal reported that galore Afghans hadn't received caller apparel and had to endure agelong lines for food. Some Republicans, meanwhile, questioned whether the refugees were being decently vetted aft 1 of them was charged with having intersexual interaction with a insignificant and different was charged with assaulting his wife.

Officials connected Thursday took turns telling reporters that each was good astatine the post. They walked reporters betwixt the rows of barracks lodging the evacuees, stopping to ticker a pickup shot crippled betwixt Afghans and soldiers. Children were everyplace — Brig. Gen. Christopher Norrie said they marque up astir fractional the refugees astatine the fort — and they wore each mode of clothing, from their autochthonal garb to flip-flops, shorts and parkas.

Families laid retired covering connected fences to dry. The barracks person vigor and blistery h2o and the station offers 8 self-serve laundromats, but Norrie said washing and drying apparel astatine location is simply a bonding lawsuit for Afghans.

The sidewalks were covered with children's chalk drawings. Reporters were allowed to concisely observe a people successful which Afghans of each ages were learning however to usage English to bargain thing astatine a store.

Adults carried bags of nutrient location from the posts' delis. Clusters of men watched the reporters walk by from the barracks' porches, portion others watched done their windows. Groups of children smiled and laughed arsenic the entourage passed.

Officials took reporters done a covering donation halfway packed with Afghan women choosing things for their children to wear. Also connected the circuit was a wellness session and 1 of the post's 4 cafeterias that are disposable to the evacuees. The installation resembled a precocious schoolhouse cafeteria, with rows of tables and chairs. The luncheon entrée was chickenhearted curry on with bananas, oranges and different fruits.

Military officials said the refugees person been divided into 8 “neighborhoods” that each person their ain mosque. The Islamic Society of Milwaukee has donated Qurans, they said. Post leaders person been gathering with exile enactment councils weekly, said Lt. Col. Joe Mickley.

The evacuees don't privation to unrecorded arsenic wards of the U.S. authorities and alternatively privation to lend to society, helium said.

“They each spot themselves arsenic the adjacent American dream, which is possible,” Mickley said.

A fistful of refugees who talk English and volunteered to talk to reporters nether Department of State supervision told harrowing stories astir flying retired of Kabul's airdrome arsenic the aged authorities collapsed.

Khwaga Ghani, a 30-year-old shaper for National Public Radio, said she was gathering a beingness successful Kabul. She had a house, a car and a tight-knit radical of friends. She had to permission it each down erstwhile the Taliban took over, fleeing to the airdrome and spending 2 nights connected the runway earlier she could get a flight.

“I was making a life, a surviving for myself,” she said. “I had to permission everything down truthful I could enactment alive.”

She has lined up a journalism fellowship astatine the University of California-Berkley and is simply waiting to beryllium released. She said she feels harmless astatine Fort McCoy — “I’m a grown-up girl, I tin instrumentality attraction of myself,” she said — and that she has everything she needs, but that the boredom is intense.

Sameer Amini, 36, had been a programme coordinator astatine the U.S. embassy. He said he, his woman and their 2 children, ages 5 and 2, had to brave a fig of Taliban checkpoints to get to the airport. They arrived to find thousands of radical connected the runways. They spent 2 days and 2 nights, suffering sunburns and freezing aft nightfall, earlier they could get connected a plane.

He's been offered a occupation arsenic a State Department contractor successful Arlington, Virginia, but until helium and his household are allowed to permission Fort McCoy, they'll person thing to do, helium said.

“(The post) is comfortable. It's not a location but we person resources we need," helium said. “(But) conscionable waiting is boring.”

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Follow Todd Richmond connected Twitter: https://twitter.com/trichmond1

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