OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — It's been two years since the Taliban retook Afghanistan. Since then, Afghans have suffered from emergency food shortages, malnutrition, and prolonged drought.
According to United Nations numbers, more than 1.6 million Afghans have fled the country.
"Just horrific things continue to happen. And a lot of it is because of their ties to the United States," Lighthouse Immigrant Advocates founder Sarah Yore-Van Oosterhout said.
Lighthouse Immigrant Advocates out of Holland works with 360 Afghan refugees. They say many of them fear what might happen to them if they were ever to go back to their home country.
"It is presumed that if they go that they will be persecuted. If not, murdered," said Oosterhout.
Lighthouse Immigrant Advocates is working hard to provide hundreds of Afghan refugees asylum here in Michigan.
"The process has been very slow. We're still awaiting decisions in many of those asylum cases," said Oosterhout.
Program Director Maggie Haveman-Gould and Sarah Yore-Van Oosterhout say that out of all of their Afghan asylum cases, only 26 were approved.
"We're hearing quite often is just betrayal, so these are folks who devoted their lives to the U.S. military during that occupation," Oosterhout added.
In August 2021, following a 20-year war, the U.S. withdrew the last of its troops from Afghanistan. The exit left a void, and the Taliban took the country back.
Despite promises to be lenient, Taliban leaders are steadily cracking down on human rights, imposing heavy restrictions on society, especially on women and girls.
"We've had active clients that, you know, a family member was just taken by the Taliban, or they have to keep changing locations where spouse and children are located because it's not safe," Haveman-Gould said.
"Just by their mere presence here in the United States, they're placing their family members at risk there by association. And so I think there's a lot of guilt that they're carrying around too," said Oosterhout
The latest numbers from Michigan show 1,300 Afghan allies and nationals are expected to settle in our state.
Lighthouse Immigrant Advocates says 190 clients recently renewed their temporary status to be here in the U.S.
Those with the organization, founded in 2015, say they can't wait to give more clients a more uplifting call one day.
"When we do get an approval, notice we have a staff member that gets to make that call, and you can hear the tears in the background. And like, we get all choked up when those come through or when there's a big packet of 'Let's see, do we get one this week? Can we call someone with amazing news,'" Haveman-Gould said
Lighthouse Immigrant Advocates says the number of new clients has gone down. They say the families here are asking for help for their loved ones in Afghanistan, but add, at this time, they focus on the many that are here.
