A Vermont refugee resettlement organization is offering to accept about 100 Afghan refugees over the next several weeks if their proposal is approved by the U.S. State Department.
Amila Merdzanovic of the Vermont chapter of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants said that if the request is approved, the state’s well-publicized housing crisis will prompt her organization to look for families to host at least some of the new arrivals.
It would not be the first time refugees who are arriving in Vermont lived with host families.
“In the 1970s and 1980s when Laotians and Cambodians were coming into the state, there was no refugee resettlement program so people were being hosted by Vermonters,” said Merdzanovic, who came to Vermont in 1995 as a refugee from Bosnia and Herzegovina and lived with a host family when she first arrived. “That’s the model we are looking to implement.”
She said Thursday that since word of the proposal first became public Wednesday she has already received dozens of messages of support from people.
Historically, Vermont has not been a location where refugees with the types of visas granted to the Afghans have been resettled.
Merdzanovic said early last week she was not expecting any Afghans, but she learned Aug. 25 that national refugee resettlement agencies had two days to submit proposals.
“Yes, it came up very quickly,” she said. “We are sort of, what’s the expression? building the bridge as we are walking on it.”
The Vermont proposal is one of a number that were submitted by USCRI, Merdzanovic’s organization, which has seven field offices across the country. She didn’t know how many other proposals her group made.
Nationally, the State Department works with a number of organizations to resettle refugees across the country.
Since 1980, Vermont has welcomed more than 8,000 refugees to the state from across the world. Most settled in Chittenden County.
Earlier this year before more than 100,000 refugees were evacuated from Afghanistan as the U.S.-led government fell to the Taliban, Vermont Republican Gov. Phil Scott wrote to Biden administration officials asking them to triple the number of refugees sent to the state.
During the Trump administration, the number of refugees admitted to the United States declined dramatically.
Merdzanovic said that last year, Vermont received 23 refugees, a record low. By the end of the current federal fiscal year Sept. 30, Vermont is slated to receive a total of 42, she said.
The hope is that in the next fiscal year, the state will receive 300 refugees from across the world, she said.
Vermont U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, said he was gratified Vermont is volunteering to welcome the refugees.
“Vermont has a long history of warmly welcoming refugees who have become an integral part of communities across our state,” Leahy said. “They have made Vermont stronger.”