‘Make sure they’re welcomed’: Mayor says Kansas City should prepare for Afghan refugees
Although its uncertain how many refugees from Afghanistan will resettle in Kansas City, Mayor Quinton Lucas said the city is already taking steps to welcome whoever is sent here.
“I am in some ways saddened that they have to leave home but we welcome them and really want to build an opportunity for them to build an exceptional new life here in middle America here in the United States,” Lucas said Tuesday on KCUR’s Up to Date, hosted by Steve Kraske. “I think that it is our duty to make sure we help them with that.”
Kansas City has done work in the last week to welcome any Afghan refugees who come to Kansas City, Lucas said. That includes talking to organizations like the Jewish Vocational Services and Della Lamb that do work in Kansas City, as well as making sure the city is working with Missouri officials.
Most of the refugee resettlement work is done out of a nonprofit in St. Louis, he said, so the city is making sure that it would be available to some refugees.
“For us, it would be a smaller number than you’ve seen for other cities, looking more to 50 to 100 refugees than perhaps the thousands that you’ve seen discussed in the St. Louis metropolitan area,” Lucas said.
Last week representatives from the Kansas City organizations indicated on the show that several hundreds or maybe up to 1,000 refugees could be coming to Kansas City, Kraske said. He asked the mayor if that number is accurate and if it was manageable.
“Here’s my view: Yes it’s accurate,” Lucas said. “And yes it’s manageable, but of course it would take a great deal of work. This however is a community that cares about people and cares about doing that sort of work.”
It remains uncertain where the roughly 15,000 refugees currently held at the Ramstein Air Base in the Germany will go. Lucas described it as a fluid situation.
“We will just be ready from our local government side and in this region to welcome whoever is sent here,” he said.
The vacation rental website Airbnb has reached out to the mayor’s office and said it was willing to help support folks in the resettlement efforts by providing housing when they arrive, Lucas said.
One of the challenges, Lucas said, is that the federal government gives each refugee only $1,200.
“It would take significant nonprofit support and it would take significant, perhaps, government support but its the sort of thing that I think is right for us to do,” Lucas said. “We should help our allies who helped us so much over the 20 years of the conflict in Afghanistan.”
