Refugee Resettlement Coalition of Lane County prepared to accept Afghan Refugees

Catholic Community Services of Lane County (CCSLC) has helped about 40 individuals from other countries settle in Lane County over the past five years.  News of the situation in Afghanistan has put the CCS Refugee and Immigrant Services Program (RISP) and the Refugee Resettlement Coalition (RRC) on alert to prepare for potential refugees arriving in Lane County. While the situation with Afghani Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) recipients and applicants and other refugees is very fluid, what will not change is that when these individuals arrive in the United States, they will be offered case management services through the US Refugee Admissions Program and related programs. 

CCS has a contract under the US Refugee Admissions Program to provide resettlement services to refugees and  SIVrecipients in Lane County. “The contract requires that the individuals we serve have a “US tie” in our community. This means that, at this point, only refugees or SIVs with a connection to Lane County will be sent here. An exception to this requirement may be made by the national office for newly arriving Afghanis. We will be following this issue closely.” said Christine Zeller-Powell, RISP staff.

“We are ready and able to provide case management services to any SIVs that arrive in Lane County and are hoping there are some people in our community who are US ties for arriving SIVs. While family members or friends of Afghani SIV recipients can be US ties, it is also possible that members or veterans of the armed forces or contractors who worked with US forces in Afghanistan could be these US ties.” said Zeller-Powell.

SIV recipients are sometimes assigned in advance to a resettlement agency but can also be served as “walk-ins.” If you know of anyone arriving in Lane County from Afghanistan who has an SIV or is an SIV applicant, please encourage them to contact CCS’s Refugee and Immigrant Services Program (RISP) at 541-345-3628 ext. 339 or send an email to RISP@ccslc.org. 

Updates about the possibility of welcoming Afghani refugees to Lane County and how people can help will be shared through the Refugee Resettlement Coalition of Lane County’s (RRC) email newsletter. The RRC partners with CCS to support RISP. To receive the email newsletter, please send an email to RISP@ccslc.org and request to be added.