Behishta Sadaat arrived in Kalamazoo after fleeing Afghanistan in 2021. Now she helps other refugees with the Kalamazoo Refugee Resource Collaborative. But the future of her work is uncertain after executive orders from President Trump cut resettlement groups’ funding.
Michael Symonds: I would love to hear the story about the situation you were in and how you got here and why it was important for you to escape.
Behishta Sadaat: It was not a choice. We were forced to leave and that's important for people to know about refugees, that not all refugees want to leave their countries.
Symonds: The country as it stands right now, I mean Afghanistan has very, very, very harsh limits on women. I know one of the ones that comes to mind is they can't go to school.
Sadaat: Yeah, so I was a woman activist. Back in Afghanistan, I worked for the Ministry of Women's Affairs and I worked for the United Nations and my only goal was to serve women in Afghanistan and children. So, when the Taliban came into power, my life was in danger. And of course, like for my daughter's life, I knew that she will, under Taliban, she will not be able to go to school because of the restrictions that they are imposing on women. Like, they are taking the rights of getting education, going to work, even going to outside or just going to parks and movies, even listening to music is prohibited.
Symonds: What was the process like getting to the United States and then also getting to Kalamazoo?
Sadaat: They gave me one hour to leave and the airport was only 45 minutes away from my home. So I had actually like 15 minutes to leave and decide to leave. And all I packed was my phone and my IDs, and my daughter, my 4-year-old daughter. So we went to the airport and it was so hard to get in. It was like a crisis going on, like millions of people outside the gates and they were not able to get in. So it took us like a long time to finally get into the airport and I was evacuated, in one of those military jets, to Qatar. And from Qatar they took us to Washington D.C. and from there, we were sent to Texas, to a military camp. And we stayed in the military camp for 45 days until the resettlement agency in Kalamazoo, they accepted our case and we came to Kalamazoo to settle in here.
Symonds: How did you get connected with the KRRC?
Sadaat: Actually, I was a beneficiary, that I would get diapers, free diapers for my kids from them and I really love their work and service for refugee and newcomers. And then I was interested to work with them because this is what I did like back at home and my experiences and my education aligned with their mission.
Just two days after she started working, President Donald Trump issued executive orders which stopped the flow of funds to refugee nonprofits, along with forcing federal agents that handle refugee resettlement to stop their work. Sadaat explains the impact.
Sadaat: For the newcomers and refugees, especially during their first year, the service or the support that they gain from the local community is their lifeline. This is their lifeline support because there's no other resources to rely on. Imagine if you're very new, like you land in a new place and you don't know anyone, even, you don't know the language. So you need the support for for the local communities. Like how to help you with housing, food, school registration for the kids, or to just walk you through like what's going on the community, how to engage in the community. Without the local community support, refugees actually cannot survive, especially, as I said, when they when they arrive.
Symonds: Let's say in a in a fiscal year, those funds go away. What are the things they are losing on a daily basis that you guys help provide to them?
Sadaat: My job is providing the circle of support for refugee communities and through the circles we are aiming to bridge the refugee communities with the resources. And we are trying to build a environment or establish an environment where they feel safe and they can share their thoughts and feelings. It's kind of a social, emotional well-being.
Symonds: To kind of sum up, how important are these mental health resources to refugees?
Sadaat: When a person is not feeling well mentally, or they need social emotional support, they cannot engage in the community in their best way because they'll not feel safe or supported or sometimes they will hesitate to share or to be engaged in the community.
Symonds: We've talked about all those basic resources along with the mental health resources, but what about their status in the United States?
Sadaat: Every refugee will come under different status, but if they are coming as a humanitarian parolee, it will take at least two years to get their asylum granted and then after two years they'll have to apply for a green card and after green card like they wait for five more years to get citizenship. So it's a whole process of 10 years to get citizenship when they come as a humanitarian parolee, like in the situations like war in Afghanistan and Ukraine, people who came as under that status. But if there are other— like the stop work order also impacted the SIV or people who have have special immigration visas. It has impacted them because the flights are delayed and they are on pause and they cannot travel, even if they were approved for SIVs.
Sadaat continues to explain the hardships facing refugees whose flights were cancelled.
Sadaat: Those people who are waiting for their visas are still in the middle countries or second or third and thinking about their food or how they will provide for them, like how long they'll wait. So it is difficult for them to stay and wait, like it will be a long wait. I'm not sure.
Symonds: How do you feel just, the second you got into your current position to help refugees, to have such a hard stop on your ability to help those who are in a similar situation to you?
Sadaat: When I started I was sure that I'll work in this position or for this role for a long time. But then this order brought some confusions and then some disappointment to my work, and then I was excited to do this but now it will be a short time, or I don't know for how long. But again, I try to remain resilient and use this time. Since I'm here, I have to do the best that I can.
Symonds: I don't know if you can talk about what's next for the KRRC, what they're doing to kind of plan for the uncertainty of the stop work order.
Sadaat: Until we have the funds, we will continue our services for refugee communities. We are now trying to establish the circle of support in Kalamazoo in five different languages. Every circle will talk in a refugee's home language. So then it will help them to engage in a more comfortable way.
The KRRC started a fundraiser for families impacted by the federal stop work order. Information can be found on the group's Facebook page.
Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.
