美国国务院周一宣布了一项“历史性”的新计划，允许美国公民帮助阿富汗难民在美国重新定居

拜登政府在结束了美国在阿富汗20年的干预后，已经将超过65000名阿富汗人带到了全国各地的军事基地，并计划在未来一年再增加约30000人。

但是，在前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)执政四年后，难民重新安置进程一直难以重新安置这些新移民，该进程削减了数千项计划，从大幅削减入学人数到停止面试，再到耗尽资金。

在需求激增的情况下，国务院授权一个名为“社区赞助中心”的新非营利组织，利用当地社区和“欢迎”等组织的支持，审查和培训申请在其社区接待阿富汗难民的美国私人团体。美国、Airbnb、难民和移民综合服务公司等。

国务卿安东尼·布林肯在一份声明中说，这一新项目“利用了这种源源不断的支持，使个人能够直接参与到我们新邻居的欢迎和融合中来”，并“展示了个人在团结起来欢迎阿富汗人并使其融入美国社会方面可以发挥的强大作用，反映了我们的善意和慷慨精神。”

自1980年难民重新安置计划正式确定以来，美国政府已经与9个重新安置机构合作，这些机构在全国各地拥有大约200个当地分支机构，帮助来自世界各地的难民在一个新的社区开始生活。在美国政府的资助下，他们提供初始服务，从寻找住房到购买杂货，让孩子入学到寻找工作。

但是现在，普通美国人可以在自己的社区内一起做同样的事情。根据社区赞助中心的说法，至少五个成年人一起申请，必须完成背景调查，为每个难民筹集至少2275美元的资金，通过“知识检查”，并为一名阿富汗难民提交一份详细的“欢迎计划”。

一旦他们通过审查和认证，他们将与选择通过该计划重新安置的阿富汗难民或难民家庭相匹配，而不是通过重新安置机构。他们的支持必须至少覆盖难民在社区的头90天。

社区赞助中心执行主任萨拉·克劳斯说，在“对阿富汗难民的大量支持”之后，该项目是“将这种支持转化为欢迎更多阿富汗人的直接机会的具体方式”。“通过提供资助家庭的机会，这个项目将在阿富汗人和欢迎他们的社区之间建立持久的纽带。”

拜登周五还授权从美国政府的紧急难民和移民援助基金中拨款高达9.76亿美元，用于支持阿富汗难民的重新安置，难民倡导者对这笔巨额资金的涌入表示欢迎。

九个国家机构之一的路德教移民和难民服务机构的总裁兼首席执行官克里斯·奥马拉·维格纳拉贾(Krish O'Mara Vignarajah)表示，难民重新安置机构在很大程度上支持新计划，私人赞助提高了能力，并“帮助美国公众直接参与个人层面的重新安置”。

“话虽如此，但它必须得到深思熟虑的实施，并得到足够的机构支持。我们希望确保难民和欢迎他们的美国人都能感受到成功的结果。

布林肯说，国务院计划明年启动一个试点项目，将私人赞助扩大到其他难民。

在特朗普的领导下，难民收容速度被故意放缓，特朗普多次设定了该计划40多年来最低的难民上限，削减了支持该计划的人员，并出台了被批评者称为繁重的新法规。在阿富汗撤离者之外，美国接纳的难民人数是上一财年(2020年10月1日)到今年9月的最低水平。

泰德·沃伦/美联社

华盛顿州长杰伊·因斯利在2021年10月22日星期五的新闻发布会上发言.

在2020年总统竞选期间，拜登曾发誓要改变这种状况，并增加难民入境人数。但今年4月，他签署了一份备忘录，将特朗普的难民上限保持在1.5万人，这是该计划的最低水平，但在民主党人和难民倡导者表示愤怒后，他后来收回了这一上限，并在5月将其提高到6.25万人。

但特朗普时代废除该计划的努力不仅导致了过去一个财年的少量难民，而且现在还危及拜登在2022财年接纳12.5万名难民的承诺，该财年将持续到明年9月30日。

虽然将重新安置扩大到私人赞助可能有助于实现这一目标，但难民倡导者呼吁增加资金和改革，以提高该项目的能力。

US launches new program to allow private Americans to sponsor, resettle Afghan refugees

The State Department on Monday announced a "historic" new program to allow private American citizens to help Afghan refugees resettle in the U.S.

The Biden administration has brought over 65,000 Afghans to military bases across the country after its chaotic, unprecedented evacuation operations that ended 20 years of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan -- with plans to bring some 30,000 more in the next year.

But the refugee resettlement process has struggled to resettle those new arrivals after four years of former President Donald Trump's administration and its thousand cuts to the program, from slashing admissions to halting interviews to drying up funding.

Amid the spike in need, the State Department has authorized a new non-profit called Community Sponsorship Hub to vet and train groups of private Americans that apply to host an Afghan refugee in their community -- using support from their local community and organizations like Welcome.US, Airbnb, Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, and others.

This new program "harnesses this outpouring of support and enables individuals to become directly involved in the welcome and integration of our new neighbors," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, and "showcases the powerful role that individuals can play in coming together to welcome and integrate Afghans into American society, reflecting our spirit of goodwill and generosity."

Since the refugee resettlement program was formalized in 1980, the U.S. government has partnered with nine resettlement agencies that have approximately 200 local affiliates across the country, helping refugees from around the world start life in a new community. With U.S. government funding, they provide initial services, from finding housing to buying groceries, enrolling children in school to seeking employment.

But now, ordinary Americans can join together to do the same thing within their own community. Groups of at least five adults apply together and have to complete background checks, fundraise at least $2,275 per refugee, pass a "knowledge check," and submit a detailed "welcome plan" for an Afghan refugee, according to the Community Sponsorship Hub.

Once they are vetted and certified, they will be matched with an Afghan refugee or refugee family that has chosen to be resettled through the program, as opposed to through a resettlement agency. Their support must cover the refugee's first 90 days in the community at a minimum.

After an "outpouring of support for Afghan refugees," the program is a "concrete way to translate this support into immediate opportunities to welcome more Afghans," said Sarah Krause, executive director of the Community Sponsorship Hub. "By offering opportunities to sponsor a family, this program will create enduring bonds between Afghans and the communities that welcome them."

Biden also authorized up to $976 million from the U.S. government's Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund to support Afghan refugee resettlement on Friday -- a huge influx of funding that refugee advocates welcomed.

Refugee resettlement agencies have been largely supportive of the new program, with private sponsorship boosting capacity and "helping the American public directly engage with resettlement on a personal level," according to Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, one of the nine national agencies.

"With that said, it's imperative that it is implemented thoughtfully and with sufficient institutional support. We want to make sure that both refugees and the Americans who welcome them feel positioned for successful outcomes," added O'Mara Vignarajah.

Blinken said the State Department plans to launch a pilot program to expand the private sponsorship to other refugees next year.

Refugee admissions were deliberately slowed under Trump, who repeatedly set the lowest refugee caps in the program's 40-plus year history, cut staffing to support the program, and put in place new regulations that critics called onerous. Outside of Afghan evacuees, the U.S. admitted the lowest number of refugees last fiscal year, which ran Oct. 1, 2020, through this past September.

During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden had vowed to change that and boost refugee admissions. But in April, he signed a memo that kept Trump's refugee cap of 15,000 -- the program's lowest -- only to then backtrack and raise it to 62,500 in May after outrage among Democrats and refugee advocates.

But those Trump-era efforts to dismantle the program not only led to this past fiscal year's small number, but they also now endanger Biden's promise to admit 125,000 refugees in the 2022 fiscal year, which runs through next Sept. 30.

While expanding resettlement to private sponsorship may help reach that target, refugee advocates have called for increased funding and reforms to boost the program's capacity.