Afghan refugees

This month, the Biden Administration hopes to expedite the process by eliminating temporary humanitarian parole and concentrating resources instead on permanent visas.

The International Institute of St. Louis is ready to welcome more Afghan families and refugees from other countries. Officials with the U.S. State and Health and Human Services departments and the International Nonprofit Immigrant Organization met with International Institute officials Monday.

Aug. 15 marks the one-year anniversary of Zamzama Safi’s escape from Afghanistan. The former translator for U.S. forces reflects on living in Missouri for nearly a year — and her hopes for the future.

Business leaders, immigration activists and Missouri politicians are urging the federal government to issue visas to 380 more refugees who fled Afghanistan in 2021 and are now stranded in Albania, a small country on the Balkan Peninsula. The first members of the group arrived in St. Louis on Monday, but hundreds more are waiting on the U.S. government to issue them visas.

Ann Wittman was once a stay-at-home mom focused on caring for her sons. Now, she’s dedicated to helping refugees with her new nonprofit, HumanKind STL — beginning with a capital campaign to buy Afghans used cars.

For Afghan families new to the U.S., who lack driver's licenses and speak little English, working around St. Louis Public Schools’ canceled bus routes is difficult.

Nearly 600 Afghan refugees now have a place to call home beyond hotels. An effort to bring more Afghans to St. Louis will mean doing much more.

Dozens of young refugees from Afghanistan gather on Saturday afternoons for something that’s crucial to their successful resettlement in a new land: getting to just be a kid.

In the past year, St. Louis has resettled 538 Afghans who arrived in the U.S. as refugees of their war-torn country.

The donation by Pershing Charitable Trust will go toward the $3.5 million the International Institute aims to raise.