Inside the U.S. Military Base Where 11,000 Afghans Are Starting Over
The New York Times
A New Jersey military base is the only site accepting new Afghan arrivals from overseas. It holds more evacuees than any other U.S. safe haven.
JOINT BASE McGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. — Sana Khairi, an 18-year-old Afghan with wide brown eyes, knew precisely how long she had been living in a temporary encampment on a New Jersey military base: 47 days.
After fleeing Afghanistan as the Taliban seized power, she and her mother and four siblings were routed through Germany before arriving at what has become known as Liberty Village, a community that swelled nearly overnight to hold a population larger than half the towns in New Jersey.
There are 11,000 people living there now — more evacuees than on any of the six other U.S. bases still hosting families evacuated from Afghanistan as America’s 20-year war in the country reached its chaotic end in late August.
