Born in the thick of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, 38-year-old Hamed only ever knew war before immigrating to the United States in 2014. He survived Russian bombardments of his village outside Kabul; went to elementary school during the civil war of the 1990s; persisted under the Taliban’s fundamentalist code by rarely leaving the family’s apartment; and joined the humanitarian effort to rebuild the country after U.S. forces invaded post-9/11.

“My generation has seen so much deprivation. Deprivation of rights, of education, of careers,” said Hamed, who only goes by his first name in print because family back home remain potential targets for the Taliban. “People are still suffering. It will take generations to heal.”

Hamed worked at the U.S. embassy in Kabul for five years after college, mostly for the United States Agency for International Development, an independent federal agency responsible for administering civilian aid and assistance. But growing threats on his life and the lives of other employees forced a choice on them few will ever have to consider: Leave your home or potentially lose your life.

Hamed and his wife arrived in Washington state in 2014. Resettled through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, Hamed and his wife received supports and services that made their transition possible, including rental assistance, cash and food assistance, and other resettlement services.

He now works in the state’s Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance, doing for others arriving in Washington what Washington state did for him.

“I see no difference between war refugees — wherever they come from,” Hamed said. “By and large they are happy people who adore their countries, but the deprivations of war and dictatorship left them no options.”

Washington has a bipartisan history of supporting refugees

Washington state has a long, bipartisan history of welcoming refugees fleeing war and persecution, even when other states tried to turn them away. In the late 1970s, Governor Dan Evans was one of the first governors in the nation to accept refugees from Vietnam. In 2015, Gov. Jay Inslee harkened to Evans’ principled stand when he took a vocal stance in support of Syrian refugees as a wave of governors made statements proclaiming their states as “off limits.”

In the past five decades, more than 140,000 people have resettled in Washington. This includes more than 30,000 refugees from over 70 countries who have resettled in Washington state through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program over the last decade.

With the withdrawal of United States troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, the United States evacuated more than 70,000 people. The Biden administration established Operation Allies Welcome to help resettle Afghan evacuees into local communities across the country, including in Washington. This draws parallels to the drawing parallels to the fall of Vietnam and the evacuation of refugees in the late 1970s with Operation New Arrivals.

The Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance — known as ORIA — led Washington’s support for Operation Allies Welcome by partnering with the local Afghan and Muslim American community to offer supports and assistance to local refugee resettlement agencies.

ORIA is the state office designated to coordinate Washington’s refugee resettlement services in partnership with the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement. ORIA, which is housed within the state’s Department of Social and Health Services, invests federal and state funding into local community-based organizations to provide services that help refugees and immigrants to achieve economic stability and thrive in Washington’s local communities.

These services and programs include:

refugee health and wellness;

employment and training;

immigration-related legal services and naturalization assistance; and

family supports, such as the Refugee School Impact Program and services for older refugees.

Gov. Jay Inslee personally met with some of the arrivals in October 2021 to emphasize the state’s support for people forced out of their homes by conflict.

In the first six months of this federal fiscal year, Washington has welcomed more than 3,000 Afghans to local communities, nearly three times the total number of arrivals in the past year.

“Helping people to rebuild their lives after they have been forced to leave everything they have ever known is one of the hardest jobs I have ever done,” said Sarah Peterson, the Washington State Refugee coordinator. “It is also one of the most rewarding. Refugee resettlement requires an entire community of support dedicated to helping people recover from trauma and have access to the tools that they need to learn a new language, to find new opportunities to use their skills, and to build ways to contribute to our communities.”

State agencies prepare for newest wave of refugee arrivals

Peterson said Hamed is an excellent teammate going the extra mile to support Washington’s effort in Operation Allies Welcome. When Washington participated in the State Afghan Placement and Assistance program, a unique effort that resettled Afghan guests directly, Hamed helped to coordinate the welcoming team, greeting over 200 people at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Aside from his family still in Afghanistan, Hamed has sisters who resettled in Europe. He knows other Afghan families have been similarly split up across continents and hemispheres because of war.

“A million Afghan families are split across this diaspora. Maintaining those connections and learning to live in a place that’s strange to you, it’s not easy,” he said.

After years of low arrivals due to previous federal administration policies and the pandemic, Washington’s refugee resettlement infrastructure is strained. With additional resources provided by the Washington State Legislature, ORIA is working to stabilize, strengthen, and support the organizations that serve as the welcoming committee for Washington’s newest neighbors.

Building off the work done since then, ORIA will continue to work with communities and organizations to support those seeking refuge in Washington state, from Ukraine and across the world.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has already displaced more than 11 million people, says the United Nations’ Commission for Refugees, creating a growing humanitarian crisis in the region. About 2.5 million are children who have lost their homes and are still living in the war-torn country. As families and other victims flee repeated attacks on civilian targets, the deprivations of war only become more acute.

Hamed said he sees parallels between his own experiences and those displaced by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

“There are still people who never recovered from what that occupation did to them. It imported a lot of problems that are still part of our internal conflicts,” he said.

The Office of Gov. Jay Inslee and state agencies remain committed to finding ways to meaningfully support Ukrainians during this unprovoked war. This includes ongoing efforts for additional humanitarian aid flights and preparations for the Ukrainians who will eventually arrive seeking refuge.

On April 21, 2022, the federal government announced United for Ukraine, a new federal program that will allow people in the United States to sponsor and support Ukrainians seeking refuge through humanitarian parole.

While this new program gets started, ORIA will work with refugee resettlement agencies and local communities to prepare for an increase in arrivals.

It is too early to estimate the number of people who will arrive across Washington. When they do arrive, some will likely be connected to DSHS to help with their resettlement.

“Resettlement is still hard on people if they can’t be connected to what they need,” said Hamed. “If no one had helped me I’m not sure I would be alive today.”

Want to help support refugees?

Donate to Washington’s local refugee resettlement agencies.

Donate to local Ukrainian organizations, including Ukrainian Community Center of Western Washington and others.

Volunteer to be a host home through the Airbnb Open Homes initiative. Open Homes hosts go through the Airbnb platform to provide free, temporary housing to folks in need as they resettle. Hosts have full control over when and who they can accept and would work with a local refugee resettlement agency staff member around specific housing requests before making the decision. People can sign up to host at home through Airbnb.org — Host people fleeing Ukraine.

Click Here for more information.