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WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (AP) — Nearly $260 million has been lost to U.S. military bases that house tens of thousands of Afghani refugees, the Pentagon’s inspector general said, in some cases on buildings that were built against walls. And pipelines cannot be used by the military until major repairs are established.
In the last two weeks of August 2021, the U.S. Air Force conducted the largest humanitarian evacuation in its history, airlifting 120,000 people from Afghanistan in just 17 days.
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Most of those passengers were Afghans fleeing Taliban rule, and U.S. planes initially ferried tens of thousands of Afghans to bases in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Italy, Bahrain and Germany.
After processing, many refugees were airlifted to eight U.S. military bases, where many were housed for several months while awaiting visa processing and resettlement; the last Afghan refugee left the barracks in February.
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The refugees were housed in Fort Bliss, Texas. Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey; Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. Camp Atterbury, Indiana; Marine Corps Bases Fort Pickett, Fort Lee, and Quantico, Virginia; and Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico.
The Inspector General found that the barracks and buildings were severely worn out by the large number of people in the makeshift housing.
In one case, Indiana National Guard training was moved from Camp Atterbury to Fort Campbell, Kentucky due to losses incurred during Operation Ally Welcome.
The IG found that the facilities needed to be restored “to conditions that would enable them to conduct training, prepare for future events and resume normal base operations”.
For example, of the $260 million approved for repairs, the Department of Defense approved about $16 million for Camp Atterbury “to replace mattresses and furniture, repair floors, windows, plumbing, fire alarm systems and landscaping. “
But the inspector general questioned whether the repairs required at the eight bases were all related to the refugee stay.
For example, Fort McCoy, which hosts 12,706 refugees, was approved for $145.6 million to repair buildings and plumbing, three times the repair needs of Fort Bliss and Fort Pickett, which host similar numbers of refugees combined many. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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