Afghan Refugees Leave DoD With $270M Repair Bill
A $270 million repair bill has been left with the Defense Department after it hosted refugees that landed on U.S. soil following President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Broken tables, chairs, and cots used by guests alongside tents and cots ruined by spray paint, human biological matter, and holes, are just some of the repair requirements the Defense Department listed in estimates contained in a report released Wednesday.
The Afghans, airlifted out of Kabul in the final weeks before the U.S. left Afghanistan for good, spent weeks to months on one of 11 installations, where they received housing, medical care and resettlement assistance.
“DoD Components dedicated significant resources and infrastructure to support the OAW mission,” Lorin Venable, the assistant inspector general for audit financial management and reporting, said in an advisory attached to the report, UPI reports.
“However, DoD Components encountered challenges in obtaining funds to restore damaged facilities, equipment, and resupply consumables.”
File/U.S. Military Police pass Afghan refugees at the Village at the Ft. McCoy U.S. Army base on Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021 in Ft. McCoy, Wis. The fort is one of eight military installations across the country housing the tens of thousands of Afghans who fled their homeland in August after the U.S. withdrew its forces from Afghanistan and the Taliban took control. (Barbara Davidson/Pool Photo via AP)
The report comes after Biden in July 2021 announced Operation Allies Refuge to airlift and support the relocation of Afghan evacuees and their families who previously helped the U.S. Government as the White House initiated the rushed plan to pull troops out of Afghanistan.
Operation Allies Welcome followed in August 2021 to resettle Afghans in the United States who had worked with U.S. and coalition forces since 2001.
Both operations utilized military personnel, equipment and supplies — as well as facilities in which more than 80,000 refugees were housed temporarily — as America’s longest war came to an abrupt end.
The FBI reportedly launched a probe into an alleged attack of a female soldier at the hands of several male Afghan evacuees housed at Fort Bliss, officials from the agency and the U.S. Army post confirmed Friday. https://t.co/F1LE7U30hT
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) September 26, 2021
In March 2022, the Defense Department initially estimated the cost to “reset facilities, equipment, and consumables to pre-OAW conditions” were $326.6 million though those figures were later reduced by May, the UPI report sets out.
The auditors identified costs not allowable under rules for reimbursement including $25 million requested by Ramstein Air Base in Germany for damage to the airfield. However, $2.2 million was approved for equipment and consumable items for Ramstein Air Base.
“Air Force officials described tables, chairs, and cots broken by guests and tents and cots ruined by spray paint, human biological matter, and holes,” the report said.
Afghan refugees arrive at Dulles International Airport on August 27, 2021 in Dulles, Virginia, after being evacuated from Kabul after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty)
The Air Force initially requested $150 million in repairs, reporting that at Joint Base McGuide-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, “guests damaged facility water systems by forcing large items into pipes, causing clogs,” the report found.
“Air Force officials stated these clogged water systems were so excessive that the facility managers could not repair the clogs with conventional plumbing tools.”
Elsewhere the costs to repair Fort McCoy, estimated at $145.6 million, represented more than 56.1 percent of all restoration costs at the 11 sites that housed refugees.
Fort McCoy housed 12,706 Afghan refugees, or 17.2 percent of the total amount of Afghan refugees housed on military bases amid the operations.
That facility reported all of the barracks, which were built during World War II, needed repairs or replacement of walls, ceilings, floors, doors, bathrooms, plumbing, electrical systems, heating, ventilation, air conditioning systems and exterior siding.
Around 95,000 Afghan refugees could be settled around the U.S., including in Ohio, following President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. https://t.co/aezb00rmsI
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) September 12, 2021
“Due to the high costs of the Fort McCoy estimate, we have concerns over whether the reported damages to the barracks and other structures at Fort McCoy were a result of the OAW mission or were pre-existing to OAW,” the report said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy sought $3.3 million to restore facilities in Spain, but the auditors approved just $810,000.
The report also requests the Pentagon’s comptroller come up with a plan to cover the remaining needed repairs at the 11 military bases not eligible for reimbursement through humanitarian disaster funding.
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