
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Nearly 900 evacuees from Afghanistan arrived in Philadelphia over the weekend, and hundreds more were scheduled to come through Philadelphia International Airport Monday. A medical staff member on scene told KYW Newsradio that 1,600 evacuees have come through the airport.
Mayor Jim Kenney was there to personally greet some of Monday’s arrivals, and he saw some poignant moments.
“Watching little kids who just escaped potential death and imprisonment, running around our airport, playing tag, pulling his sister’s ponytail, thrilled to be getting a Red Cross teddy bear, and seeing people who were relieved and happy and safe was just uplifting," Kenney said.
"It was uplifting for everyone I talked to who was working down there.”
Evacuees entered processing as they reached the airport.
"We are coordinating across all city agencies to ensure a humane, warm welcoming for folks who are experiencing unimaginable amounts of trauma," said Amy Osabio with the City of Philadelphia’s Immigration Affairs.
She said the effort has been a welcoming mission, prodiving everything from food to medical assistance, through the work of people like Dr. Mara Sammon from Temple University's Medical Response.
"There have been approximately 1,600 people who have come through the airport thus far," said Dr. Sammon, who said they have treated about 100 patients.
“The city is supporting medical triage, coordinating with other partners, ensuring they have food and water when they arrive."
Evacuees were screened after they touched down, then received medical screenings with urgent care level support and were offered the COVID-19 vaccine, but vaccinations weren’t mandatory.
"Anyone who needs beyond that, we’re coordinating care to local emergency departments," Dr. Sammon said.
“Everyone involved is trying to ensure that these individuals are given culturally appropriate, compassionate care.”
In addition, donations of goods and materials are also being collected in Philadelphia and New Jersey.
The United States Coast Guard Atlantic Strike Team joint base in McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst New Jersey is helping to get much needed items to the evacuees, items such as clothing, sanitary products and children’s toys.
Kenney compared the arrival and processing of evacuees at Philadelphia International Airport to an historic American location a couple hours north of Philly.
"Just to see those folks coming through our own version of Ellis Island, getting their paperwork done, getting looked at medically, offered a vaccine or a test if they wanted and then going on to their new life in America," he said, "to me is reaffirming about what we should be about as Americans and what this country was founded on."
Kenney said he is proud of the city, joining Washington Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia as the only two airports in the country to receive Afghan evacuees.