Nearly 200 asylum-seeking refugees were moved out of a homeless encampment in Kent on Tuesday. Many of them, including women and children, called the encampment home for months. But with just minutes’ notice, around 5:30 a.m., King County Sheriff’s Office deputies and Kent Police Department officers came into the camp, told the people to leave, brought in huge dumpsters and cleared the area.
‘Food is finished:’ Refugees in Kent call for help as health, food struggles remain
The refugees said they don’t know what comes next.
“They took our number and our name and say they are going to call us if they have somewhere to put us,” an anonymous refugee told KIRO Newsradio. “So, they close it, and we don’t know where we are going to go.”
Encampments like this one have been hot potatoes in cities all over Western Washington. Asylum petitioners are left in limbo, waiting for word of an uncertain future. Now, they say, the uncertainty grows.
“We don’t have a place to stay,” the anonymous refugee said. “We used to sleep here, so they close it and we don’t know where we are going to go.”