MORRISVILLE, N.C. (WNCN) – 44-year-old Asadullah Benwa is on the hunt for a new job nearly two weeks after being laid off from Millennium Print Group in Morrisville.

Benwa, who’s an Afghan refugee, has worked there since 2022 after fleeing the Taliban takeover. Benwa is part of the 800 temporary employees laid off from the Pokémon owned company.

“I don’t know we work night. Then the morning time we received they’re announcement we’re all fired,” said Benwa.

Benwa and around 80 other Afghan refugees found work at the company through Turas, a recruitment firm that aims to help refugees. 

“They come to us with great backgrounds. They’ve done a lot of amazing things, but they come to us. They don’t have the language and so they can’t use that skill set right away for a while,” said Jonathan Murphy, a recruiter at Turas.

Millennium Print Group had been the ideal employer for the recruiting firm, offering jobs to non-English speakers and allowing communities to stay together.

Refugees who had white-collar jobs back in Afghanistan are now adjusting to a new reality.

Zarghona Tabesh used to work as a legal aid in Afghanistan and speaks four languages including English. Now Tabesh is looking for work anywhere that will hire her.

“I feel that because I can’t use my resume and my documents, my degree here, it’s like in Afghanistan and here it’s been like my all my whole life is like off the down,” said Zarghona Tabesh.