Airbnb and Airbnb.org announced on Tuesday that they’ll quickly home 20,000 Afghan refugees free of charge. The effort, an evolution of the house renting platform’s “Frontline stays” program for housing first responders, is in response to the refugee crisis attributable to the US army’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s takeover of the country.

“It has become abundantly clear that the displacement and resettlement of Afghan refugees here in the United States and elsewhere is a significant humanitarian crisis – and in the face of this need, our community is ready to once again step up,” the corporate wrote in its announcement. This is in fact depending on Airbnb’s current hosts agreeing to assist out. In a tweet thread announcing the plan, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky put out a name for Airbnb hosts taken with housing Afghan households on Twitter.

For taking part hosts and houses, the free refugee housing can be out there globally, paid for by Airbnb, Airbnb.org (Airbnb’s nonprofit counterpart), Chesky, and donors from the Airbnb.org Refugee Fund. Airbnb didn’t provide a selected timeline for the way lengthy this system will final, however the firm tells The Verge “we are planning to support the 20,000 refugees for as long as is needed.”

Other firms have additionally made makes an attempt to alleviate a few of the hurt attributable to the US exit from Afghanistan. Facebook and Clubhouse have taken steps to safe accounts by hiding mates lists and eradicating private data. The US Department of Defense has also called on airline companies to assist with additional evacuations from Afghanistan.