1,500 Somali Bantu Refugees Resettled to USA, 750 more coming next month

AllAfrica.com ^ | February 24, 2004

[dead]

This week IOM will fly a further 500 Somali Bantu refugees to the US, where they have been accepted for resettlement. The first charter flight carrying half the group will leave today and the second on Friday.

Since May 2003, IOM has facilitated the movement of 304 Somali-Bantu families or 1,427 individuals from Kenya to the US. In March, it plans to organize three more charter flights for 750 more of the group.

A persecuted minority of rural farmers in their home country, the Somali Bantus fled Somalia's civil war in 1991 and 1992 and found refuge in Kenya's camps, where they met renewed persecution at the hands of Somali refugees. In 1999 the US government recognized their plight and pledged to resettle close to 12,000 living in the Dadaab refugee camp and more than 500 living in the Kakuma camp.

In 2002, because of Dadaab's proximity to Somalia, the US government decided to move all the selected Dadaab-based Somali Bantu refugees to Kakuma, near the Sudanese border in northwestern Kenya.

IOM, in collaboration with NGOs, constructed an additional refugee camp in Kakuma with 2,700 mud-brick shelters, pit latrines and a water and road infrastructure, and a US refugee processing centre complete with interview rooms, a medical clinic and X-ray machine and cultural orientation classrooms.

Between July and September 2002, IOM moved 12,000 Somali Bantus across 900 miles of Kenyan countryside to their new "transit" shelters in Kakuma. US refugee processing began in September 2002.

The Somali Bantus leaving Kenya this week have undergone medical screening and a 5-day cultural orientation session provided by IOM at Kakuma. IOM then flew them from Kakuma to Nairobi and provided accommodation for them there until their departure.

Before they join their flight to the US, IOM staff will distribute warm clothing and doctors will give them a final pre-departure medical check. On the flights, they will be escorted by seven IOM staff, including 3 medical personnel.

[davisfh]

"1,500 Somali Bantu Refugees Resettled to USA, 750 more coming next month"

"Give us your tired, your poor, your yearning for a free ride..."

[SAMWolf]

Any bets if they'll be moving in to the neighborhoods the IOM memembers live in?

[JimRed]

"Give us your tired, your poor, your yearning for a free ride..."

If these folks were farmers in those inhospitable surroundings, they must have had a work ethic to survive. Can we trade them for some of our own street trash?

[jimt]

Ping.

[Indie]

Can we trade them for some of our own street trash?

No kidding!! Give them 100 ganksta rappas for each one of the farmers. Then let them see how tough they are...freekin punks.

[Tax-chick]

"Smithsonian" recently had an article on a Somali Bantu family resettled in Arizona - grandmother, mom and dad, several kids. The father was working, the mother was looking for work, the grandmother was babysitting, and the kids were devouring education and American culture. (Even American public school education is better than Somalia ...)

It's possible for anyone to fall into the "entitlement" trap, but these people were ready to work hard and succeed through their own efforts. I'd be happy to have them in my neighborhood.

[Meldrim]

Any bets as to which party they will register in?

[FreedomSurge]

Did they mention whether they were Muslims or not? You may want that family as your neighbor, but would you like an extended family of 15 or 20 living in one house as your neighbor? Would it be ok to slaughter a goat on festival days?

[dead]

I'd be happy to have them in my neighborhood.

Me too. These people are escaping from geniune persecution and are looking to come here to live in freedom. Some may go on the dole, but so do some Brits and Irish and Chinese and Italians and Mexicans and Swedes. None of them should, but they do.

I also don't think our taxpayer dollars should be used to bring them here (the article isn't clear on who's paying), since that is not a constitutionally delegated power of the government, but I would be happy to voluntarily donate to their cause.

[dead]

Would it be ok to slaughter a goat on festival days?

As long as its their goat, why would anybody else care?

Many people in America have neighbors that kill and eat chickens and pigs too.

[rdb3]

Check it out.

Let the blow fall, I await its coming.

[theFIRMbss]

>Would it be ok to slaughter a goat on festival days?

Hey, compared to some
Superbowl parties, one goat
would be a step down...

[aruanan]

Any bets if they'll be moving in to the neighborhoods the IOM memembers live in?

I know some of them. The African refugees work their asses off.

[Tax-chick]

It did say they were Moslems. They wouldn't be the first in my subdivision. The family in the article was living in two apartments - grandmother with teenage girls in one unit, parents with little kids in another.

As for numbers, we have nine in our house so far ... our next door neighbors, in the same model, are a young couple with no children. Crowding is relative :-). I think I'd prefer an extended family, turning the whole yard into a garden, over the neighbors' Rottweilers. The Homeowners' Association doesn't allow livestock, or we'd probably have some - you wouldn't believe how much my boys eat, and they're not even teenagers yet!

Interesting coincidence, regarding the goat ... the neighbors with Rottweilers are a Palestinian man from Jerusalem and a Lithuanian girl from New Jersey. He's not a real observant Moslem (drinks wine when they come over!), but he buys Hallal meats from a supplier in South Carolina. I'm thinkimg of ordering a lamb this spring, good price per pound when you buy the whole thing!

[Docbarleypop]

And an English friend of mine who is a computer geek with a degree cant get beyond a work visa, hmmm

[FreedomSurge]

I hope someone starts a slaughter house next to you. Its thier property, who cares?

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

1) The government move the Bantu into your neighborhood.

2) Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner comes looking for them.

[dead]

There are adequate zoning laws in my neighborhood to prevent anybody, native-born or immigrant, from opening a slaughter house in my neighborhood.

And why would you be so churlish as to wish such a thing on me? Judging from your posts, I'm guessing the average Somali-Bantu gentleman is a lot more civil than you are.

[dead]

That son-of-a-bitch Van Owen!