SOMALIA: TWELVE THOUSAND SOMALI BANTU REFUGEES FROM CAMPS IN KENYA LEAVE FOR THE UNITED STATES

Record ID: 275231

  • Title: SOMALIA: TWELVE THOUSAND SOMALI BANTU REFUGEES FROM CAMPS IN KENYA LEAVE FOR THE UNITED STATES
  • Date: 22nd May 2003
  • Summary: (U4) KAKUMA, KENYA (RECENT) REUTERS) 1. GV SUNRISE 0.05 2. SLV LARGE CROWD OF WALKING PAST STICK FENCE; REFUGEES WALKING IN EARLY MORNING SUN (3 SHOTS) 0.25 3. LAS ZOOM OUT INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION FLAG HOISTED IN COMPOUND SURROUNDED BY REFUGEES 0.34 4. MV RELIEF WORKERS VERIFYING NAMES AS REFUGEES ENTER COMPOUND 0
  • Embargoed: 6th June 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KAKUMA, KENYA AND MOGADISHU, SOMALIA
  • Country: Somalia
  • Reuters ID: LVA76WLLHIIMDHXIE47OT7UPH0LA
  • Story Text: 12,000 Somali Bantu refugees from refugee camps Kenya
    have left for the United States following more than 10 years
    of bloody civil war.

    It is early morning at the Kakuma refugee camp in
    North-western Kenya. Refugee families have got up early
    because this is a special day. Seventy four of them will begin
    the first phase of a long journey to the United States. They
    are the first in over 12,000 Somali Bantus to be resettled in
    the United States.

    Their neighbours and friends accompany them on their last
    walk in the camp area. They will go to the International
    Organisation for Migration (IOM) offices to board buses to the
    airstrip. Only those who are travelling are allowed in. They
    patiently wait for their journey to begin.

    Relief agencies have been working to prepare them for
    life in the United States but refugees like twenty one year
    old Halima Sekondo still cannot speak a word of English. She
    has two children and is leaving her husband behind because his
    papers were delayed. She has only just found out that her new
    home will be in Texas. Despite this she is believes that
    resettling in the U.S. is her best option.

    "There is no life in Kakuma. You have nothing. Not even an
    education. But if you go to America there are benefits: you
    can be educated and so can your children." she said.

    Close by are best friends Abdi, Ahmed and Ali. Apart from
    each other, their only other worldly possessions are a few
    bags. Living together in Kakuma has made them close. They were
    ecstatic when they were told they would travel to Boston
    together. But despite the suffering they have been through
    their hearts will remain in Africa.

    "Me, I'm born in Africa but I didn't get a good, peaceful
    life. There is a problem for the governments. Especially if
    you go every place if you go East Africa, West Africa,
    Central Africa there is a problem everywhere fighting, civil
    wars. But we can't forget Africa because we are Africans."
    said Ali Omar as he waited to board the bus to the plane.

    Somali Bantus are descendants of slaves from Mozambique
    and other parts of southern Africa. They are rural farmers who
    were severely persecuted in Somalia.

    They fled Somalia's civil war in 1991 and 1992 and have
    lived in Kenyan refugee camps since. But even here they were
    still oppressed by Somali refugees. The United States agreed
    to consider them for resettlement in 2000 but all refugee
    programs were seriously disrupted by the tighter security
    imposed after the hijacked plane attacks on the US on
    September 11, 2001.

    "We have about 13,000 Somali-Bantu who have been cleared
    by the American government for resettlement. This is the first
    start of course the number is quite huge, but the game plan is
    to have about 3,000 sent to America by the end of the year. We
    hope to do more air-lifts as time goes on because it will give
    us time to fine tune the operation. But this is the first
    airlift we had to be cautious to start with the small number."
    Said the head of UNHCR in Kakuma, Cosmas Chanda
    The refugees will fly to Nairobi where they will have
    intensive orientation classes over ten days. The classes will
    teach them about laws, employment, housing, cultural
    adjustment and day to day life in the United States. They will
    then leave for various American destinations.

    Since the overthrow of Somalia's president Siad Barre in
    1991, the country has had no central government. Somalia is a
    complex and shifting patchwork of fiefdoms run by rival
    warlords where hunger and famine are rampant.


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