Posted on 02/16/2015 2:21:03 PM PST by Citizen Zed
Somalis in the United States are now unable to send money back to Somalia. The final American bank that allowed for sending money there has stopped doing so.
The small Merchants Bank of California was the last bank in the United States that worked with Somali-American transfer companies. The Somali-American companies operate in the same way as the worldwide money transfer companies Western Union and MoneyGram. But they permit people to send money to rural areas of Somalia far from cities and towns.
Last week, however, Merchants Bank stopped helping the companies send money to Somalia.
Anti-terror legislation had stopped most American banks from giving people a way to send money to Somalia. Experts say more than a million Somalis cannot feed themselves. Many Somalis depend on the money sent to them by their friends and family members in the United States and other countries to survive.
Sunrise Community Bank in the U.S. and Barclays Bank in Britain have also closed their Somali transfer accounts. They were worried that the transfer companies were either working directly with terrorists or that the money being sent to Somalia was being given to terrorists.
The United Nations and humanitarian workers warn that Merchants Bank’s decision will hurt Somalia. The money-transfer business there is huge. The United Nations and aid groups in Somalia use money transfers to pay their workers and to pay for projects in small villages and towns.
Aid groups such as Oxfam and Adeso, a non-governmental organization, estimate that Somalis living outside the country send more than $1 billion home every year.
(Excerpt) Read more at m.learningenglish.voanews.com ...
Why do we continue to fund the VOA? It ceased to be pro-American some time ago.
I wonder how much of that money they try to send home is welfare money....
Seriously, Somalia has a 2000 mile coastline, a California like climate and a population density similar to Colorado. Why do they need to be here?
Good...now add Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador to that list
The obvious answer is to bring all of the would-be beneficiaries to the United States so they can collect their US taxpayer subsidized goods directly.
Must be because of the death of the Ambassador and all the banking problems I read about in that email I got.
Narcoterror is real - do the same for Mexico.
Thanks! I needed some good news today.
What happened to all those adventurous Somali pirates and thieves from a few years back? I heard many of these pirates became millionaires from paid ransoms. None of these rip off artists have an ounce of concern for their fellow Somalis.
They’re having the same problem here, in the Twin Cities.
Breaks my heart.
Meanwhile, those who frequent the local food shelves looking for FREE food, are demanding that the food be halal.
So why can’t we do this with Mexico?
What happened to all those adventurous Somali pirates and thieves from a few years back?”
Most are lobbyist’s on K street in DC now. I believe they are the ones behind more Gun Control.
Ahhhh they could hand carry it..... then dont come back
A lot. Governor LePage in Maine traced EBT card use (of which many are Somali) to DisneyWorld and other resorts.
Urban NJ economies would collapse..
Stop them from sending money and send them back!
How are they an improvement to the US?
Diversity!
It’s our strength!
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