Somalia-Bantu Refugees to find New Lives in the United States

Department of State ^ | 02/05/03 | Department of State

[Copernicus]

IIP Home | Africa Issues	Friday 7 February 2003

Fact Sheet: Somali-Bantu Refugees to Find New Lives in United States

About 12,000 will be vetted for resettlement in 50 U.S. towns

The first Somali Bantu refugees will arrive in the United States in the spring of 2003 to begin new lives, according to a Fact Sheet released by the U.S. Department of State February 5. The UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) has attempted for many years to find permanent resettlement sites for them.

Approximately 12,000 refugees under consideration for admission to the U.S. spent most of the past decade in camps along the dangerous Somali-Kenyan border. After rigorous security and physical examinations, those accepted for resettlement will be placed in extended family groups in up to 50 cities and towns across the United States throughout 2003 and 2004.

Following is the text of the Fact Sheet:

(begin fact sheet)

Fact Sheet

U.S. Department of State
Bureau of Population,
Refugees, and Migration

Washington, DC

February 5, 2003

Somali Bantu Refugees

In the spring of 2003, the first Somali Bantu refugees will arrive in the United States to begin new lives. This group of approximately 12,000 refugees under consideration for admission to the U.S. has spent most of the past decade languishing in camps along the dangerous Somali-Kenyan border. Descendants of slaves taken from Tanzania and northern Mozambique in the late nineteenth century to the southern Somali coast, the Bantu have remained a persecuted minority in Somalia and cannot return to the homes they fled there.

For many years, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) sought a place of safe asylum where the Bantu could permanently resettle. Kenya, which struggles to meet the needs of its own population as well as the hundreds of thousands of refugees it hosts, was unable to provide permanent refuge. In 2000, the United State agreed to consider the group for resettlement in the United States.

After being moved from the border to a safer and more accessible site in Kenya, the refugees will undergo interviews with officers of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to determine if they are eligible for admission into the United States as refugees. In addition, rigorous security checks and medical examinations will be performed on all applicants before they are approved for resettlement. The Bantu will also be provided with literacy training and an extended program of cultural orientation in Kenya before arriving in the United States. They will be placed in extended family groups in up to fifty cities and towns across the United States throughout 2003 and 2004.

Upon arrival in the U.S., each Bantu family will be assigned to one of the ten voluntary agencies under cooperative agreement with the Department of State to provide reception and placement services. These agencies are Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Ethiopian Community Development Council, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Iowa Bureau of Refugee Programs, Immigration and Refugee Services of America, International Rescue Committee, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and World Relief Refugee Services. They will assist with basic immediate needs such as housing, furniture, clothing, food, and referrals to employment, ESL, and other services. In addition, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service s Office of Refugee Resettlement provides funding to the states and voluntary agencies for longer-term programs for refugees.

For more information on the Somali Bantu, see the fact sheet on the Bantu on the Cultural Orientation website operated by the Center for Applied Linguistics: www.culturalorientation.net.

(end fact sheet)

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[Black Agnes]

Well, there *are* good reasons to wear a burka. They hide a whole slew of ills. :) Like a bad hair day, poochy tummy, thunder thighs, grenades, pipe bombs, largish hand guns,...use your imagination.

[FITZ]

The Bantus also will have access to Cash Assistance, Food Stamps, Medicaid, the Georgia Energy Assistance Program, Match Grant Program, Planned Parenthood of GA., Medicaid from Peachcare for Kids, Individual Development Account Savings Programs, low-income mortgage and loans programs, subsidized housing, legal services, United Way Home Front funding for rental assistance, tutoring programs, summer and after-school activities for children, nutrition programs for women and children, driving lessons, dental care, family planning clinics, pre-employment training, domestic violence counselors and shelters, child care, mental and physical health services and educational services, including literacy, ESL, GED, and technical skills classes for non-traditional students, including teenage mothers.

Real useful types. We don't need people who need this much Socialism.

[Black Agnes]

ping.!

[swheats]

thanks for the link.

[Thinkin' Gal]

They belong in one place and one place only.

France.

[Luis Gonzalez]

These people are going through the process legally, they are receiving literacy training and an extended program of cultural orientation in Kenya before arriving in the United States, they are undergoing rigorous physical examinations as well as extensive security checks, they are being placed with extended family members in the US, spread out across the nation so they will not form ghettos, they are being helped by voluntary agencies upon their arrival, have skills in mechanics, small-scale farming, and construction (trades), they a have strong sense of family and community, "90% of refugees coming to Atlanta have jobs within 90 days. 85% of even the Sudanese "Lost Boys", who came from a similar background, were employed within 90 days. Most of these jobs come with health insurance after the refugee is employed 90 days".

What exactly is it about these people that you object to dennis?

[dennisw]

Yup!

[Luis Gonzalez]

Check out dennisw, he would trade these people in for eastern Europeans...who would do what comes naturally to Europeans, and help the spread of socialism in the US.

[Luis Gonzalez]

What exactly is it about these people that you object to dennis?

[Luis Gonzalez]

Actually, that's not a bad suggestion.

:-)

[hot august night]

The destruction of the American middle class continues, thanks to our elected "representatives". Meanwhile, the rest of us working stiffs have to foot the bill for more of these freebies that will be gobbled down by more of these new and ever-breeding freeloaders. It's only a matter of time until we have a 70% income tax to pay for all this insanity...Just another day when the Government pees on our head and tells us it's raining.

Our Founding Fathers must be looking down at us from above and weeping rivers.

[skeeter]

Hey, I'm optimistic. Its possible this'll be the very first such mass resettlement where the beneficiaries don't immediately become wards of the taxpayer.

If they do, well, oops.

[AppyPappy]

Many Bantu, whether Muslim or Christian, retain animist beliefs, including use of magic, curses, and possession dances.

Shoot, most of the people in Giles County Va do too.

[AppyPappy]

Ooooh...Welfare magnets.

[Luis Gonzalez]

What exactly is it about these people that you object to dennis?

[hchutch]

Those Somalis have suffered enough - why inflict France on them?

Seriously, a LOT of the comments I see on these threads are, quite frankly, insulting. Crap like I've seen on this and similar threads only increases the influence that the likes of Al Sharpton wield, in my opinion.

[AppyPappy]

The Bantus also will have access to Cash Assistance, Food Stamps, Medicaid, the Georgia Energy Assistance Program, Match Grant Program, Planned Parenthood of GA., Medicaid from Peachcare for Kids, Individual Development Account Savings Programs, low-income mortgage and loans programs, subsidized housing, legal services, United Way Home Front funding for rental assistance, tutoring programs, summer and after-school activities for children, nutrition programs for women and children, driving lessons, dental care, family planning clinics, pre-employment training, domestic violence counselors and shelters, child care, mental and physical health services and educational services, including literacy, ESL, GED, and technical skills classes for non-traditional students, including teenage mothers.

[hchutch]

So, work to eliminate the damn programs then.