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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[skeeter]

I'll put you in the "no safety net" column.

[AppyPappy]

The private organizations that help them will help them by telling them how to get free government money. That's why Lewiston couldn't afford to settle them. It costs government money to settle these people. If it was just private money, no one would care.

[hchutch]

Thanks. Please do so.

[AppyPappy]

To: AppyPappy

I'm reading about THIS bunch of refugees, and how they are being handled.

I have read about other towns where recent arrivals have created a stir, but this seems to be better organized.

You didn't answer my question, every single program that you listed, is available to every person in the US.

Don't you think that's the problem?


46 posted on 03/05/2003 4:04 PM EST by Luis Gonzalez (The Ever So Humble Banana Republican)
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To: Luis Gonzalez

Yes but that doesn't mean that this isn't a problem as well.


47 posted on 03/05/2003 4:05 PM EST by AppyPappy (Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.)
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[Luis Gonzalez]

"...historically take disproportionate advantage of these programs..."

There are no welfare programs in Somalia, what "historically" are you talking about?

We are going to literally take people who are sufficiently self-sufficient to survive under circumstances that most of us would never survive, and teach them to be dependent on government.

Instead of assigning blame on the immigrants, we need to start taking responsibility for our actions.

[CdMGuy]

These people are just short of being classified as savages. They are fully illerate which means in the US they are unemployable. They are tribal and they are Muslims. They will not change their spots.

As for your comments that they are being spread around, so what. They are mobile. The Vietnamese were spread all over God's half acre. Within two years they migrated to certain areas of the US where the climate was more "friendly", specifically, Orange County, Ca and the Gulf Coast.

Let's not forget their predecessors from Somalia who are migrating like geese from Atlanta and elsewhere to Lewiston, Maine where they are swamping the city financially.

When you take a bunch of them into your home, your block, your community, then come back here and preach to us.

[AppyPappy]

To: AppyPappy

I'm reading about THIS bunch of refugees, and how they are being handled.

I have read about other towns where recent arrivals have created a stir, but this seems to be better organized.

You didn't answer my question, every single program that you listed, is available to every person in the US.

Don't you think that's the problem?


46 posted on 03/05/2003 4:04 PM EST by Luis Gonzalez (The Ever So Humble Banana Republican)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]

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To: Luis Gonzalez

Yes but that doesn't mean that this isn't a problem as well.


47 posted on 03/05/2003 4:05 PM EST by AppyPappy (Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.)
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[Semaphore Heathcliffe]

it's a battle within a war.

[ladyjane]

dennis isn't the only one who objects. Why take people out of their own country and put them into a totally different culture? They're already depressed and have mental health issues. Violence is a part of their lives. Do we need more violent people with mental health problems in this country? Do these people need the added stress of relocation? Do we need the diversity of female circumcision? Will my insurance be paying for female circumcision or repairs on botched procedures? Do we need more people on the dole?

[Luis Gonzalez]

I see a lot of articles about white supremacist groups being involved in the Clewiston issue.

Eleven hundred arrivals to a town of over 36,000 people, slightly over three percent of the population, and the mayor claims that they "stretch" the city's coffers.

Most of these programs are Federal programs, not Clewiston money.

The people in Maine are rallying in favor of the Somalis, and against Matt Hale and white supremacists, calling for the mayor to step down.

What's the real issue here Pappy?

[AppyPappy]

The real issue is that these people are dropped here and begin feeding off government money like leeches and WE have to pay for them.

You choose to see the white supremicists because you want to see them. I never saw them.

[skeeter]

There are no welfare programs in Somalia, what "historically" are you talking about?

Cute, but not very effective.

We are going to literally take people who are sufficiently self-sufficient to survive under circumstances that most of us would never survive, and teach them to be dependent on government.

Exactly. Why would you support this?

Instead of assigning blame on the immigrants, we need to start taking responsibility for our actions.

Resisting massive influxes of people who are likely to require public assistence is hardly "blaming" anybody.

No one is 'owed' a life the US, Louis.

[Marysecretary]

They're Muslim, poor and black. Those are probably three good reasons why people don't want them here. Problem with that is that some of these people are also Christians. Do we discriminate against them as well?

[CdMGuy]

The real issue here, Luis, is that you do not know what you are talking about. Implying that the problem in Lewiston, ME is due to some KKK types is pure BS. This is a BIG problem. It was covered by the Wall Street Journal a few months ago in a front page article with all the facts and figures.

The City of Lewiston has a social services budget that was completely blown out of the water by these Somalis moving in. The Somali organizers in Atlanta readily admitted that they selected Lewiston because of all the social programs their people could take advantage of. There was an organized program to move fellow Somalis from Atlanta and elsewhere to Lewiston.

[Poohbah]

Of course, true conservatives wouldn't support government-run social programs for anyone, immigrant OR citizen.

[hot august night]

Thanks. I needed the laugh!

[Ben Ficklin]

Bringing in the the Bantus is definately the end of Western Civilization.

[FITZ]

some of these people are also Christians. Do we discriminate against them as well?

If they need welfare programs ----YES.

[spodefly]

Apparently there are not enough people in the US. There are not enough people to fill the roads, fill the sewer systems, use all the water, use all the electricity. The air is too clean, the streams to clear, the forests too overgrown. There aren't enough houses and parking lots and high-tension wires strung across the land.

Apparently there aren't enough illiterate people in the US. There aren't enough people unemployed, on welfare or some sort of government assistance. There aren't enough people unsuited to work in a service oriented economy or what is left of our manufacturing infrastructure. There are not enough people that are net users of tax money as opposed to contributors.

There are not enough balkanized, unicultural islands of non-diversity. There aren't enough different tribes, clans, religions, sects, ideologies, religions, victim groups, colors, tints, and hues.

Apparently we no longer need scientists, engineers, technicians, doctors, visionaries, musicians, entrepreneurs, business people, writers.

The lowest common denominator has not yet been achieved, and political correctness and the religion of multicultural diversity will not stop until that has been achieved.

[F16Fighter]

Once again we have agents our own U.S. government giving the middle-finger to those of us who question the wisdom of superceding the will of the American people by flooding it's borders exclusively with great numbers of Third World immigrants who create security issues, burden it's taxpayer, while encouraging native heritages and cultures.

America is being hijacked every which way and all the Bush Administration does is twiddle their thumbs.