The Resettlement Conundrum

I work in the resettlement department here in Dadaab, and our job is to screen cases that might be eligible for resettlement based on the family composition, whether the case fits within the boundaries of the '51 Convention, and whether it is a case that could get through the rigorous screening done by not only UNHCR, but the resettlement countries as well.

It's hard in the respect that every day you have families of refugees who are selected to come before you, and your job is to screen and screen hard--try to detect fraud, trip people up, make sure that the stories they are telling are true, that their families include who they say they include. It's exhausting being suspicious of a group of people everytime they walk through the gates because when you stop and really think about it, no matter if they're disabled, victims of violence, or are just plain old refugees who fled from violence, they are sitting in a pretty crappy situation that most people would want to escape from.

There are a lot of debates among the staff about whether resettlement is a good thing, and if it is something that UNHCR should be doing at all. It is not an easy question to answer, and I have found that the more I think about it, the more complicated it gets in my mind. When I arrived last week I came thinking that of course resettlement was good--of course countries should open their arms and help these people if they qualified, and why wouldn't they. But it's much deeper than that, and recently more studies have come out that aid in questioning the rightness of it all.

Before I left DC I was able to catch "The Lost boys of Sudan" with Jay while studying for my Property final. I would watch some and study and listen in on a little more, but it was evident through all of it that these kids from Sudan had some serious problems when they arrived in the US (if you have not seen it, I HIGHLY recommend checking it out). Seeing the refugees here, it is not hard to imagine why.

I remember when I was in Mali and volunteers would end their service having a life changin experience thanks to the Malians who led them through it, and decide the only way to thank their best friend was to buy them a ticket to the US and bring them over for a visit. I would watch in amazement as this would happen, as I could only imagine what it would be like to be the babysitter to these Malians once they arrived in America. It is hard to imagine the look on a Malian's face who has never been farther away from their village than the market town when they go to a grocery store, walk into one of our homes, or see any of the things in America that we all take for granted.

Now picture the refugees. The are people who have been sitting in a camp for the last 15 years with nothing. NOTHING. And we think it's a good idea to pluck families here adn there out, put them on a plane and fly them to Dallas Texas with the hope that the church group who has volunteered to be their guide will actually live up to that and not desert them 2 months in because it is a larger task than imagined?

It's culturally jarring, to say the least, when people are resettled. Yes, there are schools in the camps, but most of the people who come through the resettlement office are not fluent in English, and it is rare that there is family member who is. Some people ask why not resettle the cases of families who are educated, speak English, have exposure to other cultures adn not the cases we are looking at. The answer goes back to protection, and the people being resettled are the ones who are at most risk of violence and persectution within the camp.

It's a hard question to struggle with, because it is hard to look at 130,000 people and say that they should all keep waiting for peace to come to Somalia, but it is equally as difficult to imagine the transition that they will have to go through if they are resettled. So many of these people just want out, and they can't imagine anything worse than where they are living now, other than being forced back into their home countries that are still at war. But you have to wonder, is it better to move them to the US where the populations of Somalis are small and the only family who goes are the family members who are immediate? Is there more security in that, or are we doing them a larger disservice? Would resources that are being used be better spent on protection within the camps, more schools, and more scholarships for the kids who qualify?

They are hard questions. And they probably have no answers. And that's where we all lay our heads at night here in Dadaab.