Asylum for sale: A 7-month investigation found reports of UN staff members exploiting refugees desperate for a safe home in a new country.
Breaking News Emails
Their status as vulnerable refugees who'd fled a war zone helped her children, her ex and his new wife get into the United States. But Abdullahi says the bribe left her in the Dadaab refugee camp, where she now throws rocks and curses, only to be chased away by the security guards.Her account is corroborated by a former U.N.
"The U.S. government gave me resettlement to come to the United States but that's it. There's no bribe," he said."She was rejected by the United States government. That issue, it's over… You know America there's no bribes." Refugees who cannot afford to pay bribes report that unscrupulous resettlement workers will sell their case files, often compiled painstakingly over years, to others with more wealth.
While UNHCR staff have occasionally faced internal punishment for taking bribes, these sources — almost unanimously — accuse the organization of ignoring or"whitewashing" charges so as not to risk losing the support of donors. Suspected perpetrators are allowed to resign or move to other locations rather than face investigation, according to dozens of refugees and former and current staff.
"The overwhelming majority of 16,000 staff and affiliated workforce are deeply committed professionals, many of whom are working in difficult environments, sometimes risking their own safety. But as in other organizations, we are not immune to risk or failures on the part of individuals," she said."This is why we have established a solid safeguarding structure, which has been further strengthened in the last two years and which we continuously seek to improve.
"I'm not surprised, because wherever you've got refugee camps you've got the potential of this sort of thing going on," Montil said."The demand side of resettlement is enormous and the supply side is small. UNHCR refuses to look at the context in which it operates." For many of the refugees it cares for, resettlement is the ultimate goal, yet the most elusive. And until they restart their lives in a safe country where they have a chance at getting citizenship, the organization that is charged with protecting them can seem as repressive as the dictatorships some have escaped.
Refugees said resettlement, the ultimate prize, can cost 1 million Ugandan shillings to 3.5 million for a person, $5,000 for a family . "It's a systematic thing," a member of the Somali Bantu minority ethnic group said sitting outside his Dadaab shelter."You go to the gate and are turned back multiple times, so you start asking why. Someone tells you who to go to. ask: 'Do you have anything so I can make life easy for you?'A busy street inside the Dadaab refugee camp.
A Congolese refugee, also in Nakivale, said he paid almost $1,000 in total to Manasee, of which, he quoted the latter as saying, $400 would go to a named UNHCR staff member. The next day, the refugee said, he received a call from the named person, and was told to come to the UNHCR's office,"which means he got the money," the refugee deduced.
He said the UNHCR has adequate"checks and balances" through the IGO, to which refugees are encouraged to report wrongdoing. "I told him: 'I don't have the money and can't allow you to use my body. Can you just help me as a refugee?'" she remembered."He laughed it off and told me, 'If you can't do it, there are many people in the queue waiting.'"
The former U.N. contractor who allegedly collected bribes for the UNHCR's staff members in Dadaab said it was an open secret that some U.N. staff were exploiting refugee women, and sometimes ended up impregnating or marrying them."He will take advantage, just because he has a big office. Maybe he can do nothing, but he will pretend for her he can do the best.
"Biometric registration makes theft of identity virtually impossible and biometric screening of refugees is done at various stages of the resettlement process, including right before departure," she said. Pietro Fossati, a UNHCR resettlement officer in Dadaab, downplayed the significance of any possible interference in Abdullahi's case. Whether or not corruption took place, it would not have changed the outcome of Abdullahi's application for resettlement, he said, because the U.S. government had the final say.
Deutschland Neuesten Nachrichten, Deutschland Schlagzeilen
Similar News:Sie können auch ähnliche Nachrichten wie diese lesen, die wir aus anderen Nachrichtenquellen gesammelt haben.
More than 50 children wait to be allowed into ports of entry to request U.S. asylumA backlog of children waiting to ask the U.S. for help has formed in Tijuana with many saying that they were turned away from ports of entry by U.S. and Mexican officials working together.
Weiterlesen »
The Trump Administration Wants To Send Hundreds More Asylum-Seekers Back To Mexico Every DayThe plan is a vast expansion of a new and controversial policy enacted in January where asylum-seekers wait in Mexico while their cases are processed in the US.
Weiterlesen »
Republican lawmakers sue Trump administration as border county cares for 11,000 asylum seekersSan Diego county’s Republican-dominated Board of Supervisors filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the Trump administration, claiming that changes in the way it treats asylum seekers has left the city burdened.
Weiterlesen »
O'Rourke kicks off campaign in hometown, promises largest grassroots campaignBeto O’Rourke formally launched his presidential campaign Saturday morning, casting himself as a figure who can unite Americans of all political persuasions and vowing to build the largest grassroots campaign in American history.
Weiterlesen »
Number of asylum seekers sent back over border to growIn an effort to address the rising number of arriving Central Americans, an official says the Trump administration plans to greatly expand the number of asylum seekers sent back over the southern border each day.
Weiterlesen »
Ecuador's president says Assange breached terms of London embassy asylumPresident Lenin Moreno of Ecuador told radio stations on Tuesday that WikiLeaks ...
Weiterlesen »
Video shows harrowing journey asylum seekers take to enter USNEW: In video obtained by ABC, a family of asylum seekers attempts to cross through a hole under the border wall near Yuma, Arizona, despite warnings from CBP agents—and a woman who makes it to the U.S. side is separated from her sister’s family. Watch:
Weiterlesen »
Opinion | Democrats will have to develop their own big answer to the asylum crisisOpinion: Democrats will have to develop their own big answer to the asylum crisis
Weiterlesen »
US struggling with growing number of asylum seekersWASHINGTON (AP) — Border officials are aiming to more than quadruple the number of asylum seekers sent back over the southern border each day, a major expansion of a top government effort to address the swelling number of Central Americans arriving in the country, a Trump administration official said
Weiterlesen »
Border authorities say they will close holding pen under Texas bridge for asylum seekersU.S. immigration officials said in a statement Sunday that they will close a holding area under a bridge connecting El Paso with Juarez, Mexico, that is just a short distance from where a senior official declared an 'operational crisis' at the border last week.
Weiterlesen »