http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/18/opinion/refugees-need-a-nations-better-angels.html 2016-10-18 09:52:16 Refugees Need a Nation’s Better Angels In a time of fear about migrants, it’s worth remembering that finding and resettling the world’s neediest refugees is an American tradition. === Sixteen years ago, Sasha Chanoff faced a decision that could mean life or death for 144 people. Chanoff, then 29, was working for the International Organization for Migration. He was in the His instructions were clear: Get just those people out. Any attempt to save others could jeopardize the mission. Once in Congo, however, Chanoff and his colleague Sheikha Ali discovered 32 more women and children, some close to starvation, in a tent outside the main compound. Many were almost certain to die if not evacuated. A year earlier, Chanoff had attended a meeting in Nairobi where representatives of the American government, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration had convened to determine which of two groups to prioritize for resettlement in America: Bantus living in the In the end, the decision came down to pragmatism, as Chanoff recalled in a powerful book, “ “The fact that the Sudanese Lost Boys were chosen to go first meant that hundreds more Bantu women were going to be raped,” Chanoff wrote. “Others would be attacked and killed. That didn’t mean the Lost Boy decision was wrong. Their lives and futures too would have changed dramatically if the Bantus had gone first.” The experience highlighted the power that decision makers who oversee refugee matters have over individual lives. “How are you supposed to act when you have that kind of power?” he wrote. Chanoff decided that he could not leave the 32 women and children behind, and so he fought for permission to expand the mission, knowing it added considerable risks. In his book (and a One young woman Chanoff and Ali met in the tent was Mamy Najurama, 15 at the time. “Her father and brother had been separated from the family,” said Chanoff. “Her mother had severe trauma and Mamy was a primary caretaker for six younger siblings during 16 months in prison camps where many people lost their lives.” After being flown to safety in Cameroon, Mamy Najurama, her mother and her siblings were resettled in Phoenix in 2000. Her father and brother were discovered alive, and joined them in 2001. Najurama is now married, with two young daughters. She works as an independent living aide, assisting people with severe mental illnesses, while studying to be a pharmacist. “From Day 1 in Phoenix, I’ve seen so much kindness,” Najurama told me. She cited Bob Mulhern, a manager for a real estate firm, who had heard about Najurama and her family from The Mulherns, a family of 11, helped Najurama’s family furnish their home, reaching out to friends and gathering a truckload of donated bed frames, dressers, lamps, fans. Over the years, Mulhern and his wife, Tina, bought the family computers, passed along used cars, and helped them find a house in a neighborhood with a good public school, and served as guarantors for the rent. The two families have shared many moments: graduations, weddings, Thanksgivings, funerals. “We just accepted them as a family in transition and we were a family that could help them,” said Mulhern. “It seemed like the right thing to do. We’ve never regretted it.” He added, “If you want to look for a golden thread through the relationship, it would be gratitude.” Najurama said she had been inspired by Mulhern’s generosity. “Every time I think about what I came from and compare it to how I am today, I feel so lucky to be alive,” she said. “This is a dream. I love my job. I love the people I work with. They need someone to be there for them. I am so thankful. I dream to help people who were like me. I want to be like Bob.” In recent years, refugee resettlement has become so politicized, it’s easy to forget that for much of the past century — with some notable exceptions (Jews in the 1930s, Haitians in the 1980s) — the belief that the United States has a noble duty to provide protection to people fleeing violence and persecution has enjoyed broad bipartisan support. This support can be traced back to ideals expressed by Today, whether Americans should continue this long tradition is being questioned by many in government or up for election. Last month, when To be sure, security is a concern. But The current focus on the Syrian crisis, along with inflammatory and irresponsible language about Muslims, has distorted a policy that usually was much more straightforward — grounded less in political expediency, and more in America’s enduring self-definition. And it has also caused many vulnerable people to be forgotten. The United Nations refugee agency Resettlement slots are scarce and precious. They’re intended to help those facing the gravest risks. But that’s not always how it works. Media attention, political considerations and institutional limitations frequently determine who gets saved and who doesn’t. Often, refugee slots remain empty. Since 2002, nearly 250,000 slots for refugee resettlement in the United States have gone unfilled. (Slots are allocated every year by the president and they do not carry over.) During President Over the past four years, however, the situation has changed markedly. Since 2013, only 156 slots out of 295,000 have gone unfilled. That’s because the Obama administration redoubled its commitment to resettlement, and the major organizations charged with identifying and prioritizing those in need, particularly the United Nations and the State Department, have become better at doing so. They’re also getting more help from eyes on the ground. Consider the work of Chanoff realized that if he and Sheikha Ali had not looked into that tent 16 years ago, Mamy Najurama and her family might not be alive today. How to ensure that others in need are similarly spotted and can comply with the stringent application requirements for nations that accept refugees? Today, RefugePoint tries to fill that gap, activating resettlement as an option where it is desperately needed, but often has been unavailable. For instance, it works in Nairobi’s slums, where many refugees remain in hiding, ostracized for having been raped, or hiding from killers who chased them from their home countries. It works with children and youths in Ethiopia who risk becoming victims of human traffickers or kidnappers after fleeing violence or forced conscription in Unlike the United Nations or government agencies, RefugePoint, which is supported largely by philanthropy, can deploy its staff quickly. It provides training to other organizations across Africa (and in a few parts of Asia), teaching local staff how to conduct interviews and identify good resettlement candidates. Then it fosters collaborations of those groups with the United Nations refugee office, which prepares official dossiers for submission to governments. “RefugePoint has been extremely proactive in a number of a situations to help us to identify refugees,” said Vincent Cochetel, who heads the commission’s European office. “Their identification work is absolutely precious. We need actors with local knowledge.” Sometimes, RefugePoint temporarily embeds its own staff members in United Nations offices until it can incorporate those positions into its own budget. In so doing, it demonstrates how an organization with a staff of just 70 and a budget just over $4 million can catalyze changes in a much larger system. RefugePoint also helps address bottlenecks in the system. For instance, many refugee families care for children from other families, often orphans. (Up to a third of Congolese refugee families who have fled to Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda and Rwanda are taking care of non-biological children.) To process cases involving “unaccompanied minors,” child protection specialists first have to make “best interest determinations” for the children. However, many United Nations refugee offices are short on this expertise, so cases get held up. RefugePoint has embedded specialists in several locations to move them along. To ensure that refugee slots get fully used, it’s also critical to prepare dossiers from a range of countries. Refugees seeking resettlement in the United States must undergo an interview in their host country by officials from the On the issue of humanitarian assistance to refugees, voters will soon have a chance to weigh in. When they do, it is important to remember that there are vast differences not just between the presidential candidates, but also among many of the candidates for Congress and state governments in both major parties. Since the president has broad discretion to set the refugee ceiling, but is not alone in setting the political agenda on the issue, American voters should carefully consider the entire ballot before them, as well as all the suffering people abroad whose lives may depend on the outcome of this election. “If the U.S. resettlement program stopped,” said Chanoff, “hundreds of thousands of lives would be at risk over the coming years.”