The Last Refugee Family (At Least for a While) Without Ties to the United States

Watata Mwenda, center, and his sons, in an apartment in Fayetteville, Ark. They turned solemn after learning that a family member, John Feruzi, was not allowed to travel to the United States. Credit Andrea Morales for The New York Times        

Miriam Jordan of the New York Times reports on one of the last refugee families without close relations in the country to be admitted into the United States before President Trump’s moratorium took effect.  Beginning yesterday, only refugees who have a “bona fide relationship” with a close relative or entity in the United States will be eligible to enter for the next 120 days, pursuant to the Supreme Court order that allowed part of Mr. Trump’s travel ban to proceed.

The family was from the Democratic Republic of Congo.  According to the story, “eight years ago, six militiamen invaded the family compound, murdered his oldest son and his son’s wife and briefly kidnapped Mr. Mwenda. The family left everything behind, and after four days of travel by foot, car and dinghy made it to safety in a refugee camp more than 1,000 miles away in Malawi.” 

This month, the International Organization for Migration helped the family travel to the United States.

“An estimated 60 percent of refugees resettled in the United States already have family ties in the country, but only about a quarter of those from Congo and Syria, two blood-soaked countries that are among the biggest sources of refugees, have any connection to America, according to Church World Service, a large resettlement agency.”

KJ