Two days ago I told you that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees office in Sudan is being investigated (by the UN) for possible fraud in the selection process for refugees heading to mostly the US.
There are allegations that bribes are being paid to influence the selection of certain refugees over others.
Now comes news that the program is being shuttered at least temporarily.
And, in case you are wondering, after lobbying from the UAE, Trump did drop Sudan from the travel restriction list, see here.
Where is Homeland Security, is it time to have a look at the 652 Sudanese who got in to the US in calendar year 2017 (Wrapsnet)?
Before I get to the latest news story, you need to know that in this fiscal year (’18) we have admitted 53 refugees of Sudanese ethnicity, but when looking at processing country data, I see we processed 154 ‘refugees’ in from that Khartoum, Sudan office.
If 53 are Sudanese (according to a different data base at Wrapsnet) then the other 101 are which nationalities? Who else are we bringing in through Sudan?
From The Citizen:
UN halts Sudan refugee resettlement after alleged fraud
The UN refugee agency said Thursday it is temporarily suspending its programme for the resettlement of refugees from Sudan after allegations of fraud emerged in the scheme.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, said it had launched two investigations in February and March as the allegations of fraud surfaced.
“At present we are still dealing with allegations, based on reports that have come from refugees,” the head of the UNHCR in Sudan, Noriko Yoshida said in a statement.
“Should wrongdoing be confirmed, those responsible can expect the consequences to be severe.”
Ha! Yes, they might catch those benefiting by taking bribes, but that does nothing to punish those who paid the bribes and are now living in your town on US welfare!
The UNHCR has appealed for more than $250 million in global aid to fund its overall 2018 operations in Sudan, which hosts about 1.2 million refugees, most from South Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia.
“UNHCR in Sudan resettled 600 refugees*** as part of the programme in 2017,” a spokesman for the UN agency in Geneva, Babar Baloch, told AFP.
***As we learned at Wrapsnet, the US resettled 652 Sudanese in calendar year 2017 which means that the US must take most of the Sudanese the UN is resettling from this office. Who are they and where are they?
And, by the way, commonsense tells us that this kind of fraud, bribery and corruption is likely going on throughout Africa!
As I have said repeatedly, there is no reason that we (the US) can’t choose and process the refugees we want.