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These days, there are worries within the Somali community in Minnesota, as well as in other states in the United States of America. Somali communities are worried about how they can safely send money to their loved ones in the Horn of Africa; and more specifically, in Somalia, because of the Twin Cities based Sunrise Community Banks decision to close the bank accounts of its Somali American Money Transfer Businesses.
This decision means that Somali-Americans cannot contribute to the fundamental support of their loved ones in Somalia, as there are no other ways to safely transfer money to Somalia (there are no functioning banks in Somalia). So the question now is, how will this impact in the short and the long-term, if Sunrise Community Banks (which is the bank that handles a large amount of Somali money transfers from Minnesota to Somalia), or any other American banks, will not work with the hawalas; and will the hawalas work with US government to find a solution. First, Somalia’s current GDP (one of the lowest in the world) is primarily dependent upon remittances from Somalis living in the Western Diaspora. Remittances have provided a safety net for Somali families subsisting within anarchic and stateless for the past 15 year. Unemployed in Somalia remains systemically high (above 80%), and many families on survive the money they get from remittances. In this case, literally millions of people will be in at risk of slipping further into food insecurity – already exacerbated by drought and famine. Does this decision actually condemn tens-of-thousands of Somalis within Somalia to death? Second, as we know, during 2011 a drought hit much of the Horn of Africa: including Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya and Somalia. However, Somalia was different from other countries in the Horn, because of persistent conflict and statelessness in Somalia for over two decades. In this case, the drought hit with a particularly overwhelming impact. As a result, more than 150,000 Somalis have estimated to have died of malnutrition and related causes, and almost three million Somalis remain in urgent need of humanitarian aid. During this particularly tough time, the Somali community in the US has sent millions of dollars (using the remittance system) to help their brothers and sisters. If the remittance system is closed, than I think it will result in accelerating a UN declared humanitarian crisis and famine in Somalia. Third, if the remittance system is closed down here in the United States, than that decision may impact the perceptions of other Western countries, such as Canada, Australia, countries in European and the Arab World. If a worldwide closure occurs, than it will directly cause hundreds-of-thousands of further deaths that could have been prevented. This will probably generate more ill will toward the US by Somali communities within Somali and within Western countries where the bulk of the Somali Diaspora resides. The threat of increased radicalization would occur. Thus US law that has been drawn up to have the desired effect of attempting to mitigate radical organizations from operating and recruiting against the US may well end up generating a further wave of radicalization and ill will against the US. Finally, the closure of a remittance system allowing funds to be transferred to Somalia will put back the little progress that has been made there; and will most certainly guarantee that Somalia grinds through yet another decade of anarchy and despair. I hope remittance agencies, US banks and the US Justice Department will come up with a workable long-term solution; and I hope the Obama Administration will consider this issue as a priority. Abdullahi Nur ------------------ Related Articles - Somali Remittances Provide Critical Lifeline By A. Adam We welcome the submission of all articles for possible publication on WardheerNews.com |
