Wednesday February 1, 2017
By Rick Lee
Nasro Ahmed a Somali refugee, is alone in Lancaster, Pa. after her parents and 11 siblings were denied access to the U.S. following the recent travel ban. Jason Plotkin, staff photog
Nasro Ahmed is a Somali refugee who has never stepped foot in Somalia.
The 23-year-old was born in a refugee camp in Kenya, and that camp had been her only home.
On Jan. 18, she arrived in Pennsylvania, the first of her family of 14 to reach this new life. The second oldest, she and her younger siblings were born in Dadaab, the largest refugee camp in Kenya.
Her parents fled the ravages of civil war in Somalia a full generation ago, and they and the rest of their children finally were on the threshold of freedom, scheduled to join Ahmed in the United States in coming weeks.
But days after Church World Service helped Ahmed settle into a home in Lancaster, President Trump temporarily banned all Somali refugees from traveling to the United States.
Ahmed can remain. But it might be years before she ever sees her family again.
Ahmed's older sister was to be the next to fly out of Kenya. She was to arrive next week in New York before going on to Lancaster and Ahmed. The rest of Ahmed's family -- her parents and brothers and sisters under the age of 18 -- were to be bound for the United States on Feb. 23.
Those flights were canceled, she said.
"No Somalis can travel to the U.S.," said Ahmed, who is Muslim.
CWS Lancaster had expected Ahmed's family to join her and had arranged housing for the parents and 12 siblings. Now, Ahmed is alone in the house. Never away from her family for any length of time, she admitted to being lonesome and extremely homesick for them.
She should be working to get a Social Security card, taking classes to learn how to look for a job. Instead, she feels emotionally paralyzed. Mentally, Mohammed said, she remains with her family.
Omar Mohamed is a resettlement case manager at CWS Lancaster and himself a Somali refugee who lived 15 years in Dadaab -- the same camp where Ahmed was born. He did not know Ahmed in the camp but knew her older sister. On Tuesday, he helped the shy and soft-spoken woman tell how the travel ban has affected her and her family.
Mohamed explained that once a Dadaab camp refugee turns 18, he or she is assigned an immigration number. It was pure coincidence that Ahmed was the first of her family to fly out of Kenya.
Ahmed's sister had made it as far as the staging area, the step before boarding a plane to America, when her flight was canceled. She was returned to Dadaab.
By the time the flights were canceled, Ahmed's family already had given away everything they could not bring with them or would not need, including ration cards.
The 120-day travel ban now could mean years of delay for Ahmed's family.
Coming to the United States under refugee status can take years under the best of circumstances. Now, because the Ahmed family's flights were canceled, they might remain in the refugee camp for another three or four years.
Mohamed said all of the required clearances -- including medical and lengthy security checks -- likely will expire, forcing the family to start all over again.
As Ahmed spoke with the York Daily Record, her cellphone rang. It was her father.
Mohamed, a father of five, explained that Ahmed's father is, of course, worried about her.
"He's a father," Mohamed explained. "And, he doesn't know where she is."
Ahmed said the only information she had received from her father was: "They are not coming."
She said she wished now that her flight had been canceled, too.
"She has asked if there are options to go back," Mohamed said.