Corruption and bribery alleged
in UN refugee office in Sudan
“The magnitude of corruption in the office… is (on) an unprecedented scale… This operation is the worst in terms of corruption [and] mismanagement,” the staff member said.
What can you do? Contact the White House and tell the President to make sure his Homeland Security Department is looking in to these allegations, but more importantly tell him to stop using the UN as the first “screen” for refugees we ‘welcome’ to America. White House contact link is in upper right hand column here at RRW.
UNHCR says investigators are probing the misconduct claims, which relate to its Khartoum office
Refugees in Khartoum, interviewed by IRIN over a 10 month period, say that individuals working with the Sudanese branch of the UN agency responsible for resettlement engage in corrupt practices, and that life-changing decisions are often made based on bribes rather than eligibility. That agency,
UNHCR, says it has now mounted an investigation.
An entrenched problem - When IRIN first raised refugees’ allegations of corruption with UNHCR Khartoum office in September 2017, the then spokesperson in Khartoum said they were unaware of such claims. IRIN contacted the office with additional information in February, by which time a new spokesperson was in place. She passed on the allegations to the IGO, which later asked IRIN for further details.
59 global probes - Migration in the Horn of Africa is complex and constantly evolving. Lying on a crossroads of these movements, Sudan is both a temporary and long-term host to large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers who mostly come from South Sudan, Eritrea, and Ethiopia, but also from Syria, Yemen, Chad, and the Central African Republic. Many migrants pass through Sudan on their way to Europe via Libya.
“What is written is contrary to what’s happening”
Jumping the queue - In interviews, refugees recounted being approached by Eritrean or Ethiopian individuals who claimed to have contacts within UNHCR and suggested that money could advance their cases.
Paying for a fake wife and a UNHCR meeting
“The magnitude of corruption in the office… is (on) an unprecedented scale… This operation is the worst in terms of corruption [and] mismanagement,” the staff member said.
What can you do? Contact the White House and tell the President to make sure his Homeland Security Department is looking in to these allegations, but more importantly tell him to stop using the UN as the first “screen” for refugees we ‘welcome’ to America. White House contact link is in upper right hand column here at RRW.
UNHCR says investigators are probing the misconduct claims, which relate to its Khartoum office
Refugees in Khartoum, interviewed by IRIN over a 10 month period, say that individuals working with the Sudanese branch of the UN agency responsible for resettlement engage in corrupt practices, and that life-changing decisions are often made based on bribes rather than eligibility. That agency,
UNHCR, says it has now mounted an investigation.
An entrenched problem - When IRIN first raised refugees’ allegations of corruption with UNHCR Khartoum office in September 2017, the then spokesperson in Khartoum said they were unaware of such claims. IRIN contacted the office with additional information in February, by which time a new spokesperson was in place. She passed on the allegations to the IGO, which later asked IRIN for further details.
59 global probes - Migration in the Horn of Africa is complex and constantly evolving. Lying on a crossroads of these movements, Sudan is both a temporary and long-term host to large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers who mostly come from South Sudan, Eritrea, and Ethiopia, but also from Syria, Yemen, Chad, and the Central African Republic. Many migrants pass through Sudan on their way to Europe via Libya.
“What is written is contrary to what’s happening”
Jumping the queue - In interviews, refugees recounted being approached by Eritrean or Ethiopian individuals who claimed to have contacts within UNHCR and suggested that money could advance their cases.
Paying for a fake wife and a UNHCR meeting
Posted by Ann Corcoran 5/16/18
And, the allegations are coming from a humanitarian publication
under the UN umbrella. Why do
you care?
Because the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is
the first stop for most refugees coming to your towns. (We took 53 from Sudan
in the last 7 months).
This is just more evidence that the US State Department should
be cutting the umbilical cord to the United Nations Refugee Program. If we are
going to be taking refugees from third world hell holes we should be doing the
choosing and the processing without UN ‘help.’
From IRIN: EXCLUSIVE:
Refugees in Sudan allege chronic corruption in UN resettlement process Article reposted below:
Refugees in Khartoum, interviewed by IRIN over a 10
month period, say that individuals working with the Sudanese branch of the UN
agency responsible for resettlement engage in corrupt practices, and that
life-changing decisions are often made based on bribes rather than eligibility. That agency, UNHCR, says it has now mounted an investigation.
More than a dozen people told IRIN of experiences in which
individuals claiming to be affiliated with UNHCR solicited money in exchange
for advancing refugees a few rungs up the long ladder to resettlement, in a
kind of “pay-to-play” scheme.
A recent staff list obtained by IRIN indicates that several
individuals named in interviews with refugees as engaging in corrupt practices
were still employed there as of February 2018.
“We call it the mafia – they’re supposed to be caring for
refugees, but here, they think of themselves,” said one Ethiopian man in
Khartoum, sitting on a bed donated by another refugee he said had paid to be
resettled in Australia. The man asked not to be named because he fears
arbitrary arrest and deportation by Sudanese security agents, a common concern
among Khartoum’s refugees.
UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch confirmed that the
agency’s independent, Geneva-based Inspector General’s Office (IGO), which is
mandated to look into allegations of misconduct, is carrying out the
investigation.
These complaints were echoed by a UNHCR staff member formerly
posted to the Sudanese capital, who asked to remain anonymous because of fears
of professional retribution.
The UNHCR employee said the alleged corruption had
been going on for a long time, but had become significantly worse over the past
four years, with no apparent action being taken to address it.
“If they [staff] talk they will lose their job. They will be
attacked and harassed. I believe lots of people in UNHCR know about this but no
one wants to talk about it. That’s a problem,” the staff member said. “They
know talking about it will not do anything… Even IGO. The IGO takes a long time
and nothing happens… Everybody prefers to be quiet.”
Continue
here, it
is a very detailed story. See below.
Exclusive:
Refugees in Sudan allege chronic corruption in UN resettlement process by Sally
Hayden, 5/15/18, IRIN News.org.
More than a dozen people told IRIN of
experiences in which individuals claiming to be affiliated with UNHCR
solicited money in exchange for advancing refugees a few rungs up the
long ladder to resettlement, in a kind of “pay-to-play” scheme.
A recent staff list obtained by IRIN
indicates that several individuals named in interviews with refugees as
engaging in corrupt practices were still employed there as of February 2018.
“We call it the mafia – they’re supposed
to be caring for refugees, but here, they think of themselves,” said one
Ethiopian man in Khartoum, sitting on a bed donated by another refugee he said
had paid to be resettled in Australia. The man asked not to be named because he
fears arbitrary arrest and deportation by Sudanese security agents, a common
concern among Khartoum’s refugees.
UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch
confirmed that the agency’s independent, Geneva-based Inspector General’s
Office (IGO), which is mandated to look into allegations of misconduct, is
carrying out the investigation.
“UNHCR does everything to ensure the
integrity of the resettlement program as it is absolutely vital to maintain the
confidence of refugees and the states involved,” Baloch said. “UNHCR investigations
are led by professional investigators.”
The IGO appears to have opened its
investigation in March, although UNHCR would not confirm the timing, or whether
it was the result of IRIN’s reporting. Some refugees say their cases are now
being re-assessed, although IRIN again could not confirm if this was prompted
by these allegations and the investigation.
Since July 2017, IRIN has been in
frequent contact with refugees in Khartoum and others now living in Europe.
Many described an entrenched system of bribery and exploitative practices
associated with the UNHCR resettlement programme in Khartoum.
“We call it the mafia – they’re supposed
to be caring for refugees, but here, they think of themselves.”
These complaints were echoed by a UNHCR
staff member formerly posted to the Sudanese capital, who asked to remain
anonymous because of fears of professional retribution.
“The magnitude of corruption in the
office... is (on) an unprecedented scale… This operation is the worst in terms
of corruption [and] mismanagement,” the staff member said.
The UNHCR employee said the alleged corruption had
been going on for a long time, but had become significantly worse over the past
four years, with no apparent action being taken to address it.
“If they [staff] talk they will lose
their job. They will be attacked and harassed. I believe lots of people in
UNHCR know about this but no one wants to talk about it. That's a problem,” the
staff member said. “They know talking about it will not do anything… Even IGO.
The IGO takes a long time and nothing happens… Everybody prefers to be quiet.”
For many of the 1.2 million refugees in
Sudan and the 22.5 million worldwide, resettlement – the opportunity to start life anew, typically in a Western country – is
coveted. But with fewer than one percent of registered refugees resettled each
year, the process has been susceptible to abuse and exploitation.
Baloch said that globally, since 2015,
the IGO’s Investigation Service has carried out 59 probes related to fraud in
resettlement and refugee status determination, and that the allegations were
proven in 25 of these investigations.
In 2017, the service received almost 400
complaints about misconduct by UNHCR staff around the world, most of which
related to fraud, as well as to sexual exploitation and abuse, according to a
recent overview of the IGO’s work. Allegations in half of the cases
concluded last year were substantiated, it said.
“Fraud and corruption are not tolerated
at UNHCR and would constitute a serious breach of the trust placed in us by the
vulnerable people we serve and those who support us,” Melissa Fleming, UNHCR’s
head of communications and public information, told IRIN when asked for comment
about the Khartoum allegations.
“If it exists, it must be rooted out.
UNHCR policy strongly encourages staff, partners and refugees to report any
exploitation or abuse that comes to their attention. We are committed to do our
utmost to support and protect victims and witnesses of misconduct and to foster
an environment in which every person feels safe and free to come forward and
speak up.”
In a statement issued last year in relation to allegations of
corruption by government officials responsible for refugees in Uganda, UNHCR
said: “Every allegation is thoroughly assessed and, if substantiated, leads to
sanctions against the concerned staff member, including summary dismissal.”
Resettlement is a complicated process taking
anywhere from several days (in emergency cases) to several years. More than
2,000 people were resettled from Sudan in the year ending September 2017,
according to UNHCR.
People arriving in Sudan seeking asylum
are supposed to head first to Shagarab camp in the east of the country to be
registered as refugees. But many skip this step and head straight to the
capital because the area around the camp is a notorious haunt of kidnappers-for-ransom.
Refugees in Khartoum said the going rate
to speed up the refugee registration and resettlement process for unregistered
asylum seekers in Khartoum is about $15,000. Resettling a whole family boosts
the price to $35,000-$40,000 – money usually raised by relatives in Europe or
elsewhere. The refugees said bribes were being paid to a network that includes
middlemen and UNHCR protection staff.
Similar allegations of corrupt practices
have been made elsewhere and in some cases confirmed. In 2001 Frank Montil, a
former narcotics detective and senior UNHCR investigator, uncovered a refugee
extortion racket in Kenya. At the time, he said, profits from exploiting
refugees amounted to millions of dollars, with unofficial fees on migrants
starting at $25 to enter a local UNHCR compound and escalating to between
$1,000 and $4,000 for resettlement.
When told last autumn about allegations
by refugees in Sudan – months before IGO got involved – Montil said he was
astounded at the similarities with the schemes he had revealed in Kenya. It was
as if someone had read his 2002 report and decided to replicate it, he said.
“It needs to be investigated,” he
continued. “If I heard [as a responsible official] what you said now, I would
already be in Sudan and looking at it… I would have already sent a team on the
ground.”
These middlemen seemed to have a good
sense of their market. “They know which ones are the houses they should go to,”
said one man who fled to Sudan in the 1990s from Ethiopia and now lives with
his family in a small stone room in a run-down area of Khartoum, having given
up on resettlement.
"I believe lots of people in UNHCR
know about this but no one wants to talk about it."
Refugees who raised the requested cash
were handed a paper confirming an appointment at the UNHCR offices, where the
resettlement process begins with a series of interviews and background checks.
Refugees and the former UNHCR Khartoum staff member said a lot of power rests
with a small group of UNHCR protection staff, who decide which cases should be
promoted for resettlement.
But such payment did not guarantee
resettlement. Refugees put forward for resettlement often go through extensive
security screenings before they are accepted by a host country.
A number of the interviewed refugees
said they believe some UNHCR staff work with outside individuals to obtain
money without the knowledge of their colleagues.
Some refugees in Sudan who had applied
for resettlement told IRIN their documents had mysteriously disappeared, their
case numbers had changed without explanation, or people they knew who lacked
refugee status were nonetheless allowed to leave the country after paying money
to UNHCR staff.
Many refugees said they and others now
avoid the UNHCR in Sudan altogether because of perceived corruption and
unfairness in the system. Instead, they turn to smugglers to make the hazardous
journey to Libya, the Mediterranean and, eventually, Europe. It’s common for
asylum seekers in similar situations to avoid official channels, as they
attempt to find the fastest way to a country they consider safe.
The close relationship between UNHCR and
Sudanese government officials, and the systemic abuse and discrimination
refugees face as "second-class citizens" inside Sudan, were additional
reasons refugees cited for avoiding formal channels.
One refugee in Khartoum, a construction
worker who did not want his name used because of fears of retribution, told
IRIN he had been asked by a Sudanese man of Eritrean origin, who identified
himself as ‘Saleh’, to pay about $4,500 for resettlement. The man had
approached him after the Sudanese government’s Commission for Refugees denied
his request for an identity card without explanation. All refugees in Khartoum
are supposed to have such cards.
The construction worker, who earns just
$50 a month, said Saleh had told him a UNHCR official was willing to help him
in return for payment.
The refugee said he paid a portion of
the money in 2011, and that Saleh gave him a UNHCR appointment form to meet the
official and start the resettlement process.
Saleh also set him up with a “fake wife”
to increase his chances of success. The woman in question was another refugee
desperate to leave Sudan and had to pay $12,000 for the opportunity. The larger
sum is consistent with gender-discrepant smuggling fees throughout Sudan, where
Eritrean families are typically charged three times more to keep women safe.
The process went on for three years and
included meetings in the UNHCR compound, the refugee said. Then Saleh
disappeared, followed by the supposed UNHCR official.
The pair had collected money from many
others, the refugee said. The fake wife eventually left, he said, hiring a
smuggler to help her travel to Libya and later Germany.
Less well-off refugees, meanwhile,
alleged the corruption involved theft of their identities.
Bisirat Tesfamariam, a 53-year-old
Eritrean widower who arrived in Sudan in 1981 and now has three children – one
a teenager, the other two in their twenties – said UNHCR had twice told him he
would be resettled, most recently in 2014, to Canada. But his case was
eventually rejected, he said.
He told IRIN that one former UNHCR staff
member in Sudan later told him one of his daughters – who was still living with
him in Khartoum at the time – had already been resettled abroad. Bisirat
concluded that his family’s files must have been given to other refugees in a
case of identity theft.
When contacted by IRIN, this person said
that they had no immediate memory of the man or his case and declined to
comment further.
In April 2017, Bisirat, together with 38
other Eritreans and Ethiopians – all with official refugee status – signed
a letter complaining of rampant corruption in UNHCR’s Khartoum
office.
The refugees say they gave physical or
digital copies to UNHCR’s Geneva and Kenyan headquarters. In September, UNHCR
said it had no knowledge of the letter, which named four people the refugees
accused of being involved in exploitation. The letter ended by stating: “Please
bear with us because we have no alternative possibility but you.”
Bisirat is one of the refugees whose
case is now being reassessed.
In a phone call with IRIN in March,
hours after he was unexpectedly called and asked to bring his family in for an
interview with UNHCR, Bisirat said he felt hopeful for the first time in years.
But two months later, after seeing little evidence of any further progression,
he sounded despondent again. “Sudan now is very hard,” he said. “Sudan is not
changing.”
Sally Hayden is an Irish freelance
journalist currently focused on migration, conflict and humanitarian crises
(Additional reporting by Temesghen Debesai in
London)
This story was produced with support from the
non-profit 100Reporters, a Washington, DC-based investigative reporting organization;
and Journalists for Transparency, a project of Transparency International.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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