Rampant fraud puts stop to U.S. refugee program

[Danno 1,228]

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=...mp;pageId=83580

Rampant fraud puts stop to U.S. refugee program

State Department officials have suspended a program that allows refugees in the U.S. to bring family members into the country after an investigation revealed widespread fraud in the system.

Since the 1980's, the State Department has granted refugee family members who are left behind in war-torn countries priority-3 access to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program on a case-by-case basis.

After suspicions of fraud were raised last year – often involving unrelated children being claimed as family – the State Department conducted DNA testing of 3,000 applicants to the program, to see if they were actually related to the family members they claimed.

In more than 80 percent of the cases, the applicants either refused to take the tests or were discovered to have DNA that didn't match their reported family members.

"We were alarmed that the rate was so high," a State Department official – who spoke on condition of anonymity as a matter of departmental policy – told the Washington Post. "In fewer than 20 percent of cases did the applicant take the test and it checked out."

Seyoum Berhe, an official of refugee services for the Catholic Archdiocese of Arlington, told the Post there are legitimate humanitarian reasons the DNA doesn't always match.

"A village is burning. People are running. Someone grabs a child and ends up raising him. The DNA may not be the same, but in every other way, he is the parent," said Berhe. "We certainly do not support fraud, but there is a human aspect, too. If my brother were killed in Somalia and I saved his child, according to our culture, that child is mine."

State Department officials confirmed that while many informal or wartime adoptions are impossible to document, such a high rate of unmatched DNA leads to other, very real concerns.

"We are sympathetic," a State Department official told the Post, "but when people lie about blood relationships, it raises fears that we may be facilitating child trafficking or that people are trying to bring in their servants."

The State Department began DNA testing in Africa, where, in recent years, over 95 percent of the refugee family applications originated. After a sample testing in Kenya revealed a high rate of fraud, tests were extended throughout the continent.

Most of the applications for access to the priority-3 Refugee Family Reunification Program, or P-3, have come for family members from Somalia, Ethiopia, and Liberia. Since Oct. 1, 2003, the State Department reports, 36,000 refugees have come to America from Africa through the P-3 program, while only 400 have come from other areas of the world in the same time span.

The State Department's website on the issue reports that while some applications are still being processed, no new applications are being accepted from any nationality until measures can be put in place to cut down on the fraud.

"The Department is working closely with the Department of Homeland Security to develop and implement new procedures for verifying family relationship claims," reports the State Department. "These new procedures will likely include DNA testing. The P-3 program in Africa remains suspended as noted above until we have finalized and implemented these new measures."

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I'm not surprised. The "refugees" themselves are quite often anything but.

[Danno 1,228]

I'm a little stunned that since 2003 we have taken 36,000 of these people into our country.

Now we find out around 80% are bogus.

American, the land of the suckers.

[peejay 327]

I'm a little stunned that since 2003 we have taken 36,000 of these people into our country.

Now we find out around 80% are bogus.

American, the land of the suckers.

What do you expect of a country run by lame azzed politicians that refuse to secure our borders and repeatedly excuse scofflaws that blatantly break our immigration and work aurthorization laws by giving repeated amnesties (7 already since 1986). No wonder the world doesn't take us seriously in this regard.

[Danno 1,228]

I'm a little stunned that since 2003 we have taken 36,000 of these people into our country.

Now we find out around 80% are bogus.

American, the land of the suckers.

What do you expect of a country run by lame azzed politicians that refuse to secure our borders and repeatedly excuse scofflaws that blatantly break our immigration and work aurthorization laws by giving repeated amnesties (7 already since 1986). No wonder the world doesn't take us seriously in this regard.

And to prove what suckers we are.... we now have a sh_t load of people believing... "we are stronger because of it".

Edited December 15, 2008 by Danno

[britty 1]

send 'em back.

[HAL 9000 96]

Shoot 'em all.

Seyoum Berhe, an official of refugee services for the Catholic Archdiocese of Arlington, told the Post there are legitimate humanitarian reasons the DNA doesn't always match.

"A village is burning. People are running. Someone grabs a child and ends up raising him. The DNA may not be the same, but in every other way, he is the parent," said Berhe. "We certainly do not support fraud, but there is a human aspect, too. If my brother were killed in Somalia and I saved his child, according to our culture, that child is mine."

Way to show one's true colors.

One thing is to have a bogus baby being raised as one's own. Another is to have a bogus sense of human decency.

[peejay 327]

Shoot 'em all.

Seyoum Berhe, an official of refugee services for the Catholic Archdiocese of Arlington, told the Post there are legitimate humanitarian reasons the DNA doesn't always match.

"A village is burning. People are running. Someone grabs a child and ends up raising him. The DNA may not be the same, but in every other way, he is the parent," said Berhe. "We certainly do not support fraud, but there is a human aspect, too. If my brother were killed in Somalia and I saved his child, according to our culture, that child is mine."

Way to show one's true colors.

One thing is to have a bogus baby being raised as one's own. Another is to have a bogus sense of human decency.

And talk is cheap...unless you're Mother Theresa.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Shoot 'em all.

Seyoum Berhe, an official of refugee services for the Catholic Archdiocese of Arlington, told the Post there are legitimate humanitarian reasons the DNA doesn't always match.

"A village is burning. People are running. Someone grabs a child and ends up raising him. The DNA may not be the same, but in every other way, he is the parent," said Berhe. "We certainly do not support fraud, but there is a human aspect, too. If my brother were killed in Somalia and I saved his child, according to our culture, that child is mine."

Way to show one's true colors.

One thing is to have a bogus baby being raised as one's own. Another is to have a bogus sense of human decency.

It's not about shooting them all. It's about recognizing the fact that many "refugees" are not exactly coming from war torn regions of the world. There's a lot of fraud going on and that does, of course, hurt those that are legitimate refugees.

[HAL 9000 96]

Shoot 'em all.

Seyoum Berhe, an official of refugee services for the Catholic Archdiocese of Arlington, told the Post there are legitimate humanitarian reasons the DNA doesn't always match.

"A village is burning. People are running. Someone grabs a child and ends up raising him. The DNA may not be the same, but in every other way, he is the parent," said Berhe. "We certainly do not support fraud, but there is a human aspect, too. If my brother were killed in Somalia and I saved his child, according to our culture, that child is mine."

Way to show one's true colors.

One thing is to have a bogus baby being raised as one's own. Another is to have a bogus sense of human decency.

And talk is cheap...unless you're Mother Theresa.

So is b!tching and being miserable.

Don't know about you, but some people try to be decent with other people.

Shoot 'em all.

Seyoum Berhe, an official of refugee services for the Catholic Archdiocese of Arlington, told the Post there are legitimate humanitarian reasons the DNA doesn't always match.

"A village is burning. People are running. Someone grabs a child and ends up raising him. The DNA may not be the same, but in every other way, he is the parent," said Berhe. "We certainly do not support fraud, but there is a human aspect, too. If my brother were killed in Somalia and I saved his child, according to our culture, that child is mine."

Way to show one's true colors.

One thing is to have a bogus baby being raised as one's own. Another is to have a bogus sense of human decency.

It's not about shooting them all. It's about recognizing the fact that many "refugees" are not exactly coming from war torn regions of the world. There's a lot of fraud going on and that does, of course, hurt those that are legitimate refugees.

Totally agree with you R.

Its the difference between doing things correctly, with decency, versus being an all around azzwipe.

[Danno 1,228]

I don't blame these people for trying to get relocated.... or even for trying to make money off of the program by claiming others as family,... I blame the USA for always being such saps..... literally giving away the country.