MANCHESTER — World Refugee Day was this past Tuesday. The nonprofit Grace Initiative Global hosted a few dozen people at Manchester Community Library Saturday afternoon to acknowledge the day with a program outlining the plight of those displaced from their homes by dire and dangerous situations.
Grace Initiative Global, based out of Manchester, is currently assisting with the resettling of refugees from all over the world in Bennington, Manchester, Woodstock and White River Junction with the help of U.S. State Department grants. Saturday’s presentation focused primarily on two generally lesser-known refugee crises in the world today — those of Yemen and Haiti.
Yvonne C. Lodico, founder and executive director of Grace Initiative Global, moderated the event and started things off by explaining the higher degree of urgency for those that meet the threshold for “refugee” status — fleeing the violence of war or persecution, as well as untenable living conditions caused by natural disasters — as opposed to “migrants” who are generally seeking better economic opportunities.
Lodico introduced two experts to speak to the crisis in Yemen. Ali Mabkhot Balobaid, first secretary and humanitarian expert for the Permanent Mission of Yemen to the UN, and Fayed Saleh, chairman of Engineers without Borders: Yemen, both joined the program via Zoom. Some technical difficulties made it difficult to hear the bulk of what Balobaid and Saleh said, but Lodico did her best to fill in the blanks.
Balobaid outlined the civil war in Yemen that began almost eight years ago and has been further fueled by becoming what is a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Saleh highlighted the dangers on the ground for internally displaced persons (IDPs), as well as the exacerbation caused by even more refugees of other conflicts flooding to the embattled country in hopes of making their way to safer surroundings. Part of Saleh’s mission is to improve security along the Gulf of Aden at Yemen’s southern border.
“Even though there has been a civil war in Yemen, and over four million internally displaced people, refugees are coming from other conflicts in Sudan, and other conflicts in Northern Africa, even Libya and trying to get to Yemen for safety,” Lodico relayed. “And this is on top of a nation that has a civil war. So that’s why the Gulf of Aden security is interesting.”
Saleh said the complications of the war and refugee influx have caused a humanitarian crisis in Yemen, with millions not receiving proper medical care, and the strained resources of the already economically limited country leaving most unprotected from violence and human trafficking. Lodico added that 94.8 percent of human trafficking victims worldwide are women or girls, and drew parallels from Yemen’s refugee crisis to the more widely known one in Afghanistan.
“I recall learning from our Afghan refugees when they were being relocated here, it is refugees that are often recruited to go fight in another war, or join criminal gangs,” she explained. “So that is another peril. What is happening in Yemen happens in just about every refugee scenario.”
Lodico then introduced Dr. Abraham Joseph, a former senior adviser to the United Nations who was a key contributor to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals set for 2000-2015, and who also helped develop the UN’s 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that have been adopted by 193 nations.
Abraham opened by saying how happy he was to be in Vermont, surrounded by the “peace, serenity and tranquility” of the state, before delving into a worldwide picture that, in contrast, is far less favorable. He quoted a Norwegian Refugee Council report that stated the amount of refugees across the globe had risen sharply from 59.1 million in 2021, to 71 million in 2022, citing the wars in Ukraine, Afghanistan and Sudan as key factors for the increase.
Abraham gave a brief history lesson on the beginnings of the United Nations up until his time helping steer the direction of the organization at the turn of the millennium, which helped bring together many humanitarian organizations like the World Health Organization and UNICEF to work more collaboratively on solving refugee issues.
Abraham outlined some of the 17 SDGs established by the United Nations that 193 nations of the world have signed on to work toward by 2030, such as quality education, gender equality, and clean water and sanitation.
“The motto of these SDGs is ‘no one left behind,’” Abraham said.
Following Abraham were Rose Taïna Extant and Maxime Valbrune, who made the trip from New York City to represent their nonprofit, Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees. Valbrune and Extant didn’t want to spend too much time on the cause of the refugee crisis in Haiti that dates back decades to the brutal dictatorships of the Duvalier family, rampant gang violence, and further displacement by several earthquakes.
Instead, they used their time to describe the struggles of Haitian refugees once they reach the United States, and the network their organization has established to assist Haitian refugees who have little means of finding reasonable lodgings and work. Many immigrants are exploited by employers who will take on undocumented workers trying to avoid providing benefits and minimum wage.
Valbrune and Extant both railed against the immigration system that they say has glaring inequalities depending on where those applying for employment documentation are from.
“People ignore when people apply for a work permit,” Extant explained. “It takes about 10 to 11 months to get a work permit … but that is different for different people.”
Valbrune explained that a great deal of Haitians immigrating to the U.S. are coming with either no network or support system at all, or moving in with families or friends in living conditions that can’t support them. Extant and Valbrune argued that there is a need for change in immigration policy in the U.S. so these immigrants can go to work in a timely manner.
“I think there have to be more voices speaking out about what’s happening to the powers that be, that it has to change,” Valbrune said.
“They just want to work. That’s it,” he later added of the people his organization provides aid for. “And they have to work, whether they have working papers or not, to survive and to support their families back home.”
The program moved on to a question and answers session, during which audience member Sadik Kaid, the CEO of yemenicornerstore.com and an avid volunteer on behalf of Yemeni Americans, spoke to the worker documentation issue, and echoed the sentiment that the vetting process needs to be streamlined.
“I think it is mismanagement of immigration that has caused all of this,” Kaid said. “I think immigration should have priorities. Not treat Haiti like any other country where people can just come from anywhere and flood the border and also claim refugee or asylum.
“There are countries that are critical. Haiti is critical, Ukraine is critical, Yemen is critical. They are going to have to create a system where they can work with people who are most vulnerable.”
At the conclusion of the open forum, State Rep. Kathleen James (D, Bennington-4) offered brief closing remarks. James said she felt hopeless and disempowered during President Donald Trump’s administration, but that she realized she could make a difference at the state level.
James recounted some of the legislation that Vermont has passed in support of immigrants, including allowing non-U.S. citizens who are residents of Burlington to vote in elections, and tax credits for all income-eligible residents even if they don’t have a social security number.
“For all of you who are here today, esteemed, distinguished world leaders who are working on a level far above me,” she said in closing, becoming temporarily overcome with emotion. “I just want to thank you for the contributions that you are making every day, building a better, safer, more tolerant, and inclusive world for everyone. And I just want you to know that here in Vermont, we’re doing our best, and that people are welcome here.”
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