Catholic Community Services gives refugees a future

Friday, Jun. 24, 2016

SALT LAKE CITY — Displaced refugees from wars and internal conflicts often flee their homes with only the clothes on their backs to seek a safe and peaceful place to raise their families. They travel by any means, usually walking for miles across borders into neighboring countries. 

When they arrive, they register with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCR) and usually are provided with a place to stay, food, medicine and health care; unfortunately, only a few of the camps have schools, said Aden Batar, Catholic Community Services of Utah Immigration and Refugee Resettlement director. The refugees then wait while the UNCR investigates whether they can be integrated into the host country.

More than 80 percent of the world-wide refugee camps are in Third World countries that do not integrate refugees who can return to their home countries, but most of the time the conditions remain the same, so the refugees hope to resettle in another country. 

The UNCR refers the refugee cases to the countries that are willing to resettle them. 

“Those who are accepted into the Refugee Resettlement Program are screened and interviewed before they are accepted; less than 1 percent of the 20 million in the refugee camps come to the U.S., the rest are referred to Europe, Canada and Australia,” Batar said. “The total number that resettle each year is about 125,000 worldwide; of those 75,000 are accepted into the U.S. This year the U.S. accepted 85,000. Before they can come to the U.S., they must have a background check, be fingerprinted, and have a security and medical screening.” 

The rigorous security screening process can take up to two years.

The refugees are then matched with organizations like Catholic Community Services of Utah, which resettles 600 refugees in Salt Lake City each year.

CCS provides refugees with a furnished apartment, a case manager for two years and volunteers who assist them with homework and life skills and a physical check-up to address their medical needs.

They also are eligible for food stamps and Medicaid. The children are enrolled in public schools and the adults are enrolled in English as a Second Language program.

CCS also helps the refugees find a job so they can provide for their families, and follows up to make sure they keep their job, file their taxes, the kids are succeeding in school and they apply for permanent residency status in the United States, Batar said. 

“When the kids graduate from high school, we connect them with colleges so they can continue their education,” he said.