Political refugees thankful for freedom
Jean-Claude Kalombo, Jariatu Sankoh Yillah and Lal Regmi came to give thanks Thursday for a community of support and a future free of persecution and torture.
They were among the guests at the first Thanksgiving dinner sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Survivors Center, which helps victims of religious, racial and political persecution win asylum and possible permanent residency in the United States.
"We are part of an international effort to rehabilitate torture survivors," said Ernest Duff, executive director of the Denver- based center, which has offered legal, medical, mental health, translation and other services to at least 1,000 refugees from 53 countries over the past 11 years. The center is part of a national consortium of torture treatment programs across the United States, Duff said.
Regmi, 53, a former political leader in Nepal, said he came to the United States about a year ago after being detained and beaten by Maoist rebels in his country.
| | JEAN-CLAUDE KALOMBO: A refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, he has brought to the U.S. his wife, Fatuma, and their youngest child, 4-year-old William, above. (the Post / Helen H. Richardson) |
He soon will have a first hearing on his claim for asylum.
Kalombo left the Democratic Republic of Congo, his home country, about four years ago with the story and scars that enabled him to win political asylum.
Kalombo, 42, said that as a member of his country's military, he was arrested when colleagues defected to a rebel group. He was accused of being a traitor with knowledge of the defection, and while detained, he was kicked and whipped, Kalombo said.
When a high military official offered him the chance to buy his way out of the country, Kalombo, facing possible death in detention, seized the opportunity. His family paid the bribe, and he traveled first to a neighboring country and then later to Belgium and the United States, using a borrowed passport.
With the assistance of the survivors center, Kalombo set out to convince U.S. immigration officials that he suffered persecution and torture and that his experience met the asylum standard. The scars on his body helped convince a judge, and Kalombo won political asylum.
The survivors center helps prepare the forensic evidence — such as showing that scars were the result of cigarette burns or other torture techniques — that aids asylum claims, said Regina Germain, the group's legal director.
With asylum status, refugees can work. Kalombo got a job at a Safeway warehouse. Asylum also enabled him to bring his wife, Fatuma, and their youngest child, William, 4, from his homeland to live with him.
As he sampled a plate of turkey and mashed potatoes, Kalombo said he must save enough to pay for DNA tests that will enable his five other children to join the family in the United States.
At the holiday dinner, Yillah was dressed in a bright green dress from her homeland, Sierra Leone, on Africa's west coast. She said she escaped from the civil-war-torn country about four years ago after being gang-raped by rebels because she was a member of a different ethnic group.
An immigration judge granted Yillah, 37, asylum, and she now works as a dishwasher, hoping her new status will allow her two children still in Sierra Leone to join her in Colorado. The government appealed the granting of asylum, seeking "additional analysis," Germain said. The case is now back with the initial judge.
At Thursday's dinner, Yillah thanked the center, its staff and volunteers.
"It changed my life, made me feel happy," she said. "I did not know how to write my name or speak English. It got me a lawyer, let me talk to my kids. I pray for them.
"I always felt Thanksgiving was a refugees' holiday," Germain said, adding that the Pilgrims were "the first boat people."
"We're remembering our roots," she said. "Thanksgiving is about making room for newcomers."
