Homeless Away From Home

Trump’s executive order has left thousands of Somali refugees stranded in camps that are about to close.

- Krista Mahr

AFTER DECADES of scraping by in dusty refugee camps in Kenya, Muhumed Mohamed Abdi was finally on his way out. He had fled the fighting that erupted in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, after rival militias overthrew the government in 1991. After more than two decades of waiting in refugee camps, he and his family of four had secured seats on a flight to Missouri on January 30; the U.S. had accepted them under its refugee resettlement program. The 38-year-old had sold everything he owned in Dadaab, the sprawling camp complex where hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees have lived since the early 1990s, and arrived in Nairobi, ready to hop on a plane and start a new life. But on January 29, the day before his flight, Abdi learned that he and his family could no longer come to America; they were told to head back to Dadaab.

Abdi and his family are among the tens of thousands of people whose futures have been thrown into disarray by President Donald Trump’s recent executive order, which was purportedly intended to keep out “radical Islamic terrorists.” Among other things, the plan put the U.S. refugee program on hold, indefinitely barred Syrian refugees and at least temporarily blocked refugees from six Muslim-majority nations, including Somalia, from entering the country. The policy, which is short on details on how to implement such sweeping changes, caused widespread confusion and ignited protests at airports around the world.As of press time, the fate of Trump’s policy was unknown and refugees were awaiting a decision from the U.S. courts.