Relief agencies billing refugee Albanians
Copyright © 1999 Nando Media
Copyright © 1999Associated Press
By AMY WESTFELDT
NEWARK, N.J. (October 22, 1999 9:31 p.m. EDT
http://www.nandotimes.com) - Arijeta Blakaj didn't hesitate when a
refugee agency offered to fly her from war-torn Kosovo to America. She
had seen her neighbors kidnapped and their homes burned, and she saw a
chance for escape. But once she arrived in America, she got the bill.
The agency told her she would have to pay the U.S. government $760 for
the flight or return to Kosovo, she said.
"It's not good. It's not fair," the 21-year-old said from the church
rectory in Elizabeth, N.J., where she has been staying and trying to
start a new life in America. "I need money for everything."
Refugees flown to the United States have been asked to reimburse the
government for their airfare and domestic travel costs since the
1950s, said Norman Runkles, comptroller of the State Department's
Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. Congress made it
official policy in the mid-1980s.
According to the policy, the refugees have to sign contracts in their
own languages agreeing to pay back the loan before boarding planes to
America, he said.
But relief agencies acknowledge that, due to the speed of the Kosovo
effort, many ethnic Albanians may not have been told about the policy
until they arrived at the refugee center at Fort Dix, N.J.
They still will be billed for airfare to the United States and for any
flights they were put on to other parts of the country, Runkles said
Friday. The $740 budgeted per refugee for housing and food each month
is not considered part of the "travel loan" and doesn't have to be
paid back, he said.
"What they pay back goes towards the next crisis," said Lauren Engle,
spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration, which
leads much of the country's refugee resettlement efforts.
Refugees have paid well over $400 million in travel loans since the
process began - about half of the money the government has loaned out,
Runkles said.
Those who return to their homeland after the danger passes do not have
to pay the plane fare, he said. The primary reason, he said, is that
the country has no practical way of collecting back loans once the
refugees leave.
Of the 14,129 Kosovar refugees airlifted to the United States since
the Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, 2,462 had returned
as of Thursday.
The rest, like Blakaj, will have 46 months to pay the airfare back,
Runkles said. Most won't be billed until next summer. Those who refuse
to pay and stay in the country eventually will be reported to credit
bureaus, he said.
Copyright © 1999 Nando Media
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