Refugees

History is often written after tragedy has already occurred—but for the Banyamulenge in eastern Congo, it is unfolding in real time and we have the chance to intervene now.

I am a survivor of war and a member of the Banyamulenge community. I know what it means to flee with nothing but fear in your body and hope clinging to memory—to lose neighbors, to bury grief quietly, and to rebuild a life far from home.

The U.S. Congress and international community must act to protect refugees and isolated communities that are at risk of being destroyed. 

I am a Rohingya survivor of genocide.

I was born into a community that the Myanmar military tried to erase through mass killings, sexual violence, village burnings and forced displacement. For decades, Rohingya people have been stripped of citizenship, denied basic rights and targeted simply for who we are. In 2017, that persecution escalated into what the United Nations and human rights experts have rightly called genocide.

Like so many Rohingya, I did not leave my home because I wanted to. I left because survival demanded it.

Starting tomorrow, November 1, more than 40 million Americans may lose food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). At the same time, healthcare costs for millions will skyrocket.

That means that children across the country would go to bed hungry and families will be thrown off their healthcare plans — for no reason at all.

Funding for SNAP is set to expire tomorrow.

The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) is deeply opposed to President Trump’s announced goal for refugee admissions at just 7,500, with most admissions allocated for Afrikaners.

I didn’t choose to flee my country—I was forced to.

Imagine going to bed each night with the fear that your village might be burned before morning. That fear was my reality growing up in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where I was born and raised until I was eighteen. By 2007, violence and persecution had become the norm. Armed groups, political instability, and deep-rooted ethnic tensions fueled widespread atrocities. Torture, displacement, and fear were no longer isolated. They reached every part of society, leaving communities like mine with no safe place to turn. 

FCNL welcomes the reintroduction of the American Dream and Promise Act.

FCNL today called on President Joe Biden to rescind his executive order restricting access of asylum seekers to the country.

Accepting refugees professionally and compassionately is part of America’s history.