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索马里移民不满向家乡汇款通道被禁

Once a month for years, Ahmed Ahmed has been going to Dahabshil, a money service agency catering¹ to the Somali community outside Washington. The taxi driver has sent $200 every month to his family of eight left behind at home — until recently.

多年来，艾哈迈德?艾哈迈德每个月都会去一次达哈比什尔(Dahabshil)，这家货币服务机构专门为华盛顿附近的索马里人社区服务。这位出租车司机每个月要向留在老家的八名亲人汇款200美元。可这一回他做不到了。

The service has been stopped, leaving Ahmed very worried.

“Forget the medicine or anything else," he said. "The priority is food. If they don’t get the money, they don’t have food. They don’t have any jobs.”

“别管药啊什么的，吃饭是最重要的。如果他们拿不到钱，就没吃的了。他们没有任何工作。”他说。

After years of civil war and anarchy², there is no formal banking³ system in Somalia, so families overseas rely on informal money transfer networks known as hawalas to deliver cash to their needy⁴ relatives.

经历多年的内战和无政府乱局之后，索马里没有正规的银行系统，所以海外家庭依靠被称为“哈瓦拉”(hawala)的地下钱庄系统为急需帮助的亲属寄钱。

Merchants Bank of California was the last U.S. bank to handle wire transfers to Somalia. In early February, the bank announced that it would shut the service down. The reason most likely pertains⁵ to the U.S. fight to stop the flow of money that helps fund extremist groups in the region, such as al-Shabab.

加利福尼亚招商银行(Merchants Bank of California)曾是最后一家处理索马里电汇业务的美国银行。2月初，他们宣布关闭这项业务，原因可能与美国政府的举措有关。美国正在努力制止资金流向当地的“青年党”(al-Shabab)等极端组织。

Census⁶ data show that 80,000 Somali immigrants live in the U.S. A majority of them send money to their families in their impoverished⁷ homeland.

人口普查数据显示有8万索马里移民生活在美国，多数人都向贫困的老家亲人寄钱。

Osman Yusuf, manager of the Dahabshil money transfer agency, said the customers send about $200 to $300 on average. "We also have a lot of people who send $20, $30, $50," he said.

汇款机构哈达比什尔的经理奥斯曼?优素福说： “大约是两三百美元，这是平均数。还有很多人寄20、30和50美元。”

In all, more than $215 million in U.S. remittances⁹ went to Somalia last year. Now, without cash transfers, Somali community leaders worry about the future for Somalia's chlidren.

去年，从美国汇往索马里的款项总计2亿1千5百多万美元。如今，汇不了现金了，索马里人社区领袖不由为索马里孩子的未来担心。

Farah Mohamed, a Somali community leader, and his group have been building a school with donations from Somali immigrants. "The school will definitely stop," he said. "There is no way we can build a school or we can do anything. There are a huge number of Somali kids that are just growing up. Unless they get the right education, right assistance, we don't know what their life will be."

法拉赫?穆罕默德和他的组织一直在靠索马里移民捐款修建一所学校。他说：“学校肯定会停建。我们建不了学校了，什么也做不了。索马里有很多孩子正在成长，他们如果得不到适当的教育和适当的帮助，我们不知道他们长大以后会变成什么。”

Some lawmakers and aid groups have raised concerns about the humanitarian¹⁰ consequences and have called for an emergency plan.

一些议员和救援组织已经提出了人道后果问题，并呼吁制定紧急方案。

Scott Paul, a senior adviser¹¹ at international aid group Oxfam America, noted¹² that "there are communities of Somali refugees in Ethiopia and Kenya that have no other way of supporting themselves. If these companies [money transfer agencies] close down, those refugee camps and refugee communities are going to be in severely¹³ dire¹⁴ straits, maybe even worse off than people in Somalia.”

斯科特?保罗是国际救援组织乐施会美国分会(Oxfam America)的高级顾问。他说：“也许最重要的是，在埃塞俄比亚和肯尼亚都有索马里难民社区，他们没有别的养活自己的办法。如果这些汇款公司关了，这些难民营和难民社区的局面就会非常严峻，情况也许比索马里境内的那些人还要糟糕。”

Congressman¹⁵ Keith Ellison, a Democrat¹⁶ from Minnesota, also said a disruption in remittances would cause greater security risks.

代表明尼苏达州的国会众议员基斯?艾利森也说，中断汇款可能反带来更大的安全风险。

“When you know that al-Shabab and other recruiters will offer a young man a gun, a wife and a few bucks¹⁷, it becomes clear how critical it is," he said. "We must fix this remittance⁸ problem.”

埃利森议员说：“‘青年党’和其他招兵买马的人会告诉某个年轻人，我给你枪，给你老婆，还能给你点钱。显然问题很严重。我们必须解决汇款问题。”

The U.S. Treasury¹⁸ Department says officials recognize the importance that remittances play in Somalia and are working across the government to consider different options to address the issue.

美国财政部说，他们认识到汇款对索马里的重要性，正在与政府各部门合作，考虑以不同的方案来解决这项问题。

But no solution has yet emerged. Somali immigrants are in fear for their loved ones.

不过，解决方案仍未出笼。索马里移民为他们的亲人而忧心忡忡。

“Really, really, I am worried about I cannot send money back home," Ahmed said. "I don’t know what do.”

艾哈迈德?艾哈迈德说： “真的、真的，我担心不能把钱寄回家。我不知道该怎么办。”