MATTERS OF THE HEART  Thursday, September 18, 2008

Humanitarian efforts are delicate issues, and the U.S. State Department's suspended East African family-reunification is a prime example. The program, known as Priority Three (P3), was instituted to reunify families from civil war-torn areas with relatives living in the U.S. Complaints of fraud led officials to conduct DNA testing earlier this year in an effort to establish legitimate family ties before allowing refugees entry into the U.S. The results showed only a small fraction, about 20 percent, of individuals were actually blood relations. Critics of the testing, and subsequent suspension of the program, claim family ties are a grey area in the affected countries, including Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, since men and women often raise and take responsibility for orphaned and abandoned children. State Department officials understand critics' concerns but insist they have to set a standard to balance the need of all refugees seeking entry, which totaled more than 45,000 in the last year. Officials hope to resume the program once they reconcile the fraud issues, though there is no set date.

[Wall Street Journal]

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