Refugee: Screening took 14 months

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The Register-Guard • Sunday, November 29, 2015

EUGENE: A SYRIAN’S SAFE HAVEN

Refugee: Screening took 14 months and he wasn’t comfortable in Turkey,” says Mark Ward, who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and married his late wife, Maryruth “Mimi” Vollstedt, a 1972 graduate of Coos Bay’s Marshfield High School, in Eugene in 1987. The convoluted process to gain refugee status in the United States is convoluted can take two or more years. Ali’s connection with Mark Ward got him to this country in about 14 months. His first interview with U.N. officials in Ankara took place in July 2014. Ankara is a 12-hour bus ride from Gaziantep. He had two three-hour interviews, with two different officials, asking why he left Syria and why he couldn’t go back. To be accepted into the United States, a refugee’s name is run through law enforcement and intelligence databases for terrorist or criminal history; they go through three separate fingerprint screenings; they are screened against FBI and Homeland Security databases, and checked against data collected by the Defense Department during operations in Iraq, according to news reports. After his U.N. interviews, Ali was matched with an American resettlement agency, the International Catholic Migration Commission, or ICMC. He traveled twice to Istanbul, a 16hour bus ride each way, for more interviews. In February, he went to Istanbul again, by plane this time, for a day of medical tests and three days of more questioning and preparation. Then, he waited. In March, he first met Peter Ward — who grew up around the world because of his father’s State Department work — via the videochat application Skype. Ward was in Moscow, where he had lived, worked and studied Russian, which he now studies and teaches at the UO as a graduate teaching fellow. In May, an ICMC official called Ali in Gaziantep with the news. “They told me I would go to U.S. on June 24,” he says. His reaction? “I don’t know,” he says. “I was happy to go to U.S. But, also, I was sad I would leave my family. Maybe I could start a new life? Maybe I could begin again?”

REFUGEE RALLY What: Rally in Support of Syrian Refugees When: 2 p.m. Monday Where: Lillis Business Complex, University of Oregon, 955 E. 13th Ave. Host: Global Zero University of Oregon and UO Beyond War More information: Facebook

SYRIAN REFUGEES IN THE U.S.

Of the 78,789 refugees from around the globe admitted to the United States since Oct. 1, 2014, only 2,089 are from Syria. A total of 2,280 Syrian refugees have been admitted since the Syrian civil war began in March 2011. Here are some numbers by state: Oregon, 6; Washington, 38; Idaho, 37; California, 252; Texas, 242; Michigan, 217; Arizona, 174; Illinois, 169; Pennsylvania, 161; Florida, 142; Kentucky, 101; Ohio, 89; Massachusetts, 72; Georgia, 66; North Carolina, 56; New York, 55. Source: U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration

They ask about his plans. “I want to get a job, so I can get some money to pay for my classes,” Ali says. “Then I want to

A new family

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Last Sunday, Ali cooked braised lamb in a yogurt gravy for Peter Ward and members of his mother’s extended family at the Jefferson Westside neighborhood home of Vicky Curry, first cousin of Peter’s late mother, Mimi. They asked him about his family’s religion (Sunni Islam), whether the school he taught at is still there (he’s not sure) and other questions. “Have you experienced problems in Eugene?” asks Curry, a Eugene psychologist. “Prejudice?” “I don’t understand,” Ali says. “Has anybody not been nice to you?” Ward says. “I think they are very friendly,” he says of people he’s encountered in Eugene thus far.

transfer my degree (to the UO), so I can (teach).” As the conversation continues, the family’s love for Ali is obvious. “I think it’s a gift, to

me, to have Ali here,” Curry says. Ward and Ali have surfed at the Oregon Coast, hiked in the Three Sisters Wilderness Area and danced at downtown Eugene venues. “I can honestly say, and this is no knock to my brother, Matthew, but I think I’m going to have a brother for life,” Ward says. Toward the end of the evening, Ali has tears in his eyes. He wipes them away. “Peter and his family have helped me a lot,” he says the next day. “When you go to a new place, a new culture, it’s very hard. I now feel that I have family here. They are really good people.” Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkBakerRG. Email mark.baker@registerguard. com.

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