COLUMBUS, Ohio - A Southern California bank is cutting off its service of transferring money wired from Somali immigrants in the United States to aid their families in the war-ravaged nation. Merchants Bank of California stopped wiring funds to Somalia on Friday, following in the footsteps of other banks that cut off the service over the past decade.
Somalis who live in Columbus say this could become a humanitarian crisis. Decades of civil war have been devastating to people who live in Somalia and hard on those who live in central Ohio with family in the African country.
Every month Burhan Ahmed sends money to help his family survive. ”I’m worried about my mom who has diabetes, (and) my sisters who have children who go to school,” he explains. Ahmed, Director of the Center for Somali American Engagement, and others in the Somali community, say they have lost a way to wire money to family members.
Citing concerns over money laundering and funds being funneled to terrorist groups, The US-based Merchants Bank of California has said it will stop its services with banks, and money transfer companies, and no longer transfer money to Somalia.
Ahmed says with no formal banking system in Somalia, money transfer services were the only way to support their loved ones.
He says many are worried about how their families will survive. ”Next month,” said Ahmed, “are they going to survive next month to get the money they need? And that creates a lot of anxiety and we are thinking about what to do now.”