Somalis living in the U.S. send more than $200 million to Somalia each year. Sixty percent of that country’s population gets money from outside the country to help pay for expenses like food and housing. But as of Friday, money transfers from Washington state to Somalia are shutting down.
The heart of Seattle’s Somali community is a place called Marwa, across from the Tukwila Light Rail station. There are tea shops, restaurants and a community center here, all serving the Somali community. Tucked into many of these businesses are windows known as hawalas – Arabic for “transfer.” This is the only way one can send money from Seattle to friends or relatives in Somalia.
Ayan Mohmed sends money to her husband in Mogadishu every month from the hawala at the Fresh & Green Produce Market. She was shocked to learn that Seattle’s hawalas are shutting down.
“I’m still shaking. I feel a butterfly in my stomach right now,” she said, adding that she’s worried about the impact this will have on Somalia’s fragile economy. “The country is still in crisis. You know, we have a lot of problems.”
Informal wire transfer services take the place of a formal banking system in Somalia. Transfers are an important source of income for many people there. Mostly the money goes to cover basic needs like food and shelter. But the transfers have sometimes been linked to terrorism.
“We cannot hide from the fact that there have been some Somalis, unfortunately, who have being involved in this crazy idea of terrorism,” said Aynab Abdirahman, chair of the Refugee Advisory Council of Washington state and a Somali American. “But then there's thousands of thousand Somalis living in the United States who love this country, who are citizens, who are peaceful, who reject terrorism.”
Abdirahman doesn’t believe those peaceful citizens should be penalized because of “a few bad apples.”
Merchants Bank of California had been the last bank providing accounts that allow transfers from Washington state to Somalia. But, faced with tightening federal regulations, the bank announced that it is closing these accounts as of today. Merchants Bank did not respond to requests for an interview.
Many, including Abdirahman, worry that cutting off these transfers will leave an impoverished population in a desperate situation, driving people into the arms of terrorist groups like Al-Shabaab.
Jessica Partnow is a cofounder of The Seattle Globalist.