Refugee group joins family members in the US

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) on Tuesday night sent 355 refugees, including 53 children and three infants, from Kenya to the US to resettle with family members under the country’s family reunification scheme. The group of Somalis, Ethiopians and one Sudanese all have family members living in different locations throughout the US, according to an IOM press release. Medical checks were done on the refugees in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, to ensure that they were fit to travel, and four IOM escorts, including a doctor, flew with them to New York. The refugees were given orientation classes covering education, health services, job training and employment opportunities to prepare them for everyday life in the US.

The refugees, who were all living in the Nairobi area, assembled on Tuesday to receive their final papers, and travelled to the airport on IOM buses. In the first half of this year, IOM helped 9,018 refugees from Africa to resettle in the US. Over the past 25 years, it has helped over 2.3 million people to start new lives there.