Thursday, May 13, 1999
Tristate ready for Kosovars
Perhaps 15 to be sent here
BY PHILLIP PINA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
As soon as next week, the Cincinnati area is expected to begin receiving refugees who fled the fighting in Kosovo.
Since NATO began its air assault March 24 on Yugoslavia, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimates about 780,000 people, most of them ethnic Albanians, have fled the Serbian province of Kosovo.
The United States has committed to accepting 20,000 of the refugees and already has taken in about 1,379. Social workers estimate a minimum of 15 of those refugees could be heading to the Cincinnati area, but that number could increase or decline, said Rod Huber, director of family services for Catholic Social Services of Southwest Ohio. The agency runs a refugee and immigration program.
“We have a very fluid situation here,” said Ernest Barbeau, executive director of the International Family Resource Center, a division of Family Services of the Cincinnati Area, which assists refugees.
TO VOLUNTEER
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Cincinnati social agencies are looking for volunteers to help resettle Kosovar refugees. Especially needed are those who speak and can translate the Albanian language. Call 241-7745 or 721-7660. |
Immigration officials first must deal with the lack of documentation for many of the refugees. They will also make attempts to link them with family in the United States. The fighting could soon end, or continue for months.
Cincinnati has a small population of people of Albanian descent and will likely not get a large number of refugees, Mr. Huber said. Yet, both refugee assistance agencies are making preparations. They have found several translators and are seeking more. And a number of sponsor groups — many of them churches — have offered food, clothing and even shelter, Mr. Barbeau said.
“Many of these people will be coming with nothing more than the shirt on their back,” Mr. Barbeau said.
While volunteers have already come forward, there is a need for more, Mr. Huber said. The most dramatic need is for interpreters who can communicate with the refugees to ease their resettlement in the Tristate.
The efforts make it possible for Cincinnati residents to play a role in providing for victims of the international crisis in the Balkans, Mr. Huber added.
Family Services and Catholic Social Services have helped hundreds of refugees over the past few years settle in the Cincinnati area. Many of them came from the former Soviet Union and from Bosnia, Mr. Barbeau said.
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