Mekelle፡Telaviv, Nairobi, Pretoria, London, (Tigray Herald).
Being a Refugee Doesn’t Make Us Voiceless. The U.S. Must Resume Its Refugee Program.
By Chekole Alemu
I fled genocide. I am now a refugee in Kenya. But I am not voiceless and neither are the thousands of other Tigrayans who survived one of the 21st century’s most brutal wars.
I am writing this from Nairobi, where I, journalist Chekole Alemu, live in exile. During the two-year genocidal war in northern Ethiopia, I reported on atrocities, displacement, and the silencing of truth in Tigray. The war forced me to flee for my life, as it did countless others. Yet now, the system that was meant to protect people like me the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) has been paused, leaving us stranded and unheard.
In 2023, I had hopes of finding safety in the United States through the Welcome Corps, a private sponsorship initiative under USRAP. But under the Trump-era freeze, the program has been effectively halted. The Biden administration has yet to fully reverse these policies, leaving survivors of genocide languishing in legal limbo.
Many Tigrayan refugees are currently in Kenya, Uganda, and Sudan, often without formal status or access to basic services. In urban centers, refugees face homelessness, constant risk of arrest, and hunger. In refugee camps like Kakuma or Nakivale, survivors are re-traumatized by overcrowding, poverty, and neglect. There is no viable path home not when mass graves, sexual violence, and ethnic cleansing continue to define life in Tigray.
International bodies, including the Tigray Mass Atrocities Research and Response Alliance (TMRRA) and the European Union, have documented these crimes in detail. Rape was used as a weapon of war. Civilian massacres were carried out with impunity. The Eritrean Defence Forces, alongside Ethiopian federal and allied regional troops, stand accused of committing acts that meet the threshold of genocide. We, the survivors, carry these scars every day.
And yet, we wait.
The United States must act. The USRAP program must be resumed immediately, and the Welcome Corps must be reopened to survivors of genocide, especially those already vetted and eligible. Refugee resettlement is not a favor it is a legal and moral obligation under international law. It is also a matter of basic human dignity.
The longer these programs remain frozen, the more people suffer. Children are growing up in limbo. Families are being torn apart. And journalists like me once protected by our profession are silenced in exile.
Being a refugee does not make me powerless. I still have my voice. And through this article, I raise it not only for myself, but for every survivor of the Tigray Genocide still waiting to be heard.
America must listen. The world must act.
Chekole Alemu is a journalist from Tigray, Ethiopia. He is currently a refugee residing in Nairobi, Kenya.
