Terror financingMinnesota shop to continue cash transfers to Somalia

Tawakal Money Express will continue cash transfers to Somalia // Source: zaluu.com

Following the uproar caused by the announcement that  a Minnesota bank would stop transferring money to Somalia out of terrorism concerns, a local Minnesota business has agreed to continue the cash transfers.

After local Somalis pleaded with Garad Nor, the president and CEO of Tawakal Money Express, he agreed to continue transfers so Somalis could send money to relatives in the hard hit African country.

“They are asking me, please, please, please,” Nor said. “So I have to open it. … I think it’s gonna be OK. I decided. That’s it. We will open it under limited amounts.”

Under the new policy, individuals will only be allowed to transfer a maximum of $500 and only in cases of emergencies.

Tawakal Money Express, is a local business known as a hawala, an informal money transfer system that allows individuals to quickly send money overseas.

The latest announcement comes after fifteen Minnesota hawalas announced that they would stop transferring money after the bank that handles the majority of their transactions, Sunrise Community Banks, said it would discontinue its services.

Sunrise Community Bank feared that it was inadvertently aiding terrorists who took advantage of hawalas to send money to organizations like al Shabaab in Somalia. The bank’s decision came shortly after two Minnesota women were convicted in October of fundraising for al Shabbab and using hawalas to send that money back to Somalia.

In response to the decision, Somalis in the United States panicked as their relatives back home relied on their remittances to survive in the war torn country with little semblance of any infrastructure.

“It’s getting worse every single day,” said Omar Jamal, the first secretary of the Somali Mission to the United Nations.

“The majority of the people who use that lifeline to support their siblings and family members can foresee the crisis — that his mother doesn’t have anything to eat next week, or that his wife and kids are being evicted. They can see the sky falling on them and they become very distraught, very emotional,” Jamal said.

The U.S. Treasury which has been actively clamping down on terrorist funding sources, said that Somalis in the United States have many avenues to send money to relatives including wire transfers via clearinghouses or hubs in Dubai, which can arrange payouts in Somalia, or declaring the money and shipping cash or money orders.

Somalis living in Minnesota, which has the largest concentration of Somalis in the United States, say these options are impractical.

According to Jamal, Tawakal Money Express’ decision comes as a relief, but is not a long term solution.