Wedjan and Motasim Adam are reunited with their four-year-old daughter, Wesal, after clearing Customs and Immigration at JFK International Airport in New York.
Photos by Josh Strauss
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July 2, 2009
A family torn apart by war and genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan is reunited and living happily in Brooklyn, thanks to intervention by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
In 2002, after he was forced to flee his native land, Motasim Adam, a leading activist against genocide, was granted asylum in the United States, leaving his wife, Wejdan, behind in Africa at a refugee camp.
“He didn’t know if she was dead or alive,” explained Gideon Aronoff, president and CEO of HIAS and a resident of South Orange. Aronoff is a board member of the Community Relations Committee of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ.
Nearly two years later, Motasim finally located Wejdan among the living. He visited her at the camp, where their daughter, Wesal, was conceived and born.
Because there is a time limit for spouses of those granted asylum to join their husbands or wives, Wejdan would have been trapped in Darfur if she didn’t leave then. But U.S. law forced her to leave her daughter behind with friends when she immigrated to New York.
“Had Wesal been born prior to the asylum grant in 2002, she also would have been permitted to enter the United States,” said Aronoff. “But because she was conceived after her father was granted asylum, the law did not permit the simple reunion of the family.”
To make that happen, attorney Alan Lungen, a member of the HIAS Young Leaders division, took on the Adams’ case pro bono. He fought successfully to obtain a “humanitarian parole” that allowed Wesal to enter the United States. But it took genetic testing to prove the Adams’ parenthood, and “it was not so easy to organize a DNA test in a displaced persons camp in Darfur,” said Aronoff.
The HIAS executive said he “he could not discuss the details of how it was done.”
But once the testing proved positive and the government granted permission, Motasim flew to Amman, Jordan, to meet his four-year-old daughter and fly with her to JFK International Airport last month.
“This is an incredible feeling; I can’t even describe it,” said Motasim after landing in New York. “Now we will become a family — it’s the difference between day and night.”
Wejdan Adam greets her daughter Wesal upon her arrival at JFK Airport.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how I feel — this is such a relief. It’s my daughter, it’s a piece of my heart,” said Wedjan.
The Adams now have a second daughter. They are living in Brooklyn, where Motasim remains active in the Darfur People’s Association of New York.
“The human tragedy of the case certainly pulled on the heartstrings of the lawyers and was a real call for action to HIAS to see this through to a successful result,” said Aronoff, who believes “there are hundreds of similar cases out there. This one is not an exception.”
A bill to change the law has been passed in the House of Representatives, and, Aronoff said, he is “optimistic” that the Senate will follow suit. “There is momentum now for a full change of the law to treat the children with greater compassion.”
His 128-year-old organization has helped Jews and non-Jews alike who have fled from persecution and disaster. It has aided such disparate groups of survivors as victims of the Nazi Holocaust and passengers on the shipwrecked Titanic.
“The Jewish values and the Jewish mission to protect vulnerable immigrants and refugees led HIAS to play an important role in each of these cases,” Aronoff said.
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