Times Higher Education
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Nasir Warfa believes he is on a US security watch list, writes David Matthews.
A Somali-born British academic fears that he is unable to gain a visa
for the US because he believes that his work and background have put
him on a security watch list, with damaging consequences for his career.Nasir
Warfa, a senior lecturer at the Centre for Psychiatry at Queen Mary,
University of London, appears to be the first UK academic to be affected
by US restrictions on those of East African background, following
similar travel problems for US scholars with East African origins.
In
August last year, he was denied a visa that would have allowed him to
change aircraft in Houston on his way to an academic conference in
Mexico, forcing him to take a different route. He was also unable to
obtain a visa to visit relatives in the US in December 2012.
Dr
Warfa, who grew up in Somalia, has not been told why he has been refused
a visa, but suspects it is due to his country of origin and the fact
that he conducted research in Somalia before his application to go to
the US.
“My suspicion is that [the problems are because] I am from East Africa,” he said.
“A
lot of people from there have [been] trained [by] Al-Shabaab” - the
militant Islamist force that controls parts of Somalia - he explained.
“Anyone who goes to those places is flagged up.”
Others affected
have included double Olympic gold medallist Mo Farah. The runner was
reportedly detained by US border guards in December when they saw he was
originally from Somalia.
Dr Warfa, who is a British citizen, is
due to meet colleagues at Harvard Medical School this month and has been
invited to present an abstract at a cross-cultural psychology
conference in Los Angeles in June, but he is still waiting for a
decision on his visa applications.
An effective ban on visiting the US would seriously hamper his career, he said.
Such
restrictions on academics originally from Somalia would be “a disaster
because Somalia is coming back from a civil war” and those who left the
country during the fighting are “trying to rebuild universities and
institutions” there.
If he was unable to obtain a visa for this year’s visits, Dr Warfa said he would feel “marginalised” and “humiliated”.
“I have written 20 publications promoting human rights and this happens to me,” he added.
In
December, three professorial colleagues from Queen Mary’s Centre for
Psychiatry wrote to the US Embassy in London asking it to look into Dr
Warfa’s visa applications for 2013.
The embassy replied that it would update them when a decision was made, Dr Warfa said.
It had not provided a response by the time Times Higher Education went to press.
In
the US, two American academics with East African backgrounds at the
University of Minnesota were subjected to repeated, lengthy airport
searches in 2009, it was reported at the time.
Abdi Samatar, chair
of the geography department, and his wife Cawo Abdi, a sociology
professor, believed their origin had put them on a government watch
list.
Professor Samatar told THE that although he had been stopped and searched again in 2010, since his case had received publicity the checks had ceased.