Very good news on Wednesday when Barclays Bank agreed to give Dahabshiil, the Somali remittance company, sufficient time to find another way of transferring money from the UK and elsewhere to Somalia before closing its account with them. Up to $2 billion a year is sent from Somali exiles to their families back home, mainly through Dahabshiil. With much of the country destroyed by war, this inflow keeps millions of Somalis and their families alive, drives what business there is and enables more Somalis to stay and rebuild the country rather than seek exile. Under international money transfer rules, Dahabshiil can collect money from Somali families in the rest of the world and dispense it from shops in Somalia, but only a bank can transfer it across borders. That is what Barclays have been doing for 15 years. In October last year however the bank decided to stop handling Dahabshiil money on the grounds that there was too much risk of money laundering and terrorism. The US government and other countries have cracked down on this in recent years. Dahabshiil can account for every penny sent and collected but admit that of course it cannot account for how it is [...]
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