Abdel Fattah al-Jaafari with his daughters.

DEARBORN — The Syrian refugee vetting process has been questioned by politicians across the country and became a theme at all three presidential debates. However, Syrians who fled the war and were resettled recently in the United States reaffirmed that the background checks are rigorous and include multiple interviews, extensive health screenings and biometric scans during a lengthy procedure. 

During the interviews, U.S. security officers ask the same questions, looking for discrepancies, multiple refugees told The AANews. 

A complete picture

As he sat at the dinner table in his sparsely furnished apartment in Dearborn Heights, revealing his broken arm, paralyzed leg and a deep scar on his waist from a shrapnel that struck him, Abdel Fattah al-Jaafari, 27, recalled the phone call that saved his family two years ago.

He had been the victim of an explosion from a rigged car in his hometown, Damascus, on the first day of Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday in 2012.

“I have a 20-day old baby; I don’t wanna die,” he remembered telling the nurse when he woke up in a hospital, right before he fell into a five-day coma. All he said he could feel were severe burns throughout his entire body.

Shortly after, Jaafari said he took the first step toward leaving Syria with his wife and daughter. 

In 2014, he fled to Egypt, where he lived for about a year and half.

There, he applied for a refugee status with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which referred him to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The IOM gave him the option of resettling in the U.S. after waiting 15 days for approval.

Jaafari underwent his first interview with the IOM a month later. He said the four-hour session consisted of specific questions relating to his life from childhood until the moment he was sitting before the interviewer.

Two months after, he was called in for his second interview. There were four in all.

During that second, four-hour interview, Jaafari said he was asked about his and his siblings’ mandatory army service, if he participated in protests against the Assad government, his educational and employment background, among others.

Jaafari was on schedule to leave Egypt when the birth of his younger daughter, two months after that interview, delayed the process because he had to add her to the resettlement application.

He successfully landed his third interview with U.S. security officers, which he said was the toughest yet.

With every word he said being immediately translated to the American interviewer and to an observant panel of several officers from various security departments, Jaafari said he was asked the same questions from the first two interviews, with some additional detailed inquires. This went on for six hours. 

About his military service, he was asked about his division, rank and specialty, where he served, the duration of his service and the name of his general at the time. He was also asked if he backed the Free Syrian Army or the Syrian regime and if he had seen anyone carrying weapons on the streets in Syria.

He said he had once come across a Free Syrian Army fighter.

He was also investigated regarding any legal trouble he might have had in Egypt.

He added that his injuries also complicated his approval with the U.S. panel, because they wanted to ensure he was a bystander caught in a bombing, not a participant in a combat.

During the interview, he said the U.S. officer asked where he lived in Syria. He named his town and street, doubting she would know the area.

The officer then asked about a particular neighbor, as if she knew the addresses on that street.

“The hairs on the back of my neck stood,” Jaafari said. “She had a complete and detailed picture about my circumstances and past in Syria before she interviewed me.”

Jaafari was then subject to repeated background checks for two months.

U.S. officers asked the same questions at his fourth and final interview. 

When asked again if he had seen anyone carrying weapons in Syria, he said he had once seen a militant, referring to the Free Syrian Army fighter.

Although to him it was a matter of semantics, to the interviewer, the discrepancy between his previous answer and what he said on this occasion was enough to raise a flag.

Because of that, Jaafari was placed on a waiting list for two months.

Eventually, he received a phone call saying he had been taken off the list and that in 15 days he would undergo health screenings.

U.S. officers conducted checkups on his family for three more months after that, he said.

Jaafari added that two of his friends were rejected because of discrepancies in their answers during interviews.

One friend, an administrator at the organization responsible for housing Syria’s parliament members, was rejected when undergoing interviews, until he reached the U.S. panel.

The friend told officers he worked at a city council in Syria. He was rejected because of the inaccuracy.

Two years and a month later, Jaafari now lives in Dearborn Heights, where an Arab American family helped him get an apartment.

The explosion in 2012 caused minor disabilities, but he said he refuses to undergo surgery because it would hinder him from working and paying bills.

“Surgery doesn’t cross my mind at this time, ” Jaafari said. “I could work instead.”

Three other refugees shared similar stories about the vetting process as Jaafari.

Rebuilding lives

Ayesha Fatima, board vice president at the Syrian American Rescue Network, is all too familiar with situations like Jaafari’s.

In her time helping thousands of Syrian refugees resettle in Michigan, Fatima said she has learned about the extensive vetting process the families undergo.

“There is no one as extremely vetted as these refugees,” she said. “The whole resettlement process is very exhaustive.”

Fatima said from the time a Syrian leaves that county and resides in a refugee camp in another one, up to seven years of research could be performed on each refugee candidate. Close collaboration between multiple intelligence officials, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other government groups sign off on the approval, she added.

She explained that the slow process may also stem from the fact that U.S. officers conduct two or three extensive interviews a day.

According to Fatima, the refugees are then screened for physical and mental health issues, for vaccinations and diseases. If they have an infection, they might not qualify.

After arriving in the States, refugees receive a three-month stipend. They are expected to be self-sufficient after that, Fatima said.

“These refugees, they are the ones who have been terrorized, persecuted, slaughtered by ISIS,” she said. “They did not choose to flee, but all they want is a chance to pick up the pieces and rebuild their lives that they have lost.”