SEXTORTION: A NEW CRIME RAVAGING THE KYANGWALI REFUGEE COMMUNITY IN USA (RESETTLED REFUGEES)

In a span of 5 years, a cybercrime called "sextortion" is severely affecting refugees from Kyangwali Refugee Settlement (Camp) resettled in the United States. Many of those falling victims of this crime are men in their 20s and those in their mid 30s. According to a Kyangwali News assessment, this is all due to complexities of the transitioning process; many of these refugees lack knowledge on how to be safe online. But before getting into the details of this crime, what is Sextortion? Well according to the United States Justice Department, Sextortion is a form of sexual exploitation. The offender uses coercion and threats to compel the victim to produce sexual images or videos engaging in sexual acts. Sometimes the offender already possesses nude or sexual images of the victim, and is threatening to release them if the victim will not do as the offender commands. The second portion is what defines what is happening to the resettled refugees well, they are tricked into recording the videos and the criminal records and saves the videos. He (because most of these criminals are men) then sends a sample of the video asking for money. If one does not comply, the criminal threatens with sharing the videos with your friends on Facebook. If the victim continues to resist, they share the videos via messenger to your Facebook friends, they may also share the video on YouTube and Porn Sites. In the United States, according to the FBI, this is common among children who are are targeted by Sex predators.

How did we get here? Well, many of the refugee men who are increasingly falling victims of this crime have had a history of promiscuity in their marriages. The other are young men in their mid 20s trying find love. But is also true that some of the married men are attracted to cyber love by people they don't know because they are frustrated and stressed by the failing marriages; many of the women after arriving in the United States, they are able to work, which was not the case before coming here. Some women have used the fact that they now earn money as a tool, to not respect their marriages, thinking in case they breakup or something happens, they can survive on their own. This should not be considered a general thing because there are men who seem to be contented in their families but they are also caught up by this crime. In cases like this, it is just a behavior that already exists with the victim and not anything new to them.

Some members of the refugee community in the United States think there are no Sexually Transmitted Diseases and including Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). This is not true, according to HIV.gov, approximately 1.2 million Americans have HIV and that about 13% of those do not know it and need testing. This government site also adds that in 2019, an estimated 34,800 new HIV infections occurred in the United States alone. All these numbers are thrown out here to reflect the bitter truth that HIV actually exists and the members of the refugee community should in fact be very careful with reckless sexual acts. This information is especially important because there is a correlation between what is seen online with sextortion and another behavior, hookups.

The resettled refugee community in the United States should all treat sextortion as a serious legal, social and psychological concern. The criminals running the extortion syndicates online are subject to legal action, but this applies to those sharing the videos as well. The United States has pretty well established laws that protect the privacy of individuals living in its boundaries and these privacy laws are being broken by both the criminals practicing sextortion and members of the refugee community that are sharing videos with their friends. So it is not a surprise to see a lawsuit brought against someone for simply sharing the video that he or she also obtained from another person. It is difficult to track down the criminals running the sextortion business from their comfort zones in Nigeria, Ghana or some other place in West Africa, but many of the community members being used to spread the videos are based here in the Unite States, Canada, Norway and Australia and these are easy to track and lawsuits can easily be brought against them. This is not good for the community, no one would want to see people who are supposed to be brothers and sisters dragging each other to courts on cases of having exposed nudity online and shaming their counterparts. If such legal actions happen, it could result into more aggressive spring of conflicts including multi generational revenge.

Besides legal fights as a possibility, there are also Psychological problems that may emerge. Some the victims are young people who may not be able to contain the level of shame that comes with their nakedness getting exposed online. This can without a doubt apply to adults as well, many of whom are married or have some community responsibilities that they could no longer do as a result of this. It is a serious societal concern that can not simply be resolved by sharing the nakedness on social media platforms. It is outrageous, whether right or wrong, humans are expected to treat their fellows with dignity and respect, this, unfortunately is not what is happening. Some people have rushed to judge and blame those surfacing in the videos of nakedness as prostitutes, and cheating on their wives and that they deserve to be shamed. But this has consequences and the issue requires the community to work together to address it. Some of these victims have family problems they are dealing with and maybe the solution is to approach them and find out the best ways to help. Others are just ignorant and not equipped with simple cyber skills to counter sextortion and other forms of online bullying common on platforms like Facebook. This same ignorance is what can also render some of the sharers victims of having broken the laws they don't understand. It works both ways.

A week ago, a group of people from the United States organized a Zoom meeting to hold a preliminary discussion on developing strategy to fight sextortion and Facebook shaming. The proposal on the creation of a Commission to oversea the cases and reaching out to those sharing and victims themselves was adopted and the Four Member Commission is set to meet very soon. It was also suggested that teaching basic skills of social media and web safe use be introduced to teach community members on how to spot criminals online, ways to report them and if they are victims, what the options to fight back are. Community sensitization on Cyber crime was also another important proposal, this could include making short videos and short stories on how these experiences feel like, and a system to reassuring those who have so far fallen victims that they are not a lone be put in place. It can also be agreed that there is a failure on the side of resettling agencies; refugees are not briefed on laws, or even the some crimes committed online. They know all these things are happening online and they are supposed to let the families aware of this. Many of the refugees come from places where they had no access to the internet like they do here in the United States and other countries and this transition mistake leaves them susceptible to ruthless online predators.

Our investigations also reveal that there are many who have paid money after falling victim and the sextortion criminals did not share their nude videos with their friends on Facebook. There is a problem with this as well; they are losing money that they should have invested or saved for something else. According to a Forbes news article from 2020, some sextortion scammer groups make up to about USD $100,000 a month, yet the average refugee yearly income is about $30,000 . So what these criminals make is triple the average earning of refugees for the whole year. The scary part is that they make all this in a month. It is difficult to know how much exactly some refugee victims have paid these scammers because it is difficult to reach the victims and they may not just be willing to tell it all. This situation, much as it may seem to be a coverup can cause a financial disaster who those who don't make enough money.

This is not something to just lough about, this a serious community problem that needs the attention of all of us. The solution is not to share, judge or make assumptions because these may just make the situation worse. If this is what is entertained, there is a possibility of seeing suicides, revenge from victims to those sharing which could be illegal and a lot more conflicts can emerge as a result. Solutions are equipping resettled refugees with skills to keep themselves safe on on the internet, whether young or old. The other is to teach them some basic laws on privacy and why there could be legal problems with sharing content without the consent of those being shared. The Commission on Sextortion and Facebook Shaming will be sharing their findings and including names of those that frequently share such content to make it available to the public and it will as well encourage victims to bring lawsuits against those sharing the videos.

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