Somali Girl Granted Asylum In El Paso, Witnessed Family’s Murder

She had a smile on her face, but it was clear she was nervous.

Asha Omar had never seen a television camera up close before Friday morning, but at 19 years old she has seen a lot.

A refugee from Mogadishu, Somalia, Asha says she saw most of her family shot and killed by an Islamic militant group when her family refused to turn over her sister for marriage.

“My father, he refused,” she said in broken English.

“When he refused it, they stayed in the house with my sister and my father and brother. They killed three of my family.”

Asha says she and her mother asked neighbors to bury their loved ones before fleeing in the night.

They headed for the United States, looking for asylum.

But the mother and daughter were separated and Asha ended up in El Paso at the Immigration Detention Center on Montana.

Attorneys with Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center took her case and after 10 months in detention, Asha was granted her asylum last week.

The advocacy center says Asha has yet to make up her mind on where she’ll now live.

Asha says she hopes to perfect her English and become a medical professional.