Being an American in Syria can be hard, but not the way you’re thinking (part 5)
This series has been about some of the difficulties I’ve faced since moving to Syria — the practical difficulties, the day-to-day things, the things I might have been vaguely concerned about but couldn’t have really predicted. The main theme has been problems originating not from Syria, but from the other side, the United States. In the last post, I mentioned how everything was looking good on the banking front. But this week something happened that made me so furious that I could barely process its implications at the time. At this moment, as of 3 hours ago to be exact, I’m in a position where I feel comfortable sharing what happened.
To sum up, I opened a Syrian bank account so that I’d have ready access to cash for university fees, rent and board, and other day-to-day expenses. At first, Barclays refused to transfer money from the UK to Syria, saying such transfers are rejected by their “sanctions department” and would not be permitted. I wrote before:
because Barclays has a branch in New York City, the bank falls under the jurisdiction of US laws and regulations, including the Patriot Act and the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
In the end, it took a lot more phone calls and emails before Barclays permitted the international transfer. I had to answer questions about the nature of the payment, whether or not these payments would be regular, etc.
But I finally got the money and have been living like normal so far in 2011.
That is, until a few days ago when a strongly worded letter was sent to me from Barclays stating, in no uncertain terms, that my account would be shut down for reasons they cannot reveal and that I’d be prohibited from doing business with Barclays ever again.
Not only does the letter fail to give a reason for closing my account, but it flatly states that they will never give a reason. It even advises to not even bother calling back for the reason, because the phone operators have been instructed to not share any further information. I am to withdraw all funds immediately and destroy my bank card.
It had been reported in the news that Barclays, as a result of being forced to pay millions of dollars worth of fines to the US Justice Department, had put in place policies and procedures designed to minimize the risk of the recurrence of violations of OFAC regulations. In my research, I couldn’t find any concrete details or examples of such policies and procedures; I suppose they’re confidential to folks outside the bank. But I think it’s fair to assume that I’ve stumbled upon one of these policies first-hand.
This really is ridiculous. What suspect profile must I have for this to have happened? I’ve been a really good Barclays customer since I joined them five years ago. In retrospect, opening an account with them was a big mistake. Had I been aware of the bank’s support for officially racist governments in Zimbabwe and apartheid South Africa, I might have taken a moral stance against Barclays and refused to open an account there. Besides the moral argument, the bank’s close links with US business and American banks was the thing that came back to bite me in the end.
The bigger question here is, of course, why all the sanctions against Syria? But this is for another time.
