Chip Chick
This GoFundMe‘s organizer, Amanda Burke, wrote that Velesha Burke’s husband had been “restricting access to basic needs and technology” in the family’s home and had been physically and emotionally abusive.
Velesha took her children to Germany to seek safety, but when it was time to find a new home for her family back in America, she found she was barred from returning.
Velesha shared her story via GoFundMe in the hopes of finding a solution to her predicament.
She explained, “After leaving our home to seek asylum and safety, I could not fly back to the USA (where I am a citizen) because my husband stole the children’s passports months prior, and has since refused to return them.”
Though she had reached out to the authorities, they refused to advocate for the family. “I contacted the German police to let them know my children and I fled domestic abuse and were in a safe house for protection.”
She had even reached out to the US Consulate in Germany “in an attempt to obtain emergency passports for the children.”
But their passports weren’t issued, and Velesha soon discovered that there was a travel ban on her family.
Matters only worsened when she attended a court custody hearing, and the German judge ruled in favor of her husband.
GoFundMe; pictured above is Velesha and her children
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