Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
Catholic Charities Houston dismisses refugee’s complaint with no reason given
Posted by Christopher Coen on June 17, 2010
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Houston has dismissed an Iraqi refugee’s complaint of neglect and abuse without citing any substantive reason, here. This is one of the two young male refugees who reported that Catholic Charities of Houston treated them different than other Iraqi refugee refugees, including not giving them basic furnishings here, here, and here. The young men said Catholic Charities staff members told them they only had enough resources to help “families”.
The refugee whose complaint was dimiissed also reported to us that a Catholic Charities Houston employment specialist boasted to a female Iraqi refugee client that he put the young men in a place that befits them as gays — cleaning jobs (CC Houston placed one young man in a cleaning job, while referring the other to another cleaning job).
The complaint response letter stemmed from the “grievance process” that the State Refugee Coordinator, Caitriona Lyons (the former director of the refugee resettlement program at Caritas in Austin – like Catholic Charities of Houston a USCCB affiliate) advised the refugees to embark upon when we forwarded their complaints to her. This is now a standard trick played on refugees when they complain to state refugee coordinators (hello Thuan Nguyen in California, you know what you did, here), referring them to multiple other contracting agencies, while doing nothing. This is a way to push complaints down and out while not addressing the causes of the complaints nor holding anyone (resettlement friends and partners) accountable. Is this now part of the playbook of SCOOR’s (State Coordinators of Refugee Resettlement)?
I should point out that refugee resettlement agencies, and their partners and friends, have complained vigorously to the federal government about people applying for refugee resettlement and asylum and being rejected by the U.S. government with no reasons given. Yet look at how they treat refugees — its pure hypocrisy. The letter that Catholic Charities of Houston sent dismissing the complaint has not one reason, let alone any valid reason, for dismissing his complaints. This is a case in which a community leader even went to the men’s apartment and verified what was in it — not much (what the young men did have had mostly been pulled from the garbage).
In a related matter, the Iraqi refugee involved in filing this complaint tells us that a young Iraqi female refugee client of Catholic Charities of Houston who told the young men what the Catholic Charities employee said about them behind their backs has now vanished. Her family, whom she is quite close to, have reported the disappearance to police, who are investigating the matter.
