Archive for July, 2010
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 28, 2010
A sudden increase in refugee resettlement in Wilmington, North Carolina is taxing local medical providers. The Wilmington affiliate of Episcopal Migration Ministries, Interfaith Refugee Ministry, based in New Bern, just began resettling refugees to Wilmington earlier this year.
A program to relocate political refugees in Wilmington has expanded faster than initially expected since it started earlier this year, leaving some medical providers pushed to fulfill the required health screenings.
As of mid-July, 43 refugees had moved to Wilmington since the beginning of the year. Resettlement officials expect that number to grow in the coming years.
The New Hanover County Health Department is in charge of the refugees’ initial health screenings soon after they arrive.
Betty Jo Bennett, a personal health nurse supervisor at the health department, described the services as an unfunded mandate, though she added the health department was fine with doing the tests.
“It’s growing faster than we anticipated,” she said during a presentation on refugee health to the county health board this month.
The health department so far has shifted job responsibilities to handle the screenings. But if the number of refugees double as expected next year, the health department will have to hire another full-time position, officials said.
Because the health department is responsible for public health, they are required to handle the communicable disease screenings and prevention.
Two licensed practical nurses and an administrative support staffer handle the screenings. The refugees undergo lab work and testing for tuberculosis or other communicable diseases and receive immunizations if necessary.
“Some come without an immunization record,” Bennett said. “We’re just doing infectious disease control like we always do.”
Many of the individuals who have come to Wilmington this year are ethnic Karen who fled from Myanmar, said Jamie Mills, director of the Interfaith Refugee Ministry Wilmington group that opened offices in January at St. James Episcopal Church on Third Street. here
Although New Hanover County Health Department is screening the refugees for communicable diseases, as required of all health departments, they decided that they could not do physical exams for refugees. As a result, Interfaith Refugee Ministry must find medical providers to do the exams – medical providers who also accept Medicaid.
As part of the refugee resettlement program, those coming into the country are eligible for Medicaid for up to eight months.
The refugees also are required to undergo physical exams as part of their entrance process. The health department has the option to conduct those physicals, as is done at New Bern’s health department, but New Hanover health officials decided they could not take on the extra work since they do not handle primary care.
Mills said that when he got to Wilmington, he received a page of area primary care doctors’ offices that stated they accepted Medicaid.
When he started making appointments for the refugees’ physical exams, he ran into the same problem other Medicaid recipients face.
“Only three accepted new patients,” Mills said. “At this point, we’re managing.”
My question about this, therefore, is why the State Department, EMM, and Interfaith Refugee Ministry are resettling refugees faster than initially expected? Regulations mandate that the state refugee coordinator hold quarterly meetings with state and local officials, resettlement agencies and other service providers. Were these meetings ever held? Was any plan set up for how refugees would receive both health screenings (for communicable diseases) as well as physical exams? It seems a bit late in the process to suddenly find out that the public health office won’t do the physical exams, and that there are only three medical providers who both accept Medicaid and are able to accept new patients.
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, EMM, Episcopal, faith-based, health, Interfaith Refugee Ministry, Karen, North Carolina, State Department, Wilmington | Tagged: Burma/Myanmar, EMM, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Health Department, Interfaith Refugee Ministry, Karen, Medicaid, Myanmar, New Hanover County, North Carolina, physical exams, refugee health screenings, refugee resettlement, refugees, resettlement, State Department, Wilmington | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 25, 2010
An article in the Syracuse Post-Standard details a refugee success story — a Bosnian man who is now a police officer and home owner. Apparently refugee resettlement agencies resettled more than 3,000 Bosnians in the Syracuse area and another 6,000 in nearby Utica.
When I read the article I noticed that the resettlement agency, Interfaith Works, a CWS and EMM affiliate, placed the refugees at the notorious Vincent Apartments on Smith Lane.
…The former InterReligious Council refugee program, which is now the Center for New Americans Refugee Resettlement Program at Interfaith Works, helped set up his family, and many other Bosnian families, at the Vincent Apartments on Smith Lane in Syracuse…here
According to media accounts Vincent Apartments is one of the properties owned by Longley-Jones Management Corp. at which the company illegally removed asbestos, exposing workers and residents to the cancer-causing particles.
A Syracuse company admitted Tuesday that its workers illegally ripped asbestos out of 98 apartment buildings across Onondaga County, potentially exposing residents to the cancer-causing material for up to 15 years.
Longley-Jones Management Corp. of Syracuse, Central New York’s largest manager of commercial and residential real estate, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to eight felony charges and agreed to pay $4 million in fines.
About $3 million will pay for the cleanup of remaining asbestos, which in some cases was left exposed inside apartments and communal laundry rooms, prosecutors said.
The case involves some of the Syracuse area’s most prominent apartment complexes, including several historic buildings. The largest apartment buildings are the Skyline Apartments, at James and Lodi streets in Syracuse, the Vincent Apartments near Syracuse University and Springfield Garden apartments near Le Moyne College in DeWitt.
…Federal investigators are trying to notify former and current residents of the affected apartments. But prosecutors said they likely will never know the names of all the residents exposed.
“We can’t identify, let alone notify, all of the people, ” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Benedict, who prosecuted the case.
“We’re having a dickens of a time tracking down some of the people who lived in these buildings, ” Benedict said. “Over 15 years, we don’t know who has been in and out of the buildings.” here
Refugees who lived in the following apartments should pay particular notice, although basement and laundry areas were also effected.
Vincent Apartments, 102, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111 Rony Lane, and 101-111 Smith Lane, Syracuse
Here are some reviews by former Vincent Apartments tenants:
- Really poor services
Rated 1.0 out of 5.0 By gao – Oct 23, 2009
The management is a mess and the maintenance is horrible. I signed up automatic payment but I still got charged late fee because they messed up my credit card information. Generally need to wait for days before they come to repair things, even for emergencies. A big chunk of ceiling material just fell off in the bathroom and water from upstairs drips down. I called them yesterday morning and nobody shows up yet. here
- Reviewed by: Anonymous
Review Date: 7/26/2009
Rented: From 2008 To 2009
This place is filthy, loud, and dangerous. I lived with a roommate, our apt. was burglarized, my license plates stolen off my car, and other tenants cars were broken into as well. Things that maintenance promised to repair never were, snow and ice not cleared during winter and hallways are disgusting. here
A 2006 State Department monitoring report for the former InterReligious Council, now Interfaith Works, noted the following about an apartment visited by monitors:
…[in a situation involving] a Liberian single mother, monitors observed broken glass, trash and graffiti around the building and in the corridors. The hallways were dirty, an upper floor window was open without screens, the entrance buzzer did not work, and a metal stairway banister was broken. Another resident in the complex indicated to monitors that the complex was substandard and dangerous. Monitors were told that there had been a fire on the first floor and gunfire heard on several occasions. Although the refugee’s apartment was clean and reasonably comfortable, the toilet was not working and the bathroom sink was clogged. The family was missing one bed frame, which the mother described as having been given but not replaced when the original mattress and frame had been discarded for having bedbugs…here
Posted in State Department, CWS, EMM, former Yugoslav republics, faith-based, Christian, beds, New York, housing, substandard, furnishings, lack of, Syracuse, housing, safety, Episcopal, Interfaith Works, Interfaith Works | Tagged: State Department, refugees, resettlement, EMM, CWS, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Church World Service, Bosnian, syracuse, Interfaith Works, Vincent Apartments, InterReligious Council, Longley-Jones Management Corp, asbestos, Center for New Americans Refugee Resettlement Program | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 24, 2010
Indiana US Senator Richard Lugar, Ranking Member on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has released a report on the nation’s refugee resettlement program. While repeating the mantra that the solution to all problems is for the federal government to spend more for the program (therefore, tax and spend), the report also takes critical swipes at the private resettlement agencies.
According to the report refugee resettlement agencies have failed local communities in key areas:
- Local governments rarely have an official role in influencing how many refugees are resettled by local voluntary agencies and often are not even informed in advance that new residents will be arriving. The process should require local resettlement agencies to formally consult with state and local officials/service providers regarding the proposed number and backgrounds of refugees to be resettled in the area. The refugee coordinators in each state and PRM representatives should verify that the consultations took place and that the views of the officials/service providers are accurately characterized.
I wonder if Senator Lugar and his staff are aware that state refugee coordinators are already required, via ORR regulations, to convene quarterly meetings each year whereby representatives of local resettlement agencies, local community service agencies, and other agencies that serve refugees meet with representatives of State and local governments to plan and coordinate the proper placement of refugees in advance of the refugees’ arrival.
In addition, according to the State Department’s Cooperative Agreement contract with refugee resettlement agencies ”the number of refugees assigned to an approved applicant will be determined by the [State Department], in accordance with the needs of the Admissions Program, taking into account… placement recommendations of state and local officials…” (see V. Refugee Caseload Assisgnment).
So, Senator Lugar is suggesting creating more requirements when the federal government is not enforcing almost identical existing requirements. Existing regulations and contract requirements are ignored, so just add more?
- The administration should improve accountability by examining: A. Institutional processes and practices of voluntary agencies, including but not limited to factors that influence the scope of an agency’s annual refugee resettlement proposal submitted to PRM, organizational structure, and administrative overhead to ensure an adherence to best practices and a resettlement program that is sensitive to local community capacity. B. Oversight and accountability metrics used by PRM for monitoring voluntary agencies as well as mechanisms for assessing internal strengths and inefficiencies within PRM’s administrative processes, the nature of PRM’s consultations with local and state elected officials, and the factors influencing the annual cap of refugees admitted to the United States. C. Mechanisms used for assessing internal strengths and inefficiencies in the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the Department of Health and Human Services, the nature of ORR’s consultations with local and state elected officials, and the extent of ORR’s capacity to oversee voluntary agency grantees, address the unique needs of refugees, fact-find into community capacity shortfalls as well as monitor the impact of secondary migration—potentially through some type of targeted census. D. Metrics for evaluating refugee integration, including but not limited to qualitative and quantitative measurements of employment levels, language acquisition, community interaction, etc.
In terms of quantitative measurements of employment levels the federal government already records employment numbers at 90 and 180 days. Is Senator Lugar recommending that these be measured again at say, the one-year mark, two-year mark, or what? Or is Senator Lugar simply unaware that employment rates are already measured?
How would anyone measure “community interaction”? Plus, most American citizens wouldn’t even pass that measurement if you look at things like voting participation, participation in community groups, etc.
- The administration should require voluntary agencies to [promote community engagement by] submitting as part of their annual proposals a ‘‘community engagement strategy,’’ which delineates concrete plans for increasing public awareness of and interaction with refugees, in order to achieve greater community cohesion. …Providing opportunities for established residents and families to engage members of the refugee population will help to demystify preconceptions and make integration more achievable. Encouraging face-to-face interactions between individuals or small groups can also make inter-ethnic encounters less intimidating for all participants.
No argument there. The problem is that many of the resettlement agencies are incompetent at these type of tasks. I recently attended a court commission that was looking at how the courts deal with racial and ethnic minorities. Hardly any refugees or other minorities showed up to testify. A refugee resettlement agency director on the commission panel, a former refugee himself, said his outreach to the refugees did not even include outreach to the main places where they gather — churches and mosques.
And then there’s this tidbit about how refugee resettlement agencies in Clarkston, Georgia (an Atlanta suburb) reacted when called on to account to the public.
- Georgia Representative Karla Drenner, whose district includes Clarkston, convened a townhall meeting [this past year] where she publicly encouraged the voluntary agencies located within the city to improve communication with elected officials and to provide more warning regarding when refugees were due to arrive. The current mayor of Clarkston, Howard Tygrett, reported that all of the resettlement agencies subsequently relocated outside of the city limits in order to circumvent this appeal.
By the way, in the report Deborah McMahan, Health Commissioner of Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Health, noted that prearrival health screenings for refugees no longer include HIV/AIDS testing. Prior knowledge of HIV status, she explained, would allow for better planning for the complicated care that refugees with such conditions require.
Posted in Atlanta, Burma/Myanmar, Fort Wayne, funding, Georgia, Indiana, late health screenings, local officials, failure to notify, ORR, PRM, reform, State Department | Tagged: Clarkston, fort wayne, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, PRM, refugee resettlement, refugees, resettlement, Senator Richard Lugar, State Department | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 23, 2010
Jewish Family & Children Services of Pittsburgh is touting its refugee employment services. According to an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette JFCS of Pittsburgh is using federal stimulus funds as well as a grant from Allegheny County to fund their job readiness program for refugees.
[Leslie Aizenman, director of refugee services at Jewish Family & Children Services of Pittsburgh] said the nonprofit organization strives to help its clients who are refugees navigate government services and get their families settled into suitable, safe living quarters. It works toward its goal of helping refugees become financially independent by providing job readiness training.
…”This is different from economic development,” Ms. Aizenman said. “This is strictly humanitarian.” here
Of course that’s not entirely true, as we’ve heard from officials in others states that they lobby for and accept refugees into their communities as a type of economic development, here.
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Ms. Aizenman obviously means that refugees come here not as immigrants who are simply in search of better economic conditions, but because they are fleeing oppression and at this time are not able to return to their home countries. At the same time, however, I don’t think we should lose sight of the fact that there are many people here — politicians, state officials, business people — who are more than ready to use the refugees as (1) easily exploitable low-wage labor (2) a tool to fill emptied crime-ridden and decayed neighborhoods (3) or even as a means to bring in federal funds, via welfare and many other public funding.
Last month, 11 refugees graduated from the first tier of the organization’s job-readiness program, which received stimulus funding through a Community Services Block Grant and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
“The students are certainly a focus,” said Judy Berkowitz, refugee services coordinator at the nonprofit. “The [older] adults have a harder time adjusting so we wanted to see if we could get some of these younger adults to take a leadership role in their families and communities.”
To do this, Ms. Berkowtiz and co-workers researched how other organizations across the country are engaging younger refugees and setting up weekly workshops to teach them everything from business etiquette to how to apply the skills they learned in their home communities to job opportunities in Pittsburgh.
“You have to remember their jobs in their villages might have been to forage for food,” Ms. Aizenman said.
I guess I don’t quite understand how JFCS helps them to apply skills in food foraging to job opportunities in Pittsburgh. I also don’t understand why groups such as JFCS of Pittsburgh have to research all of this themselves in order to create job readiness programs. Isn’t the purpose for having national resettlement networks such as HIAS so that they can train and direct their affiliates with their specialized knowledge and experience? It sounds like the affiliates are each having to reinvent the wheel.
A separate grant from the Allegheny County Department of Human Services Office of Community Services helped Jewish Family & Children Services of Pittsburgh offer a second tier of the program — one that would help the 11 participants get actual experience as well as a paycheck.
The grant pays the wages to the interns for their employers, which is minimum wage for those younger than 18 and $10 an hour for those 18 and older.
“These students were already doing resumes, and this came in and I could tell them they really could get a summer job,” Mr. Berkowitz said, adding it would have been impossible to place the students if it weren’t for community partners such as Whitehall Public Library.
Karen Rock, a longtime educator and liaison for Jewish Family & Children Services, worked with the students throughout their training. She meets with the interns and their employers every week, and so far, she said, things are going swimmingly for all involved.
“Everyone is just so pleased with the interns and it’s only been two weeks,” she said. “I think it’s a win-win situation.”
Ms. Rock and others stressed that not only does the internship program help the students learn valuable work skills, it also helps them support their families.
Nan Kyi Kyi Htay, 16, said that’s how she will use the money she earns this summer working at the Whitehall Library: to help buoy the family’s savings.
One thing that is clear here is that none of this is being paid for by JFCS of Pittsburgh — a so-called private sector agency. Instead, the money is coming from the federal and county governments, which makes me wonder what the value is of the private sector participation. (Whenever the resettlement agencies talk to Congress and the media they never seem to mention the county government and stimulus funding they receive.)
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I mean, this could be run at the county level. Not that I’m greatly impressed with much of government agencies’ efficiency, effectiveness, or even accountability. Buy private organizations are certainly not at all accountable to the public. Their participation, intrusion even, also comes with private agendas, such as personal religious agendas. What are we getting here for our money?
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, employment/jobs for refugees, faith-based, funding, HIAS, Jewish, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Jewish Family and Children's Services, public/private partnership | Tagged: Allegheny County, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Burma/Myanmar, Community Services Block Grant, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, HIAS, Jewish Family & Children Services of Pittsburgh, Judy Berkowitz, Leslie Aizenman, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, refugees, resettlement, stimulus funds, Whitehall Public Library | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 22, 2010
USCCB affiliate Catholic Charities Indianapolis is yet another resettlement agency that has been out of compliance with their State Department refugee services contract. In other words the public pays for them to give certain minimum services and material items to the refugees, via a government contract, and then they don’t abide by that contract. The consequences? None. The State Department’s Admissions Office merely noted some of their failures and asked them to do better. After all, they are not considered merely contractors, but exalted “partners” — with rights. Rights that apparently include violating basic terms of public contracts if they want to. Catholic Charities Indianapolis is one of the agencies that recently requested yet more government money for their refugee services, here.
The most recent State Department monitoring report for this agency (April 2008) indicates that Catholic Charities Indianapolis failed to properly document services, failed to refer refugees to English classes, failed to give refugees community and cultural orientation, failed to give refugees required pocket-money, and failed to show proof that they gave refugees their share of State Department R&P (Resettlement & Placement) money, here. Refugee case files also contained names of unrelated people (privacy violation), and Catholic Charities Indianapolis did not have any structured training program for its employees, as required.
Catholic Charities Indianapolis for the most part resettles Burmese refugees who have ties to friends and family (often distant relatives) in Indiana. The resettlement program refers to these friends and family as “anchors”, and resettlement agencies often talk the anchors into giving the arriving refugees the minimum-required services and material items that the State Department requires via the refugee contracts. As of February 2008, however, USCCB (US Catholic Conference of Bishops)directed Catholic Charities Indianapolis to treat all their refugee clients as “free case” refugees (refugees with no established ties to someone in the US). In fiscal year 2007 Catholic Charities Indianapolis resettled 393 refugees.
State Department monitors visited four refugees families – a Somali family of eight, and three Burmese families, one with seven members, one with four, and one single man. It immediately became clear that Catholic Charities Indianapolis had not given the refugees even the minimum-required services, which are fairly minimal to start with.
None of the adults were enrolled in ESL (English as a Second Language). Two families said they did not get any community/cultural orientation. The Somali family said they had electric bills of between $500 and $700 per month and did not understand the reason for this (apparently Catholic Charities Indianapolis was not monitoring the family’s situation). One of the Burmese families said they did not have enough clothing for the husband for work, or for the children for school. Also, they were unable to close their sliding door completely and cold air was coming into the apartment (in April). The couple was also very concerned about having enough income to pay rent and utility bills.
The adults in the second Burmese refugee family that monitors visited said they were also concerned about paying the rent, and neither of them was working. The husband said that Catholic Charities Indianapolis did not do anything to help him find a job, and although he did not speak English, he said that no one from Catholic Charities Indianapolis told him where to take ESL classes. He said he didn’t even know how to take the bus.
The third Burmese refugee home visit was to the single man. Although he had arrived five month earlier he said that Catholic Charities Indianapolis did not give him any of his R&P money ($425 at that time) until the day before the State Department monitors visited! He said Catholic Charities Indianapolis didn’t even give him any pocket-money (the refugee contract supposedly requires this). He also said that they didn’t give him any orientation. He had no idea about 911 emergency procedures, and had no idea how to bring his wife and children to the US.
Of the 11 other case files that monitors inspected, four lacked refugee client signatures indicating receipt of R&P money (in other words there was no proof to show the refugees ever received the money at all). Seven files contained names and personal information of unrelated persons. Pocket money was not given to any of the refugees. In addition, case files often lacked signatures and dates, all contact with refugees was not recorded, and there was no distinction between money spent for the State Department R&P services and money spent for HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) refugee services. Therefore, there was no way to account for the R&P money.
Catholic Charities Indianapolis is one of the resettlement agencies that geared up for larger numbers of arriving refugees this year, here.
Posted in State Department, ORR, USCCB, R&P, Burma/Myanmar, Somali, Indiana, reform, faith-based, funding, employment services, Catholic, transportation, community/cultural orientation, public/private partnership, pocket-money, immigration services, clothes, ESL & ELL, employment/jobs for refugees, late health screenings, Indianapolis | Tagged: Burma/Myanmar, Catholic Charities Indianapolis, ESL, Indiana, Indianapolis, pocket-money, R&P, refugees, resettlement, Resettlement & Placement, Somali, State Department, us catholic conference of bishops, USCCB | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 20, 2010
The Washington Post is reporting that efforts to root out corruption at the United Nations have collapsed.
UNITED NATIONS — The outgoing chief of a U.N. office charged with combating corruption at the United Nations has issued a stinging rebuke of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, accusing him of undermining her efforts and leading the global institution into an era of decline, according to a confidential end-of-assignment report.
The memo by Inga-Britt Ahlenius, a Swedish auditor who stepped down Friday as undersecretary general of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, represents an extraordinary personal attack on Ban from a senior U.N. official. The memo also marks a challenge to Ban’s studiously cultivated image as a champion of accountability.
Shortly after taking office in 2007, Ban committed himself to restoring the United Nations’ reputation, which had been sullied by revelations of corruption in the agency’s oil-for-food program in Iraq.
But Ahlenius says that, rather than being an advocate for accountability, Ban, along with his top advisers, has systematically sought to undercut the independence of her office, initially by trying to set up a competing investigations unit under his control and then by thwarting her efforts to hire her own staff.
“Your actions are not only deplorable, but seriously reprehensible. . . . Your action is without precedent and in my opinion seriously embarrassing for yourself,” Ahlenius wrote in the 50-page memo to Ban, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. “I regret to say that the secretariat now is in a process of decay.” … here
This matter will also seriously affect the efforts to reform the UNHCR, which the US is highly dependent on for processing and referring refugees to our resettlement program. It also shows just how difficult it is to root our bureaucratic corruption, which is an abject lesson for Americans when viewing our own government. This is neither a liberal nor conservative issue as no matter what our political perspectives are we all stand to gain from accountable institutions.
We should never underestimate the constant potential for governments and the UN to degrade into corruption, as well as the efforts that bureaucracies will make to protect their powers.
Posted in UN, UNHCR | Tagged: Ban Ki-moon, corruption, refugees, resettlement, UN, UNHCR, United Nations | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 19, 2010
The Indianapolis Star reports that refugees are not having an easy go of things in Indiana. Refugees, like US citizens, are having a hard time finding jobs, even with job training, and struggle to get by on limited government help. Local resettlement agencies are hoping that the Obama administration will come through with a lot of new government funding via the NSC’s “review” of the federal refugee program.
The U.S. government provides various forms of assistance to refugees — people who typically have escaped the ravages of war-torn nations where torture and political persecution are common — but it’s only available for up to eight months.
By then, it’s expected that refugees — even though many come with limited savings and often little or no English skills — will have found work and be self-sufficient.
…in this economy, many refugees…find it nearly impossible to get work, even with job training provided by the state.
Of the 1,862 refugees and political asylum grantees who resettled in Indiana in 2009, 49 percent became employed, with an average wage of less than $9 an hour.
That leaves many families relying heavily — or entirely — on short-term federal assistance.
…The Obama administration is conducting the first thorough review of the nation’s refugee resettlement system in three decades.
Major reforms are expected to be announced this summer and could include the extension of federal aid for eligible refugees past the current eight-month maximum.
Experts say the review is especially necessary now, given the struggling economy and shaky job market, and because it’s long overdue.
The current system remains virtually unchanged from when it was established by Congress in 1980, when the country was dealing with a wave of refugees from Southeast Asia. Now, the population is more diverse: Last year, nearly 75,000 refugees from more than 70 countries arrived in the United States.
“It’s a cookie-cutter approach to resettlement at this point,” said Carleen Miller, executive director of Exodus Refugee Immigration Inc., which, along with Catholic Charities Indianapolis, is one of two agencies that resettle newcomers in the Circle City.
“There’s not a lot of flexibility to really meet the unique needs of . . . the people that are coming,” Miller said. “It’s never been reviewed to see if it’s really meeting the needs of the current populations that are coming.”
…”The expectation of the United States government is that people are self-sufficient within six months, and that’s really difficult in this economy, plus it’s difficult for the groups that are coming right now.” here
I notice that all the “experts” this journalist refers to are contractors for the refugee program. Is it really any surprise they all want more free government money as the one and only solution to all the problems that plague the program? No one seems to think about how more public funds could drive out the few private funds remaining in the program.
Also, Miller’s statement that the US government expects that refugees be self-sufficient in six months is not correct. If Miller would check her State Department refugee contract she would see that they expect her organization to help 75% of refugees find jobs within six months – and the State Department has dropped that expectation entirely during this recession. Plus, why would the government offer eight months of Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) if they expected everyone to have a job within six months?
The article also mentions medical issues for refugees.
Other issues compound the problem. Because refugees increasingly are coming from war-torn nations such as Iraq, more have such medical issues as shrapnel wounds and amputations.
Those medical issues are yet another difficult hurdle many refugees must overcome in their efforts to find employment and become self-sufficient — and it’s an issue that often requires time.
“I think there are going to be more medical cases,” Miller said, “so this review couldn’t have come at a better time.”
I don’t understand this claim that refugees are increasingly coming from war-torn nations. Haven’t refugees always come from war-torn nations? I know that many non-refugees from the FSR (former-Soviet republics) given refugee status probably didn’t have war injuries, but most refugees have always been fleeing wars, as well as fleeing oppressive regimes that did not offer medical care for their people and that employed torture on opponents.
How will the NSC review address this issue? The national volags are supposedly required to have a plan for placing refugees in their network in places where they can receive proper medical treatment, although somehow refugees keep being placed in cities that do not have torture treatment programs. All the requirements in the world don’t matter if they are not enforced. Also, we already have social security disability payments. Many Americans resent that refugees arrive here and begin to receive social security payments when they haven’t been adding to the social security pot. If disability payments aren’t good enough, what else are the resettlement agencies proposing here?
We won’t know the answer to that until the NSC releases the results of its review because all the meetings have been behind closed doors and only involved the refugee contractors and government agencies. The public was not invited to take part. I hope the refugees aren’t noticing how we practice democracy in this program.
Posted in State Department, NSC (National Security Council), Iraqi, Indiana, health, reform, faith-based, Christian, Obama administration, funding, Exodus Refugee Immigration, Catholic, employment/jobs for refugees, openess and transparency in government, Catholic Charities Indianapolis, Palestinian, Indianapolis | Tagged: NSC, State Department, refugees, National Security Council, Obama, resettlement, Indiana, Exodus Refugee Immigration, Catholic Charities Indianapolis, Refugee Cash Assistance, RCA, FSR, social security disability | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 17, 2010
This is a story from March that we just found out about.
In Moline, Illinois (Quad-Cities) a man abducted and raped two refugee women. The women’s relatives report that their refugee resettlement agency, World Relief, did almost nothing to aid them after the crime.
A man in a van offered the women a ride to the bus stop, and after asking to borrow their cell phone he pulled a gun on them. He then drove them to an isolated section of Big Island and made them walk to an abandoned cabin where he tied them to a desk and repeatedly raped them. After the man left and said he would return for them the women were able to get out of their restraints and flee.
Police say the Woodhull, Illinois man accused of kidnapping and raping two women at gunpoint lured them into his car with the offer of a ride at a bus stop on the Rock Island-Milan border.
Instead, investigators say Jason Kugler victimized them in a day of terror on Big Island.
”It was essentially a ruse, and once he got them into the van, he asked for one of the victim’s cell phones, and once he received the cell phone, he pulled a gun on them”, said Sgt. Steve Ven Huizen, the lead investigator for the Rock Island County Sheriffs Department, who said the women didn’t know Kugler.
The victims, both in their 20′s were then driven the short distance to a remote section of Big Island.
”He ordered them out of the vehicle, and marched them to an abandoned building”, said Rock Island County lead investigator Sgt. Steve Ven Huizen.
The empty, garbage filled yellow cabin sits on the river, inside, a bunk bed, with a desk, which police believe the women were tied to and assaulted.
”They were sexually assaulted, they were bound inside the building, he was telling the victims he was going to return later on”, said the detective.
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But once he left, they managed to un-tie themselves and escape, running through the woods, about a mile towards an embankment that lead to Route 92, where they flagged down a passerby for help…here
Relatives of the victims said that World Relief stopped by only once after the rapes, and that the victims went once or so for counseling and then it stopped.
The relatives also said that they were not happy with World Relief services and how the agency was handling their situation in Moline. The refugees said that World Relief employs heavy control of them, but not real help.
Posted in abuse, dangerous neighborhoods, evangelical, faith-based, Illinois, police, Quad-Cities, safety, sexual abuse, World Relief | Tagged: Illinois, kidnapped, Moline, Quad-Cities, rape, refugees, resettlement, Rock Island, World Relief | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 16, 2010
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is giving Haitians who were in the U.S. as of January 21, 2010 a six month extension to file for TPS (Temporary Protected Status), here. TPS will allow Haitians the legal status to stay here and work legally for at least 18 months. Previously the deadline was July 20, 2010, but is now extended until January 18, 2011. Haitians who cannot afford the registration fees may apply for a fee waiver. The U.S. will not immediately deport Haitians who apply for TPS and receive a rejection determination, as the US is not deporting Haitians at this time. The U.S. will allow Haitians granted TPS to stay in the U.S. until July 22, 2011. The U.S. government will also decide whether or not to extend TPS for Haitians. The U.S. has extended TPS for Hondurans and Nicaraguans for the past 11 years, and for El Salvadorans for nine years.
Posted in Haitian, TPS (Temporary Protected Status), USCIS | Tagged: Haiti, Haitians, temporary protected status, TPS, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 15, 2010
Sudanese refugees accuse Phoenix police officers of brutalizing them at an Episcopal church in Phoenix. The refugee men were sitting in a car in front of the church waiting for a reverend to unlock the doors for a prayer service when the officers accosted them, aggressively pushed and shoved them outside the vehicle, and dragged one man around, bashing his face into the ground. The other man is a Sudanese leader from Tucson. The city has now agreed to pay the men $150,000 to settle the case.
Some parishioners saw the men being handcuffed by police. They wondered why one man was face-down on the street outside their church, blood dripping from his face.
The incident outside St. Paul the Apostle Sudanese Episcopal Church, in which Phoenix police officers were accused of falsely arresting and abusing two Sudanese refugees, led to a recent $150,000 settlement to avoid a lawsuit.
…[Aluk Bak Deng, 38, of Tucson, and Angok Atem, 28] who received the settlement were planning on attending a prayer service inside the church that day in July 2009 joining other refugees to discuss an international court’s ruling on a regional dispute in their war-torn homeland.
St. Paul the Apostle, which is part of the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona, caters to Sudanese refugees.
An internal police investigation cleared Officers Jason Hammernick and Corey Shibata of any wrongdoing. City officials said similar settlements are approved to avoid the added expense of defending officers in court. The notice of claim from the incident outlined how the officers “conspired to falsify” details of the case to justify their probable cause for booking the men on suspicion of resisting arrest and to “avoid being held accountable for their wrongful conduct.
“Hammernick and Shibata told supervisors that they targeted the men as part of a routine traffic stop after running a license plate on a rented Nissan Xterra revealing that the vehicle had been used in a drug case months earlier.
Arok said the incident “looked like a humiliation,” and that many parishioners believed that the escalation from the traffic stop resulted from racial profiling. He said the men were wearing ties and looked like church members, not anyone connected with illegal drug activity.
“We are not denying there are drugs in the area, but this was in front of the church,” Arok said.
[The two Sudanese men] claimed they were aggressively pushed and shoved outside the vehicle, though the officers said the men refused to comply with commands, which led to the physical escalation. here
An article from July 8th gives more information.
One of the men, Aluk Bak Deng, is the president of the Arizona chapter of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, a democratic organization in the war-ravaged African nation.
Bak Deng, 38, had traveled to the church from his home in Tucson to speak at a prayer service at St. Peter and Paul Church near Seventh Avenue and Buckeye Road.
…The men say they were aggressively pushed and shoved outside the vehicle; the officers reported that Bak Deng and Angok Atem, 28, refused to comply with commands, which led to the physical escalation.
The Rev. Anderia Arok, pastor at St. Peter and Paul Church, said he and other congregants saw one of the officers “dragging” Atem and “hitting his face on the ground” in the scuffle.
“It looked like a humiliation,” Arok said. “(The police) did not give us an explanation when we asked what was the matter. . . here
Of course, internal police investigations clearing officers means relatively little. Are we supposed to expect that the police can police themselves? The only thing that would be meaningful would be the conclusion drawn from an investigation by a neutral third-party.
Secondly, the City officials’ statement that they approve similar settlements simply to avoid the added cost of defending officers in court insults our intelligence. Cities never settle police brutality cases if they think they have a good chance of prevailing, and the plaintiffs have the burden of proof. Big cities like Phoenix have full-time attorneys who they have to pay whether they go to trial or sit in the office, and have no hesitation to go to trial when they think they can win.
Posted in abuse, Arizona, dangerous neighborhoods, Episcopal, Phoenix, police, South Sudanese | Tagged: Aluk Bak Deng, Bak Deng, church, Phoenix, police brutality, refugees, resettlement, SPLA, St. Peter and Paul Church, Sudan People's Liberation Movement, sudanese | Leave a Comment »
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