Archive for May, 2011
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 31, 2011
The Australian refugee resettlement contractor scandal in Newcastle, New South Whales continues to unravel. An article in the Sydney Morning Herald reveals that not only will the federal government do a forensic audit of the financial management of the resettlement contract, but that the resettlement contractor was also involved in the oil-for-food scandal in Iraq during dictator Saddam Hussein’s rule. This should be a cautionary tale for each case in which one of the US volags is caught violating contracts and abusing refugees — it is simply a matter of time before it happens again or gets worse if it is not rigorously and openly addressed.
A company accused of ripping off refugees was taken over by Trevor Flugge just days after it began its controversial government contract.
Mr Flugge paid $55 million for ACL Pty Ltd, the company which became Navitas English Pty Ltd, after it won the contract to resettle refugees, a business in which it had no previous experience, in Newcastle.
It did not go well from the start. Within months, the company and Mr Flugge were named in a Senate estimates committee hearing over the way the refugees were being treated in the resettlement program, which is responsible for housing and welfare.
The federal Labor MP for Newcastle, Sharon Grierson, told Parliament that within six months, serious problems had emerged. A two-year-old boy had died, refugees were left without enough food, and others had been left alone and given the triple-0 emergency number to call, even though they spoke no English.
A wheelchair-bound man was housed in a first-floor apartment with no lift.
Ms Grierson said those complaints, which stretched back six years, had never been addressed. She told The Sun-Herald this week that there were now allegations of theft, rorting of rents and neglect of the refugees.
Mr Flugge quit as a director of Navitas after the oil-for-food scandal erupted in 2006 and pictures of his gun-toting days in Iraq were splashed around the country.
A refugee advocate, Sister Diana Santleben, has consistently flagged the substandard housing that refugees were being forced to live in, at times without adequate heating or facilities or bedrooms.
The Department of Immigration renewed the contract with Navitas English in March. But when the Minister for Immigration, Chris Bowen, was told about the problems he ordered an urgent investigation. Last week he released a scathing report by Ernst & Young into Navitas English’s treatment of the refugees in the Newcastle area.
The report found families were living in unsafe and unacceptable conditions. Many were in overcrowded accommodation and were overcharged for rents, while the quality of the basic household goods they were given was poor. The review has sparked a nationwide audit of refugee resettlement programs.
Mr Bowen has asked Professor David Richmond, AO, to conduct a review into the department and its processes as well as a forensic audit of the financial management of the contract. He has also asked for a report on whether any departmental staff were in breach of their obligations under the public service code of conduct.
He has put the contractor, Navitas English, and the subcontractor, Resolve FM, on notice about expected standards, particularly when dealing with vulnerable people… Read more here
Now, there have been tens of dozens of US refugee resettlement contractors caught neglecting, abusing, and ripping-off refugees in the US refugee resettlement program during the past 15 years, and never once did I encounter a case in which the federal government agency “partners” ever once did a forensic audit. In almost every case refugee resettlement agency and government oversight agency partners stonewalled the media and members of the community and whitewashed findings. Only in the most extreme serious cases, and usually only once the media became involved, did the State Department and/or it’s refugee resettlement contractor discontinue the contract. Yet, charges were never filed, restitution was never made to the taxpayer, and almost never were refugees compensated for the abuse.
I think its clear that the US refugee resettlement program needs to take some lessons in democracy and government accountability from our friends in Australia.
Posted in abuse, Australian refugee resettlement prgm, Catholic, Congolese, fractious relationships with volunteers, furnishings, lack of, household items, missing or broken, housing, substandard, neglect, openess and transparency in government, State Department, stealing money from refugees, Sudanese | Tagged: Australia, forensic audit, government contract, human rights, Newcastle, refugee, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, resettlement, State Department | 2 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 27, 2011
Alex Perry writing for TIME magazine gives us the five top figures that mean we get the world wrong. He has some interesting corrections to stats given by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and other organizations about refugee situations in Africa. The problem of relying upon these organizations for stats is that they have a vested interest in making the highest possible estimate of refugee numbers, including people killed and/or displaced. Higher numbers translate into more influence, prestige and funding for the IRC and other refugee organizations and NGO’s (non-governmental organizations).
Oversight requires outside/third parties (preferably disinterested parties) to supply the facts. Its fundamental.
Damn Statistics: Top Five False Figures That Mean We Get The World Wrong…
…2. The 1998-2002 war in the DRC cost 5.4 million lives, more than any conflict since World War II. No, it didn’t. It’s undeniable that the chaos of war makes collecting statistics particularly difficult. But it doesn’t help clarify the situation if, as the International Rescue Committee did in 2008, you take a sample from the most war-torn area of the country and extrapolate it for the whole country, nor if you attribute to war deaths that are in reality from malnutrition and diseases such as malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia. There is, no doubt, a strong, indirect link between those deaths and war, even if the fighting had largely ended by 2002 and you are collecting figures for six years after that. But there is an even stronger and more direct link between these deaths and the DRC’s extremely poor health system. Deaths directly resulting from the fighting number in the tens of thousands. The IRC later said a more accurate toll was spread of between 3 million and 7.6 million. Other estimates put the total number of dead from conflict and the decline in living conditions that resulted at 1-2 million. All these figures describe a catastrophe. But if you base decisions on quantities of aid and peacekeepers on bad figures, you’ll inevitably get bad results.
3. There are 3 million Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa. No, there aren’t. This figure is used almost universally by journalists and governments to describe the extent of the economic collapse in Zimbabwe and its implications for Zimbabwe’s neighbors. It was in wide use during the largely anti-Zimbabwean riots in 2008 in which more than 60 people died across South Africa. Tragic, then, that it’s not true. Puzzled by the stat’s appearance, the Southern African Migration Project, a research and advisory body which specializes in tracking refugees, carried out two investigations: into the true figure, which it found to be 800,000 to 1 million, and the origin of the number of 3 million, which it found to be a South African journalist… Read more here
Posted in Congolese, IRC | Tagged: Alex Perry, human rights, International Rescue Committee, IRC, NGO, non-governmental organizations, refugee, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 24, 2011
Don’t think the deplorable conditions under which Australian refugee resettlement contractors are resettling refugees in Newcastle are any different from what keeps happening over here on the other side of the big pond. In Milwaukee journalists just busted Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan for placing Burmese refugees in an apartment building overflowing with code violations, roaches, and leaking sewage, and run by a known child-porn felon. He has been convicted of tax offenses, has a history of serious building-code violations, and is being sued by the city in four different lawsuits – yet Lutheran Social Services claims they have the best interests of the refugees at heart — for sure. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tells more:
Dozens of Burmese refugees who fled persecution in their homeland have landed in recent years in cockroach-infested Milwaukee apartments, some thick with the smell of leaking sewage and almost all unprotected by working smoke or carbon monoxide detectors.
Many of the refugees were placed in the squalid conditions by Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, which acknowledges it never conducted a background check on the complex’s owner, Daniel Bruckner, a Fox Point lawyer.
State and city records reviewed by the Journal Sentinel show Bruckner faces hundreds of city building code violations and four city lawsuits, owes nearly a half-million dollars in delinquent property taxes and has seven felony convictions for importing child pornography.
Lutheran Social Services was unaware of Bruckner’s code violations and legal troubles, said Natascha Malkemes, a spokeswoman for the agency.
“We should know these things,” she conceded, adding,”We have our clients’ best interests at heart for sure.”
On Friday, the agency - which is paid federal dollars to settle refugees - released a statement saying, “The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has recently made our organization aware of litigation against and a criminal record of a landlord we have worked with in the past. Because of this development, Lutheran Social Services will immediately begin looking into ways to put procedures in place to apply background check standards on all of the landlords we work with.”
In addition, the agency pledged to contact the refugees who rent from Bruckner and assist any who wish to move.
Bruckner placed the blame for most of his 443 building-code infractions at Wilson Park Garden Apartments on his tenants, especially the Burmese refugees…
…The U.S. State Department’s standard agreement with social services agencies says refugees should have “decent, safe and sanitary housing” with working smoke detectors, adequate heat and electrical fixtures, and should be “free of rodent and insect infestation” with “no detectable dangerous or unsanitary odors.”
But in interview after interview, refugees living in the apartments on S. 20th St. said they had tried for months without success to get Bruckner to fix failings in these areas…
…The cockroach problems had persisted for months, according to residents, and were evident in numerous visits by reporters to the complex.
At night, bugs came out and bit her children, explained Paw Shee during an interview two weeks ago. Shee, a 36-year-old, lives at the apartment complex with her husband, three children and an army of roaches. Sometimes the bugs crawled over her face, Shee said,
speaking through an interpreter.
When workers finally fumigated apartments on May 5, they did so while adults and young children were inside, according to the residents. Missy Henriksen, a spokeswoman for the National Pest Management Association, said manufacturers usually recommend that a spray be dry before people re-enter a room.
One floor above, Moo Nge, his wife and their five children had one of the few carbon monoxide detectors in the apartments that reporters visited. The detector was installed only after Moo Nge was rushed to the hospital in September with carbon monoxide poisoning, which family members said happened when he was cooking. The hospitalization forced him to miss work, and he lost his temp job.
On the top floor of the same building lives a woman named Mu Mu, 43, her three children and three other family members. Their refrigerator is broken. So is one of the toilets, and there is a gaping hole behind the bathtub faucet.
“We tried to call, but he did not come,” Mu Mu said when asked about the landlord…
…Malkemes acknowledged that her agency had no idea that Bruckner is a convicted felon with a history of serious building-code violations who is being sued by the city in four different lawsuits. She agreed that these issues could affect the safety of the refugees.
When asked about the cockroach infestation at the apartments, Malkemes said by email: “New arrivals come from refugee camps where they had no electricity or running water, and sometimes are not accustomed to general upkeep or how to properly store food. In these camps, refugees are often exposed to insects and this is their everyday (life).”
Non-refugees agree
Although Bruckner and his building manager blamed refugees for the cockroach problem, other tenants who are not refugees also described having infestation problems at Wilson Park Garden Apartments. Moreover, these tenants provided accounts that mirrored other hardships cited by the refugees.
Families described arriving in winter to apartments without heat, going days without working refrigerators and weeks or months without working stoves. The problems the families described are consistent with those cited in inspectors’ reports.
Despite these conditions, the non-refugee tenants were paying as much as $845 a month in rent…Read more here
Let’s see, what could be LIRS’ excuse this time? No doubt it will be the same tired old excuses – their affiliate (subcontractor) didn’t
“know” about the apartments or the slumlord running the place. (Why not? Aren’t they paid to know?) Or, Lutheran Social Services has been growing. Gee, isn’t that the point of having LIRS and its vast experience on hand to advise and oversee its affiliate? And why didn’t the State Department know about this mess? Oh I forgot, LIRS and the other volags are “partners” and are supposed to “self-monitor” their affiliates. Yet once again that method proves disastrous. In the meantime the State Dept. monitors most likely haven’t inspected for years. These refugees would have continued to suffer in these deplorable conditions had journalists not intervened.
Lutheran Social Services claims it “will immediately begin looking into ways to put procedures in place to apply background check standards on all of the landlords we work with”? Yet LIRS has been
resettling refugees for decades and the State Department and
journalists have continually caught them placing refugees into
deplorable slum apartments. Why aren’t background checks the norm at every LIRS affiliate?
Will we see the State Department’s Office of Admissions conduct a timely Australian-style investigation – with an investigation report made immediately available to the public? Don’t count on it. Our national refugee resettlement program seems to be run secretively with the sole purpose of shielding the private refugee resettlement contractor partners and their government oversight friends from any real accountability.
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, Cooperative Agreement, faith-based, home visits, housing, housing, substandard, Karen, LIRS, Lutheran, Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, Milwaukee, openess and transparency in government, rats and roaches, State Department, Wisconsin | Tagged: Burma/Myanmar, Cooperative Agreement, government contract, human rights, Karen, LIRS, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Lutheran social services, Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, Milwaukee, Myanmar, Office of Admissions, pedaphile, porn felon, refugee, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, resettlement, slumlord, State Department, substandard housing, tax evasion, Wilson Park Garden Apartments, Wisconsin | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 24, 2011
A State Department official and the Catholic Courier report that the arrival of new refugees to the US slowed to a trickle due to new security measures put in place by the Department of Homeland Security. The USCCB volag in the first eight months of the fiscal year indicated it has only resettled 38% of refugees scheduled for resettlement this fiscal year.
The number of refugees taking shelter in the United States has slowed to a trickle following new security measures put in place by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.Meanwhile, Catholic refugee resettlement offices across the country are left waiting, uncertain when the flow of refugees will begin again — and when it does, how many refugees may be allowed to enter the country.
Last year, the United States welcomed 75,417 refugees — people escaping religious or political persecution, poverty, natural disasters and more.
The number is determined every year by the president in consultation with Congress; the slots are divided among different regions of the world. In October, President Barack Obama authorized 80,000 refugees be accepted during fiscal year 2011, which runs from October 2010 to September 2011.
Each year, the U.S. bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services and its diocesan affiliates resettle between 27 percent and 28 percent of the total number authorized to come to the United States, with other aid organizations helping the rest.
An MRS staffer in Washington told Catholic News Service May 16 that of 80,000 authorized for entry this year, the agency and its diocesan affiliates expected to resettle 23,358 refugees. But because of the slow down, only 38 percent of the number authorized by Obama have entered the United States.
Delays in the refugee resettlement process are being caused by a backlog of security clearances and additional security “holds,” according to Larry Bartlett, acting director of the Office of Refugee Admissions for the State Department. The additional security measures are part of a larger series of security enhancements by the Homeland Security Department… Read more here
Posted in Catholic, ceiling limit, refugee annual, Charlotte, funding, North Carolina, Office of Admissions, PRM, security/terrorism, USCCB | Tagged: ae Office of Refugee Admissions, Catholic Social Services Charlotte, Charlotte, Department of Homeland Security, Diocese of Charlotte, FISCAL YEAR 2011, human rights, Larry Bartlett, Migration and Refugee Services, North Carolina, Obama, refugee, resettlement, security clearance, security measure, State Department, U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops, USCCB, volag | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 23, 2011
ABC Newcastle reports that the Australian federal government has now released an investigative report about a refugee resettlement contractor’s neglect and abuse of refugees in Newcastle, in the Australian state of New South Whales. The government has now called in police to investigate the horrendous, substandard — albeit expensive — housing that the contractor placed Sudanese and Congolese refugees into. The Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has also ordered an audit of refugee housing across the country
The Immigration Minister says New South Wales police have been called in to investigate some problems with services provided to refugees in the Newcastle area.
Chris Bowen has released a report into the housing for refugees in the area and says it does not make for pretty reading.
He says some refugees had received substandard services including accommodation with no hot water, holes in the roof and window panes missing in a bedroom.
“The report identifies some instances of substandard housing, rental charges not necessarily related to market conditions, inappropriate charges for property damage, poor quality household goods and identifies that there have been less than healthy relations between service providers and local community groups,” he said.
“I have instructed my department to undertake an immediate action in relation to the findings of the report.”
He says he has ordered an audit of refugee housing across the country because he needs to be reassured it is up to standard… Read more here
This case amazes me as I’ve investigated, read reports about, and seen dozens of similar cases in the US, with refugee resettlement agencies placing refugees in deplorable housing, and never once did the government oversight agency (the Admissions Office in the State Dept’s Bureau of PRM) ever call in police to investigate. Nor was any oversight report made available immediately, as the Australian government has done in this case. Media organizations in the US have had to sue the State Dept. simply to abide by the law – the Freedom of Information Act – and release documents.
It seems like the US has a lot to learn from Australia. I’m ashamed of our government’s oversight of our national refugee resettlement program, in which they have left fundamental problems of accountability and oversight linger for decades.
***UPDATE*** — May 24, 2011 – Calls for Australian refugee contractor to be stripped of contract. Sister Diana Santleben says investigation report left out significant details.
***UPDATE*** — May 24, 2011 – Australian refugee resettlement contractor accused of stealing from refugees
***UPDATE*** — May 26, 2011 - Radio interview of whistle-blower Sister Diana Santleben and Australian Immigration Minister Chris Bowen.
Posted in abuse, Australian refugee resettlement prgm, Catholic, furnishings, lack of, household items, missing or broken, housing, housing, substandard, openess and transparency in government | Tagged: Australia, Congolese refugees, human rights, New South Whales, Newcastle, refugee, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, substandard housing, Sudanese refugees | 2 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 22, 2011
The Boston Globe reports that the US federal government is giving an 18-month extension to Haitians who came to the US before the deadly earthquake and whom the government granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Further, a new policy will allow Haitians who fled that country after the earthquake to work and live in the United States through the beginning of 2013. Previously, only those who lived in the country before the earthquake had access to the TPS being extended under the new policy. Now, Haitians who arrived in the U.S. up to a year after the quake can use the status until Jan. 22, 2013.
Haitians who fled the earthquake-ravaged nation last year will be eligible to apply for special status that allows them to live and work legally in the United States for a fixed amount of time, US immigration officials announced today.
The move extending so-called temporary protected status to the Haitians marks a major shift for federal officials, who had resisted granting it to thousands of Haitians in part to discourage a life-threatening mass migration by sea.The announcement comes days after Haiti inaugurated a new president.
Under their new status, the Haitians who came after the quake will enjoy the protected status until Jan. 22, 2013. The government also gave the 18-month extension to Haitians who came to the US before the quake. It had been set to expire in July.
“Providing a temporary refuge for Haitian nationals who are currently in the United States and whose personal safety would be endangered by returning to Haiti is part of this administration’s continuing efforts to support Haiti’s recovery,” Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said in a statement.
The estimated 10,000 people who had fled after the quake on visitor visas, which they overstayed because they had no jobs or homes to return to, ended up crowded into relatives’ homes or homeless and living in motels, as the Globe reported in January… Read more here
Posted in Dept of Homeland Security, Haitian, TPS (Temporary Protected Status), USCIS | Tagged: earthquake, Haiti, Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, refugee, refugee res, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, temporary protected status, TPS | Leave a Comment »
Posted by nancylee1 on May 19, 2011
Stop and think for a moment about how many things in life you are given a manual or handbook on.
A new car…a new appliance…a rental agreement…a mortgage…a school…a contract of any kind…a new job…medical insurance, results and permissions…voter information…when you think about it, for almost anything that is important, you are given written information that allows you to make informed decisions and allows you to have something to refer back to.
In most cases of immigration however, this is not true. Although agencies are paid by the government to care for immigrants and refugees, explanatory written information is very often not provided. Rather, people unfamiliar with even the most basic functioning of this country are given oral seminars while they are in a state of fear and extreme fatigue, not to mention often ill. They are expected to take in cursory information that is foreign to them and hold onto it in their minds. Things that are given to them in writing are often not explained and their signature is required, but they are not even given a copy of what they have signed.
Sound like a losing proposition?
It is.
By doing this, agencies are setting people up for failure and increasing their fear. In addition, for someone who does not speak English or does not have a computer, it is comparable to being thrown to the wolves. In a country where unemployment is around 30% for refugees and living expenses are sky high, being thrown to wolves might seem like a relief compared with trying to cope in a strange new country filled with problems.
It is time to demand that agencies correct this and immigrants and refugees are given an area and language specific handbook or manual, stating the information they need to survive. What the agency has spent on them, the specifics of the program they came into the country on, their insurance benefits, hospital information, school information, local agency information, federal government programs information, lease information, utility information, all the knowledge the caseworkers are expected to know, should be presented in written form to people upon arrival.
Too many have been thrown to the wolves and are destitute because of it. This is unnecessary and inhumane and certainly not in keeping with the sentiment expressed in the website of the agencies.
“A willing heart, a helping hand, and a sense of serving the community with joy..” “…provide help and create hope for more than 9 million people of all faiths each year.” “… leveraging time, energy and resources to join the vulnerable in their time of need.”
Providing a useful tool in writing such as a handbook would go a long way to make these aspirations more attainable.
Please write to your government officials and demand immigrants and refugees be given what they need. Take ten minutes of your time to do this most important task.
Posted in cultural/community orientation, post arrival, economic self-sufficiency, immigration assistance, immigration services, insufficient assistance with daily tasks, language interpretation/translation, lack of, NGO's (Non-governmental organizations), R&P, Uncategorized | Tagged: agencies, handbook, human rights, immigrant, immigration, information in writing, refugee, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, resettlement, volag | 21 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 18, 2011
The ORR has finally released its mandated Report to Congress for fiscal year 2008 — two-and-a-half years late.
Posted in Annual Report to Congress, ORR | Tagged: 2008, Congress, HHS, human rights, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, refugee, refugee resesettlement agencies, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement program, Report to Congress, resettlement | 3 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 16, 2011
Nashville Public Radio is reporting that Tennessee’s House and Senate have passed the state refugee bill that would mandate that resettlement agencies report quarterly to local governments. It would also allow local communities to apply for a “moratorium” on refugee resettlement, with resettlement agencies, if those agencies overload local services.
…Refugee resettlement bill – The full House and Senate have now voted to require any agency that administers the state’s refugee program, which is currently Catholic Charities of Tennessee, to report quarterly to local governments.
SB 1670 from Sen. Jim Tracy of Shelbyville, which has seen a huge growth in Somali refugees, is called the Refugee Absorptive Capacity Act.
It’s designed to help local authorities plan for schools and emergency services. But it also requires Catholic Charities to accept an application from a local government for a moratorium on new refugee resettlement if a host community lacks sufficient capacity… Read more here
This bill should be unnecessary as an ORR regulation and the State Department’s Cooperative Agreement contract with resettlement agencies supposedly already require state refugee coordinators (in this case Catholic Charities itself as the state of Tennessee has dropped out of oversight responsibilities) to convene quarterly meetings with local officials. But this is the problem with under-monitored and unenforced requirements, which our national refugee resettlement program is rife with. Government oversight agencies have little authority in their relationships with refugee resettlement contractors who are thought of as “partners”. Enforcement of requirements and rigorous monitoring wouldn’t be partner-like. Hence we now have a state legislature attempting to codify a federal regulation. Doesn’t this undermine Tennessee residents’ trust of the national resettlement program? Every other lack of enforcement of basic requirements also undermines the public’s trust.
Posted in Catholic Charities of Tennessee, Cooperative Agreement, legislation, moratorium / restriction, ORR, State Department, Tennessee | Tagged: Cooperative Agreement, human rights, Nashville, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, refugee, Refugee Absorptive Capacity Act, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, resettlement, Shelbyville, State Department, Tennessee | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 14, 2011
An article in the Twin Falls Times-News illustrates poor communication between refugee resettlement partners, with the refugee resettlement agency College of Southern Idaho claiming that they need $40,000 more in their budget from the Idaho Office for Refugees — for ESL and a driving program for refugees — while the Idaho Office for Refugees says this is the first they’ve about it. It seems that the federal refugee oversight agency, ORR (Office of Refugee Resettlement) in HHS, finally began requiring that ORR Wilson-Fish grant money, channeled through state governments, be earmarked for specific programs (before, loose requirements meant that resettlement agency contractors could easily shift money around with little real oversight). Due to apparent poor communication between partners, however, the College of Southern Idaho now has $40,000 earmarked for refugee employment assistance (help finding jobs) that the refugees instead need for services to help them to keep jobs — English lessons and driving instruction.
In an effort to curb overspending, the College of Southern Idaho’s refugee center has suspended its driver’s education program and temporarily cut back on English classes and transportation.
They’re not budget cuts, emphasized director Ron Black. Rather, the center is rolling back programs until it gets its spending under control. Black hopes to bring them back by July.
The refugee center gets its funding from multiple federal grants. One of them, the Wilson-Fish, provides money for eight months after refugees’ initial resettlement. The CSI refugee center receives $424,000 annually from that grant.
Previously, that money came in one sum, said Jan Reeves, director of the Boise-based Idaho Office for Refugees, allowing centers to spend it on their needs. But in 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement announced new rules to Wilson-Fish funding, stipulating the money must be appropriated into contracts, or specific funds.
One of the contracts from the Idaho Office for Refugees was $40,000 for services that extend beyond the eight months that most refugees receive assistance. Refugees might need that extra help if they still haven’t found jobs, Black explained.
In Boise, where more refugees struggle to find work, that extra help is needed, Black said. But in Twin Falls, where most refugees who arrive in Twin Falls find work quickly, that money could better be used for other programs, like English classes or driver’s training.
“We have jobs, but we have to prepare our people to compete for them,” Black said.
Since the refugee driving course’s inception last year in Twin Falls, more than 100 refugees have received driver’s licenses, according to Black — more than organizers had anticipated. Between having that $40,000 from the Wilson-Fish grant earmarked and spending more than it expected on driver’s education, the refugee center has overspent by $20,000. To correct those costs, the center has reduced English-language classroom time from three to two hours daily and suspended driver’s education. Staff members are also asking refugees to carpool or find other rides to work instead of relying on the center for transportation.
Black wants to reinstate the programs as soon as possible.
“So that’s why we’re saying to Boise we need that $40,000 in our regular budget,” he said.
But Reeves said in an April 22 interview that he hadn’t heard from Twin Falls about the budget problems.
“If that were the case, I would certainly be receptive to some proposals for revision,” Reeves said. “But I have not received any from the CSI program.”… Read more here
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, employment/jobs for refugees, funding, Idaho, Nepali Bhutanese, ORR, Twin Falls | Tagged: Boise, College of Southern Idaho, ESL, government funding, human rights, Idaho Office for Refugees, refugee, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, resettlement, Twin Falls, Wilson-Fish | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
