Archive for August, 2011
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 31, 2011
A high school in Regina, Canada has deemed two Sudanese teenage refugee brothers “international students” and asked them to pay tuition fees of $10,000 each. A CBC News article has more:
Two refugees living in Regina are facing tuition fees of $10,000 each for high school, fees they have no way of paying.
The family caring for Lino and Angelo Kuol are hoping to raise the tuition money by appealing for donations.
The two boys, who are Sudanese, arrived in Regina Friday from Kenya. Before that, they were rescued from a refugee camp in Uganda…
…Lino and his brother Angelo, 15, were also quickly enrolled at Sheldon Williams High School in Regina, which has allowed them to start classes.
However, the boys are considered international students and are expected to pay $10,000 for the school year.
“These two boys, they don’t have any financial support at all,” Avery said. “The charitable organization they’re with did cover the cost of their flights to come here, but they’re not in a position to help with their tuition.”… Read more here
Posted in Canadian refugee resettlement pgrm, schools, Sudanese, teenagers, teens | Tagged: Canada, refugees, Regina, resettlement, sudanese | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 30, 2011
A story about a 39-year-old Congolese refugee welcoming his wife and four children to Newcastle, Australia after a long separation is featured in The Newcastle Herald. This is the same city where an unscrupulous government resettlement contractor, Navitas, was caught neglecting refugees earlier this year.
A smartly dressed and smiling Jerome Rugaruza sits at a large oval table on the wide timber verandah at Newcastle University’s Bar on the Hill. On a campus rich with cultural diversity, the 39-year-old Congolese refugee, who arrived in the city in December 2009, does not stand out among the scattering of students enjoying a late-afternoon snack and catch-up between lectures.
Jerome, who speaks French, Swahili, English and a number of central African dialects, is a first-year social sciences student whose favourite subject is sociology. He sometimes struggles to understand the lectures – he is more adept at reading English – but is hungry to learn.
He attempted university study three times in his homeland, the volatile Democratic Republic of Congo, but ongoing political power struggles and violent unrest intervened. It is for good reason that Congo is known as Africa’s “Afghanistan”, a country torn apart by protracted bloodshed, where child soldiers and rape as a weapon have been widely used.
He was 23 when he was first forced to flee Fizi, his tribal village in the lawless east, close to the porous border with Rwanda, and since then his life has been dominated by instability and bleak periods of hopelessness. This afternoon, though, he can’t suppress his smile.
In 24 hours, his wife Imaculee and the couple’s four children, aged 12 to two, will arrive at Newcastle Airport after a three-day journey from the Kenyan capital Nairobi, where they have been living since January last year while their visa application was assessed and approved…
…There are … distinct challenges confronting African migrants who have arrived from war-torn countries, often after many years in refugee camps.
One of the most comprehensive studies into the difficulties faced by African Australians, In Our Own Words, which was published last year by the Australian Human Rights Commission, found discrimination and prejudice were part of their everyday lives. Securing housing and a job, as well as learning English, were also significant challenges…
…Navitas (formerly ACL) is contracted by the federal government to provide Humanitarian Settlement Services (HSS) and earlier this year was embroiled in controversy about the standard of accommodation provided to refugees in Newcastle…
…As refugees, the couple have to establish their own compass to help them make decisions such as which school to send the children to, and where they should live after their time in temporary housing runs out. While there is Navitas and community support, it is not as simple as asking for advice. They don’t want to offend, and must always appear grateful, never making demands. It is a bind not spoken about, but observed… Read more here
Posted in Australian refugee resettlement prgm, Congolese | Tagged: Australia, Congolese, Democratic Republic of Congo, Jerome Rugaruza, Navitas, Newcastle, refugges, resettlement, Tutsi | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 29, 2011
Tensions between black and Nepali-Bhutanese residents of a North Side Columbus apartment complex reached a peak last week when officers were called on a report of a fight that included a man with a gun. The story is in The Columbus Dispatch:
The fight that resulted in the shooting death of a man by a Columbus police officer on Wednesday night apparently was the result of racial tensions between black and Nepalese residents of a North Side apartment complex, neighbors said.
Residents of the complex said a melee broke out between four black men and as many as 20 Nepalese immigrants, all of whom live in the Breckenridge Apartments off Shanley Drive.
About 100 Nepales refugees live in the complex, said a woman from Nepal who lives there. She said the racial tensions are ongoing, and she asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.
Yesterday, police still wouldn’t release the name of the man who died shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Ohio State University Medical Center…
…The incident began, Columbus police said, when officers were called about 8:30 p.m. to 1666 Shanley Dr. on a report of a fight that included a man with a gun.
Just as officers arrived, they heard gunshots, said Sgt. Christine Nemchev, spokeswoman for Columbus police.
Two officers went into a crowd that was fighting in the apartment-complex courtyard, and one of them got into a scuffle with an armed man. That man was shot by the officer’s partner, according to police… Read more here
Another article identifies the man killed by police as 21-year-old Francis Owens.
My question is a simple one: What did the refugees’ resettlement agency do to help them resolve the escalating tensions? Some landlords let disruptive and hostile tenants in, and its at that point that other tenants need to think about getting out. Did the resettlement agency place these refugees at the apartment complex? Did the agency help the Nepalese try to negotiate through the tricky situation?
Posted in Columbus, Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS), Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS), dangerous neighborhoods, Nepali Bhutanese, police, safety | Tagged: bhutanese, Breckenridge Apartments, Columbus, Community Refugee and Immigration Services, CRIS, Francis Owens, nepalese, Nepali-Bhutanese, police, refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 29, 2011
With wrong information about the address of a suspect, Hamilton, Ontario police mistakenly broke into a Karen refugee family’s apartment, throwing a 5 ft 7”, 130-pound, 58-yr-old Karen man to the floor and breaking his nose, before stomping him as a form of “restraint”. Result: three broken ribs and a fractured vertebra. Upon discovering their mistake the officers did not apologise, and waited 30 minutes before calling an ambulance. Later, in court, the four officers broke out in collective amnesia about who did the stomping (obvious obstruction of justice). The Hamilton police department then failed to report the blotched raid to a provincial police watchdog which provides civilian oversight on police matters, until it received extensive media coverage. An article in The Irrawaddy publication has more:
A 58-year-old Karen refugee has filed a lawsuit against the Hamilton Police Service Board in Ontario after he was beaten and assaulted by a police tactical squad during a botched raid on the home of a suspected drug trafficker.
The Karen man, Po La Hay, was resettled to Canada in 2006 from Mae Ra Ma Luang refugee camp in Thailand where he had lived for 10 years. He had applied for resettlement for his three children and himself (his wife had died from cancer some time earlier)…
…In Canada, he quickly found work at a garden center and shared a modest apartment with his children in Hamilton, an industrial town 50km southwest of Toronto.
At 9 pm on May 4, 2010, while Po La Hay was cooking rice, armed police officers dressed in black fatigues burst through the door of his apartment.
Po La Hay said that one or more police officers threw him violently to the ground. His head hit the floor, breaking his nose. He said he was pinned to the floor by an officer while another kicked him repeatedly.
Also in the apartment were his son, Say Blut, 23, who had been asleep in his room, and family friend Panar Noo, 21, was in the bathroom at the time. Panar Noo said he was handcuffed, dragged down the stairs and kicked several times. Say Blut was allegedly handcuffed by the police and locked in his bedroom.
Po La Hay claims that as he lay bleeding and pinned to the floor by several large police officers, another officer entered the apartment and shouted for them to stop—for they had the wrong man.
The suspect, a 36-year-old black man, lived next door, had apparently lied previously about his address to the police. He was caught trying to escape out the back window of his apartment moments after the fracas happened next door.
Po La Hay said that officers released him when they realized their mistake, wiped the blood from his head with a rag, but offered no apology. He said the police did not call for an ambulance for a further 30 minutes.
The following day, nursing three fractured ribs, a fractured vertebra, a broken nose and cuts to the face, Po La Hay went with members of Karen community support groups to the offices of the Settlement and Integration Services Organization (SISO) to report the incident.
On May 6, Hamilton Police Chief Glenn De Caire agreed to meet SISO representatives and a member of the local Karen community.
De Caire expressed sorrow for what happened to Po La Hay Hay, (though he later issued a formal apology via the media) but he defended his officers’ decision to restrain the 5 ft 7” [173cm], 130-pound [60 kg] Karen man based of their information that a potentially dangerous criminal lived in the apartment.
A witness at the meeting said that the police chief responded angrily to a question by a Karen community leader about the alleged assault, and accused the man of “derogatory and inflammatory” comments against his officers.
It is further alleged that Hamilton police did not report the blotched drug bust to the Special Investigations Unit, a provincial police watchdog which provides civilian oversight on police matters, until it received extensive media coverage in Ontario…
…[A judge] said he was very concerned with the recollection of the four officers who were witnesses in the court proceedings and present during the raid at Po La Hay’s apartment. It seems that none of them could remember which one applied the stomp to his ribs.
According to the Hamilton Spectator, Currie said the collective evidence of the witness officers “strains credulity and raises the specter of a cover up.”… Read more here
A Canadian blogger named Lorne points out police organizations’ penchant for secrecy and concealment, reminding me of this continuing theme we see from government refugee resettlement oversight agencies. He doubts that anything will ever change until these government agency leaders recognize that a large part of their mandate is accountability to the public.
Posted in abuse, Canadian refugee resettlement pgrm, Karen, openess and transparency in government, police, safety | Tagged: Burmese, Hamilton, Karen, Panar Noo, Po La Hay, police, refugees, resettlement, Say Blut | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 28, 2011
Ariel Roberta at the Buffalo Rising newspaper released her last installment of a three-part series on refugees in Buffalo (see Part l and Part ll). She notes local resettlement agencies’ involvement in the removal of the “Nickel City Smiler” documentary film from a local film festival, with the film festival organizers writing, “a number of our partners were passionately angered by the film, and were offended by our screening of it.” Apparently, these “partners” decided that they would not let the public decide for itself what it thought about the issue. Although the film was the only locally-produced documentary in the series, promoters screened another refugee documentary from Tennessee, though it too was controversial. She also quotes an AmeriCorps worker as saying she believed the censorship may have been due to, “the agencies preference to look ahead, not backward.”
It must be nice to have that kind of power – to control what the public is able to know – nice, although not particularly ethical. Although, perhaps the public has a right to look at both the past, present and future. Arial Roberta also quotes a Buffalo schoolteacher saying, “Some of my [adult refugee] students have been reduced to tears after their caseworker didn’t return phone calls or was rude to them.” The teacher also told her that although getting by in Buffalo is often a harrowing task, none of her students have complained about housing quality, and that anything is a step up from huts in the jungle.
…Heart of the City Neighborhoods, Inc. (HOTC) is a non-profit group that focuses on creating programs that improve the quality of housing along with promoting sustainable projects for the Lower West Side. HOTC hosted their first ever film series at Buffalo’s Theater of Youth during the months of June and July. Their goal was to have public screenings of documentary films relating to sustainable housing in order to create discussions around the films.
Chance Encounter Productions (CEP) was invited to show their film “Nickel City Smiler”. A short time after they sent their materials, however, they were informed via email from Heart of the City that their film was regretfully not going to be shown. The Heart of the City Community Outreach Coordinator stated in the email that “a number of our partners were passionately angered by the film, and were offended by our screening of it.”
NCS was the only locally made film slated to be featured in the series. Documentaries from other parts of America were shown, including one titled “Welcome to Shelbyville”, which has some of its own controversy swirling around it. CEP believes that they were censored by resettlement agencies, some of which are partners with Heart of the City.
“The goal of this film has always been to get the community involved,” says Director Scott Murchie. “My hopes were that the film would make its way from the heart of the city out to the surrounding communities, inspiring those people who can really make a difference. Instead, what we are seeing is overly defensive resettlement agencies thinking the film is about them. It’s not.”
Claire Essley, an AmeriCorps/Houghten College summer Jump Start coordinator at school 45, believes the censorship may be due to the agencies preference to look ahead, not backward. She thinks the resettlement agencies didn’t want to be ”showing issues that had been resolved… and addressed.”…
…[a Buffalo schoolteacher] who contacted me after reading my previous two articles in Buffalo Rising, wished to remain anonymous because she also had some criticisms about the resettlement process. ”Basically my experience with adult students is that their resettlement agency starts off with a bang (placement in apartments, getting clothes, etc.) but then fizzles out,” she said. “Some of my students have been reduced to tears after their caseworker didn’t return phone calls or was rude to them.” The teacher told me that although getting by in Buffalo is often a harrowing task for many of her students, none of them have complained about housing quality. According to her, anything is a step up from huts in the jungle… Read more here
That last part about any housing being a step up I will have to disagree with. Resettlement contractors sign contracts with the federal government to find housing that meets — at the least – some minimum standards (see Operational Guidance). I suspect agencies use similar reasoning each time refugees are assaulted or killed in some of the urban locations our refugee program resettles them too – “well, they might have died anyway if they had remained stuck in dangerous locations overseas.” But isn’t that a cop-out? It seems to me like a handy excuse for poor planning and poor services – and the refugees don’t deserve that.
Posted in Buffalo, housing, Journey's End Refugee Services, Journey's End Refugee Services, Karen, Operational Guidance | Tagged: Buffalo, CEP, Chance Encounter Productions, documentary, Nickel City Smiler, refugees, resettlement, Scott Murchie, Smiler Greeley, Welcome to Shelbyville | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 27, 2011
Many elderly and disabled refugees could lose Supplemental Security Income benefits without congressional action. Congress extended the deadline for refugees pursuing citizenship once in 2008, so that refugees could receive assistance for up to nine years before becoming citizens, but that extension expires Sept. 30. Many of the refugees who could lose their benefits next month are apparently unable to successfully take and pass citizenship tests in English because of their age or disabilities. It seems as if U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell is sitting on his hands as the deadline approaches. An article in the Lexington Herald Leader explains the situation:
…up to 605 elderly and disabled refugees in [Kentucky] stand to lose their Supplemental Security Income benefits if Congress doesn’t act by Sept. 30, according to local advocates.
“It’s a pretty profound consequence,” said Rich Seckel, director of the Kentucky Equal Justice Center in Lexington.
SSI is a federal benefit program that provides a $674 base monthly income to people who can’t work because of their advanced age or disability or blindness, and because they don’t have other resources.
Though many people who aren’t citizens are not eligible for SSI, the federal government makes an exception for refugees. But to keep SSI, the refugees must seek citizenship within seven years of their arrival in the United States.
Many of the refugees who could lose their benefits next month are unable to successfully take and pass citizenship tests in English because of their disabilities, according to Rev. Patrick Delahanty, Executive Director of the Frankfort-based Catholic Conference of Kentucky.
According to the Social Security Administration, there are as many as 605 refugees in Kentucky who are at risk of losing benefits, said Ellen Sittenfeld Battistelli, a policy analyst for the National Immigration Law Center.
Advocates have asked for help from U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis — Republican members of Kentucky’s federal delegation and key players in any response by Congress to the problem…
…Seckel said people with disabilities can request waivers of the language requirements and civics test from the federal government but the process is complicated.
In Lexington, many people are turning to the Maxwell Street Legal Clinic for help, Seckel said, but Congress should act to fix the problem because “we should not turn every refugee with a disability into a new legal case.”
The advocates are asking Congress for legislation that would ease the citizenship requirement for the severely disabled and elderly or in the short term, allow an extension of the deadline for pursuing citizenship.
Congress extended the deadline once in 2008 so that refugees could receive assistance for up to nine years before becoming citizens. But that extension expires Sept. 30.
U.S. Reps. Jim McDermott, D-Washington, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., have introduced legislation that continues the nine-year policy.
Because McConnell is the Minority Leader of the Senate — the highest ranking Republican in the Senate — “his support can ensure that this population continues to be protected,” Battistelli said... Read more here
Posted in Congress, disabled refugees, elderly refugees, health, Kentucky, legislation, Social Security Administration, SSI | Tagged: Catholic Conference of Kentucky, citizenship test, disabled, elderly, Ellen Sittenfeld Battistelli, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Jim McDermott, Kentucky Equal Justice Center, Maxwell Street Legal Clinic, Mitch McConnell, National Immigration Law Center, Patrick Delahanty, refugees, resettlement, Rich Seckel, SSI, Supplemental Security Income | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 26, 2011
Another refugee has been killed, this time a Bhutanese refugee in Baltimore. A second refugee was also shot in the apparent robbery incident and is in critical condition. An article in the Baltimore Sun has more:
Two Bhutanese refugees were shot, one of them fatally, in an apparent robbery in Northeast Baltimore, one of two double-shootings investigated by Baltimore police Tuesday night.
Big Bahadur Gurung, 20, had immigrated here from Nepal two months ago, after being given sanctuary following years of persecution in his home country, said Holly Leon-Lierman, the outreach manager for the International Rescue Committee, which helps refugees assimilate.
“He came here seeking freedom and safety,” Leon-Lierman said. “These are people who were persecuted for a long time, and it really makes this attack all the more tragic.”
The incident is the latest in a series of crimes that have sparked concern for members of Baltimore’s Nepalese and Bhutanese community, which officials say is centered in Northeast Baltimore’s Frankford neighborhood and has been growing in recent years.
Officers were called to the Parkside Gardens apartments in the 5200 block of Bowleys Lane at 10:12 p.m. for a report of a double shooting, and found two men suffering from gunshot injuries. A 17-year-old male, also an immigrant who arrived here last year, was shot multiple times in the torso and taken to an area hospital in critical condition. Gurung, of the 4900 block of Gunther Ave., was shot in the chest and was pronounced dead…
…More than 700 have settled in Baltimore…
…Anna Yankova-White, a city employee who does outreach with immigrant communities, said bullying involving Nepalese students on school buses and bus stops has been a “crucial issue” within the community and spurred some of the meetings. She said a series of safety workshops are being planned for September, and that officials are pushing immigrants to get involved in community walks in their neighborhood… Read more here
Posted in Baltimore, dangerous neighborhoods, IRC, Nepali Bhutanese, safety | Tagged: Bahadur Gurung, Baltimore, bhutanese, International Rescue Committee, IRC, Nepali, Parkside Gardens, refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 25, 2011
Catholic Charities of Houston, the agency which was the subject of complaints from gay Iraqi refugees in 2010, is now attempting to defend itself from allegations that a worker sexually assaulted an 11-year-old refugee boy in 2007. ABC 13 KTRK-TV tells us more:
HOUSTON (KTRK) — A former Catholic Charities worker is accused of indecency with a child, and the boy involved says the worker threatened not to give financial help to his family if he told anyone.
The man in question worked at Catholic Charities until 2009. He is currently working for another county agency, but is not yet under arrest, so we went looking for the man wanted by authorities.
In 2007 while working at Catholic Charities, prosecutors say Carlos Valera sexually assaulted an 11-year-old Cuban refugee whose family was receiving help from the charity.
“The defendant would call the victim to his office and ask if he wanted some candy,” said assistant district attorney Tolu Omodele. “The victim would go into his office, and the defendant would grab his hand.”…
…we contacted his former employer. In a statement Catholic Charities says it was made aware of a potential problem two years ago.
- “Catholic Charities is aware of criminal allegations made today in Houston against a former employee of this organization. Two years ago Catholic Charities acted quickly to investigate concerns about the employee. After engaging an outside firm to independently investigate, we terminated the employee in November 2009 for violating our agency’s Ethical and Personal Conduct Policy. We remain committed to safety and wellbeing of our 90,000 clients in the Greater Houston area and fully support the independent and law enforcement investigations of this matter.”…
…”He threatened the victim,” Omodele said. “He told him not to say anything. He told him that if he did tell anyone, that his family would no longer be assisted by the organization.”… Read more here
What I’d like Catholic Charities of Houston to respond to is what the agency’s role was in the delay in the allegations coming forward, which it claims to have known about for two-years.
Posted in Catholic, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, children, Cuban, faith-based, Houston, sexual abuse | Tagged: Carlos Valera, Catholic Charities of Houston, child abuse, Cuban, refugees, resettlement, sexual assault | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 25, 2011
A legal service in the Australian state of Victoria reports what many of us who help refugees already know – that many service providers breach the law in the assumption that their low-income, non-English-speaking customers will not take action to enforce their legal rights. The article is in the Wyndham Weekley.
WYNDHAM Legal Service is teaming up with the New Hope Foundation to offer a new legal avenue for members of the city’s emerging communities.
The refugee legal service will attempt to prevent minor legal issues ballooning into serious issues with the law.
“Many of our refugee clients come to us when they are in fairly deep trouble, there may be an arrest warrant out for non-payment of fines,” lawyer Shorna Moore said.
“The idea behind the refugee legal service is to reach people earlier in the evolution of their legal problem, when it would be easier to solve and before there are serious legal ramifications.”
Ms Moore said the most upsetting findings since the service began was that many service providers appeared to be breaching the law, in the assumption that their low-income, non-English-speaking customers would not take action to enforce their legal rights.
“It’s been very worrying to see the more vulnerable members of our community taken advantage of.”… Read more here
Posted in Australian refugee resettlement prgm | Tagged: refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 24, 2011
Smiler Greeley, the Karen refugee from Burma resettled to Buffalo and featured in the Nickel City Smiler documentary, says that community gardens draw his fellow refugees because they used to make their living planting. Besides, the gardens are fun and it saves money. An article in Buffalo Rising gives us another glimpse into refugees’ lives in that city.
When PUSH (People United for Sustainable Housing) planned the community garden on Hampshire Street, they only had one requirement in mind: gardeners looking for a plot to sow…
…More than half of the gardeners to apply were Burmese refugees.
The piqued interest from the refugee community made sense. The majority of the refugees coming to Buffalo from Burma and Nepal were farmers in their previous countries, according to Chelsea Wagner, of Journey’s End Refugee Services.
“They used to make their living planting, so they’re interested in this kind of stuff,” said Smiler Greeley, a Burmese member of the community garden, and cultural liaison at Journey’s End Refugee Services. Greeley was speaking at a public forum on Tuesday held by the Partnership for the Public Good (PPG) addressing the potential of community gardens and urban farms to serve the refugee community…
…Due to the combined success of the garden and an apparent interest expressed by much of the refugee community, many groups such as the PPG and Journey’s End are working to expand community gardens in locations with high refugee populations, particularly those of Burmese and Nepali origin.
“You can’t make your life on this, but this is fun. It’s fun and it saves money,” said Greeley. Read more here
The Nickel City Smiler DVD is available here.
Posted in Buffalo, Burma/Myanmar, community/cultural orientation, Karen | Tagged: refugees, resettlement, Karen, Buffalo, Nickel City Smiler, Burmese, Smiler Greeley, community gardens, urban farms | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Coen
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