Friends of Refugees

A U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program Watchdog Group

Archive for the ‘stealing money from refugees’ Category

Canadian Resettlement Agency Boss and Financial Officers Allegedly Committed $4-Mil. Fraud

Posted by Christopher Coen on March 21, 2012

In November 2010 employees at the refugee resettlement agency SISO in Hamilton, Ontario (south of Toronto) made allegations to the police that the agency head had threatened to kill them if they spoke up about abuses at the agency. The latest allegations are that three people at the agency , including the head of the agency, an ex-financial controller, and another financial officer used a sophisticated scheme that included falsification of invoices, payroll and employee information to steal $4-million. Court documents include allegations of forgery and fraudulent claims related to six well-used immigration services programs. An article at the Hamilton Spectator gives the latest update on this resettlement agency story from Canada:

Police allege top SISO officials used some of Hamilton’s most valued immigrant help programs — particularly those for youth — to hide the theft of millions of dollars, according to court documents.

The RCMP announced charges last week in an alleged $4-million fraud involving three staffers at the now-bankrupt immigration settlement agency, including former boss Morteza Jafarpour…

…Former administrator Nese Burgaz has been charged and released, but ex-financial controller Ahmed “Robert” Salama is still wanted on a Canada-wide warrant.

Burgaz’s next court date is April 16.

Police allege a forensic audit of agency finances revealed a sophisticated scheme that included falsification of invoices, payroll and employee information…

SISO was Hamilton’s largest agency working with refugees and immigrants until it abruptly closed in 2011. Its 150 workers provided supports to about 400 government-assisted refugees and helped about 8,000 immigrants get access to services each year.

Court documents include allegations of forgery and fraudulent claims related to six well-used immigration services programs, including:
•  Settlement Workers in Schools Hamilton (SWISH), which put counsellors in local schools to work with new immigrants;
•  HOST and Youth HOST, which worked with newcomer families to ease the stress of resettlement;
•  The Youth Immigrant Settlement and Adaptation Program (ISAP), which offered community orientation, housing and health-care support;
•  The Resettlement Assistance Program, which offered orientation help to incoming refugees;
•  Language Instruction for NewComers (LINC)… Read more here

Posted in Canadian refugee resettlement pgrm, stealing money from refugees | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Call for compensation to refugees cheated by resettlement contractor in Australia

Posted by Christopher Coen on September 12, 2011

Refugee advocates and a prominent lawyer in Australia are asking that the government there compensate refugees for the abuse and neglect they experienced at the hands of a government resettlement contractor. The refugee lawyer says it’s also essential that the government establishes a low-cost option for making claims. An article in the Newcastle Herald explains:

REFUGEE advocates and a prominent lawyer want financial compensation paid to refugees who were settled in Newcastle under a flawed resettlement program.

The call comes on the eve of the release of a report into the government’s resettlement programs, triggered by the problems experienced in Newcastle earlier this year.

An…investigation found that some refugee families were charged excessive rents for dilapidated and overcrowded accommodation.

Police are continuing to investigate claims, which surfaced during the review, that money was stolen from a Newcastle refugee family…

…Refugee lawyer George Newhouse said refugee families who had been adversely affected deserved financial compensation.

“It was essential that government establishes a low cost option for making claims and for processing them,” Mr Newhouse said…

…Newcastle-based refugee volunteer Sister Diana Santleben said on Thursday that the compensation figure should be about $1000 a family… Read more here

I’m astounded to see a government refugee resettlement program in which financial compensation to refugees neglected by the government and one of its contractors is even proposed. Obviously we don’t have that type of system of justice in the US – a system in which lawyers winning arguments and getting money is all that seems to matter.

Posted in Australian refugee resettlement prgm, housing, neglect, stealing money from refugees | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Australian co. accused of ripping off refugees also involved in Iraqi oil-for-food scandal

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: , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

 
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