Archive for the ‘Sudanese’ Category
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 26, 2012
Darfurian refugees have begun to arrive in New Jersey, outside of New York City. (Approximately 480,000 Darfurians were killed, with over 2.8 million people displaced, in a conflict fueled by Sudan’s government between 2003 and 2010. In 2008 the International Criminal Court announced ten criminal charges against Sudan’s military leader and self-proclaimed President, Omar al-Bashir, including sponsoring war crimes and crimes against humanity.) The HIAS affiliate United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ says it will help to resettle three young Dafurian refugee men now, followed by several families and 25 young men in the next few months. The price of housing in the area is a concern, therefore the group is looking for donated space for transitional housing until the refugees can save up enough money from jobs to pay for housing. An article at New Jersey Jewish News explains:
After fleeing from the ravages of genocide in their native land, three refugees from Darfur are now crafting new lives in the MetroWest community with a large assist from the Jewish Vocational Service, a beneficiary agency of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ.
Thanks to a $88,532 grant from the federal State Office of Refugee Resettlement, JVS has helped the men find transitional housing in the area, while providing caseworkers, translation services, English classes, vocational training, job coaching, and other support.
The men are the first wave of Darfuris to arrive in New Jersey, ahead of several families and 25 young men expected to be coming to this area in the next few months. JVS and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society hope to resettle 25 or more refugees from Sudan’s Darfur region, which suffered under genocidal attacks by the Sudanese government…
…“There are major issues,” said [Nancy Fisher, the agency’s assistant executive director for education and training]. “Each refugee is given $1,100 from the federal government when they arrive in the United States. For a family of five, the $5,500 can tide them over. But for the single guys, the $1,100 is not enough. We need to find them transitional housing at reduced rates. Housing around here is not cheap.”
To help out, JVS board members provided goods, services, and contributions for the refugees. The Sleepy’s mattress company donated five beds to a temporary housing facility in Newark for new arrivals.
“This is a huge expense we cannot pay for ourselves,” said Fisher.
JVS is looking for donated space for transitional housing.
“Maybe a large house or something connected to an old church or synagogue that is not being used, where they can spend a couple of months and get used to this country and its customs, then save a bit of money and move into their own places,” said Reilly. “For now, it would be helpful for some families to be willing to take in people, especially others who are coming soon”… Read more here
Posted in Darfurian, housing, New Jersey, United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ | Tagged: Dafur, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, HIAS, New Jersey, refugees, resettlement, sudan, United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 18, 2012
Denver police say a group that killed Sudanese refugee Jimma Reat were out on a night of car theft and trouble-making, and included two unspecified juvenile gang members (it was the Latin Kings gang that attacked Sudanese refugees in 2002 in Chicago). The Denver 911 director has now fired a 911 operator for withholding medical assistance from one of the Sudanese callers, who repeatedly asked for medical aid, and wrongly telling him to return to the scene of the first incident, where Reet was then killed. An article in the Denver Post (and here) has updated information on the case:
Denver police believe a group that included two juvenile gang members out on a night of car theft and troublemaking killed Sudanese refugee Jimma Reat.
No arrests have been made in the case. Police are asking for the public’s help in locating witnesses or others involved in the shooting in the early hours of April 1.
Reat, 25, was shot in the back blocks from West 10th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard in Denver, where he and other members of his family were taunted by a group of Latino men driving a stolen Jeep who threw bottles and waved a gun at their vehicle.
After the altercation, Reat and his family went to their apartment in Wheat Ridge. A 911 operator told them to return to Denver, where they were fired upon by the same group that had attacked them moments before.
Denver 911 director Carl Simpson on Tuesday fired the operator for mishandling the call.
“Witnesses say there were four or five parties in the vehicle,” Detective Randy Denison said of the suspects’ car. “What we are looking for is to identify the other possible occupants.”
The occupants of the Jeep didn’t flash gang signs or tout any gang affiliation, but the criminal history of the two teens now suspected suggests they are gang members, Denison said. He said he didn’t know whether one of them — or someone else in the Jeep — fired the fatal shot…
…Reat and his companions didn’t see the Jeep until it pulled up beside them at a light. “There was not much conversation. The brothers say these guys just pull up beside them, and they think they are just saying, ‘Hello,’ and Jimma and his friends just kind of wave. They just think these guys are just giving them the nod,” Denison said… Read more here
Posted in Denver, police, safety, South Sudanese | Tagged: 9/11, car theft, Denver, gang, Jimma Reat, police, refugees, resettlement, sudanese | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 17, 2012
A South Sudanese refugee who arrived in Rochester, NY at age 14 as an unaccompanied minor was murdered on Tuesday. Paul Chol Awuol was holding a friend’s son when a man just came up and shot him in the chest, according to the friend, Jessica Lane. He was in the process of becoming a certified nursing assistant, focused on helping others, when he went to Smith Street Tuesday to watch Lane’s child. In 2010 Sudanese refugees in Rochester reported finding a bullet hole in their apartment ceiling after three men were shot to death in the apartment above. A report at CBS Channel 8 gives details:
As Rochester police search for a suspect in Tuesday’s Smith Street homicide, friends of Paul Chol Awuol say the Sudanese refugee was shot in the chest while watching a close friend’s son.
Jerry DeLuccio wants people to remember Awuol as more than a crime statistic. “This was a young man that has made such a difference,” he said…
…Awuol was in the process of becoming a certified nursing assistant, focused more and more on helping others. That’s what led him to Smith Street Tuesday, to watch a friend’s child. “He was holding my son in his hand when this man came and just shot him in the chest,” said friend Jessica Lane through tears.
A small memorial has begun where the Sudanese refugee fell, the painful irony all too clear. The man who came to America as a boy to escape violence was ultimately killed by a gunman. “That’s what hurts me so much, is that he was ready to explode, in terms of how he would help others and we’re never going to have that chance,” said DeLuccio… Read more here
Posted in dangerous neighborhoods, men, Rochester, safety, South Sudanese, teenagers | Tagged: dangerous neighborhoods, Paul Chol Awuol, refugees, resettlement, rochester, shot to death, sudanese | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 10, 2012
In addition to the two recent murders of South Sudanese refugees in Denver, the director of ECDC African Community Center says that there have been many incidents of the refugees being attacked, hassled and threatened in the city. A young South Sudanese man was shot in the neck and paralyzed from the waist down when two men robbed him as he returned to his Denver apartment one afternoon last June. Another South Sudanese refugee reports having been laughed at, called ugly and told to go back to where he came from. A teenage girl once threatened to hit him with a rock, he said, and he believes that the Sudanese have been victims due to their darker color (most Sudanese have skin that is darker than that of the average African-American). An article in the Denver Post gives other details of abusive treatment and crimes against local South Sudanese residents:
Jimma Reat’s murder last week in Denver was one more blow to a war-scarred community of Sudanese refugees still struggling to come to grips with the unsolved shooting death of Reat’s uncle four months ago.
The immigrants from the African country are frequently victims, said Project Education Sudan director Carol Rinehart.
“There are a lot of incidents with Sudanese being attacked, hassled and threatened,” Rinehart said. “They have been through a lot of trauma, and to have this happen to them, it just creates more anxiety.”…
…”This is a community that knows death. That doesn’t make it any easier,” said Jennifer Gueddiche, director of the ECDC African Community Center…
…David Deng, who came to the United States in 2001, was shot in the neck and paralyzed from the waist down when two men robbed him as he returned to his Denver apartment one afternoon last June. When a friend called and told him of Reat’s death, the news hit him hard.
“That is scaring me,” said Deng, 30. “We don’t know why there are a lot of bad things happening.”
His sentiment is widely shared within the tight-knit community of refugees that numbers about 6,000, Gueddiche said…
…”This is huge. They’re just absolutely devastated,” she said. “Imagine coming to a place where you are supposed to be safe. … This is the second random act of violence on this community.”
The recent burst of violence began Dec. 26, when Reat’s uncle, Youn Malual, was shot and killed in the parking lot of his Arapahoe County apartment building.
A father of five, he was returning from his job as a bus mechanic when he was attacked. He had no enemies, said Dengpathot, who thinks Malual’s death was the result of someone’s road rage.
His killer hasn’t been caught. Denver police also are still seeking those involved in Reat’s death. The longer the killers stay free, the more likely they — or someone else — will hurt another person, said Reat’s uncle, Thomas Puot…
…Authorities in Denver and Arapahoe County have said they have no reason to think the shootings of Mulual and Reat are related.
“At this point, we don’t have any indication of a connection, but it is something we will keep open,” said Denver police Capt. Ron Saunier, head of the Crimes Against Persons Bureau. “I don’t want to rule it out.”
The investigation into Malual’s death is active, and investigators are working on “significant” leads, said Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson.
Saunier said there is no indication that Reat’s death is gang-related.
The assailants, who appeared to be Latino, screamed racial epithets during the attack, said Reat’s brother, Ran James Pal, 25, who was driving that night.
That racial slurs would be part of the assault doesn’t surprise Isaac Bher, 32, who immigrated in 2001 and is now a U.S. citizen. Most Sudanese have skin that is darker than that of the average African-American.
“I know we have been victims by our darker color,” Bher said. “Even the African-Americans are not very happy with us.”
He said he has been laughed at, called ugly and told to go back to where [he] came from. A teenage girl once threatened to hit him with a rock, he said… Read more here
Posted in African Community Center (Denver), dangerous neighborhoods, Denver, police, safety, South Sudanese | Tagged: African Community Center, attacks, Denver, racial prejudice, refugees, resettlement, shootings, sudanese | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 9, 2012
A 24-year-old Sudanese refugee in Denver was shot to death while riding in his brother’s car after a police dispatcher instructed his brother to go back to the scene where someone had threatened them with a gun. The dispatcher also failed to send a police officer to the scene for about four minutes after the brother reported that men had threatened them with a gun. The original incident started at a traffic light as the young Sudanese men were driving when a Jeep rolled up beside them and men inside started to call them names using the N-word. The men got out of a Jeep (a stolen vehicle) and threw beer bottles, breaking the car’s rear window. Last December an uncle of the young man killed was also shot to death behind his home after returning home from work in the early morning hours, in a crime that is still unsolved. An article in the Denver Post documents what happened during the latest incident:
A Denver 911 operator was mistaken when he told a motorist to return to the area where he and his companions had been threatened in a road-rage incident — moments before a fatal shooting, the head of the city’s emergency phone system acknowledged Monday.
Jimma Reat, a 24-year-old Sudanese refugee, died in the incident.
Reat and three companions had safely returned to his Wheat Ridge apartment and called 911 to report the altercation early Sunday when the 911 operator instructed them to drive back to Denver and wait for a police officer.
While they waited, a Jeep that had been involved in the earlier incident appeared and someone opened fire, killing Reat…
…failed to dispatch a police officer for about four minutes after one of Reat’s brothers told him that a carload of men, one of them flourishing a gun, threatened them…
…Reat’s brother, Gatwec Dengpathot, said the group had returned to the parking lot at Reat’s apartment in Wheat Ridge after the altercation, during which someone threatened them with a gun…
…One of Reat’s brothers, who was driving the Dodge Charger, was on a cellphone talking to the operator.
“He told the dispatcher that it isn’t safe there,” Dengpathot said. “We don’t want to go there, that is where the problem happened, they were threatening us with a gun.”
But after a few moments, “they finally submitted to the (operator’s) authority” and returned to West 29th Avenue, just east of Sheridan Boulevard, within Denver’s border, Dengpathot said…
…The original incident started at a traffic light as the group was driving north on Sheridan, at West 10th, when the Jeep rolled up beside the Charger, and the men inside started to call them “names using the N-word,” Dengpathot said.
The men, he said, got out of the Jeep and threw beer bottles, breaking the Charger’s rear window… Read more here
Posted in African Community Center (Denver), dangerous neighborhoods, Denver, police, safety, South Sudanese | Tagged: Denver, dispatcher, killing, resettlement, rfugees, shooting, sudanese | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 2, 2012
In response to a petition filed by aid groups a Jerusalem District Court judge issued a temporary injunction preventing the Israeli government from revoking the group protection of South Sudanese. This effectively delays the deportation of South Sudanese refugees, which was set to begin yesterday. Due to the volatile situation in South Sudan, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also recommended to delay the deportations. An article published yesterday at +972, an Israeli independent reporting news site, has the details:
On Thursday, a Jerusalem District Court judge issued a temporary injunction preventing the Ministry of Interior from revoking the group protection of South Sudanese. The move effectively delays the deportation of South Sudanese refugees, which was set to begin today.
Families, including Israeli-born children, are among those facing deportation to South Sudan. Human rights organizations say thousands of South Sudanese face expulsion; the number cited at a recent protest against the deportation was 700.
The judge, Yigal Marzel, issued the order in response to a petition filed by the Aid Organization for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel (ASSAF), the African Refugee Development Center (ADRC), the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), the Hotline for Migrant Workers, and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHR-Israel).
Due to the volatile situation in South Sudan, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also recommended to delay the deportations… Read more here
Posted in South Sudanese | Tagged: deportation, israel, refugees, south sudanese | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 13, 2012
Some 400 Israeli writers, artists, doctors and academics have signed a petition demanding that Israel not deport 700 South Sudanese refugees. They argue that deportation will put the refugees, most of whom are children, in mortal danger. An article at Ynetnews tells more:
Some 400 writers, artists, doctors and academics have signed a petition Tuesday demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to prevent the impending deportation of 700 refugees from South Sudan.
The petitioners warn that the removal of the refugees – most of whom are children – will put them in mortal danger.
“We appeal to the State … to avoid deporting 700 immigrants from South Sudan, an act that would expose them to a raging war, hunger and disease,” the petitioners wrote.
Writer Zeruya Shalev, who signed the letter as well, appealed to the prime minister’s emotions, arguing that the refugees must be granted asylum…
…”Israel has saved the lives of the refugees from South Sudan thus far, and should continue to act mercifully and avoid sending them to a place where their lives are in danger,” she said.
“The thought of what’s expecting them there is heartbreaking. We ask Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to suspend the deportation ruling until the situation in their new state improves and allows them to return safely.”
Professor Daniel Blatman, a Holocaust researcher and the head of the Hebrew University’s Institute of Contemporary Jewry, noted that the escalating conflict between South Sudan and Sudan has seen much bloodshed.
“This is a group of 700 people, more than half of whom are children, who ask us to give them aid and protection until they can securely return to their homes,” he said. “It is out moral duty to grant this request.”
Meanwhile, a report compiled by the Knesset’s Research and Information Center shows that a humanitarian crisis prevails in 46 out of 79 districts in South Sudan. The adversity includes food shortage and violence. The report, which is based on data collected by the United Nations, also found that roughly half of the population in South Sudan will suffer from hunger over the coming year… Read more here
Posted in South Sudanese, Sudanese | Tagged: Benjamin Netanyahu, israel, refugees, resettlement, south dudan, sudanese | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 24, 2012
Over the past several weeks has came news that Israel will deport southern Sudanese refugees to South Sudan, claiming that their safety is now ensured by the South’s declaration of independence last summer — even though the fledgling country is far from safe or stable for these refugees (see Haaretz article). What sense this makes escapes me since the southern Sudanese are natural allies of Israel, having experienced large-scale murderous attacks by the Islamist government of Sudan. At the same time, Israel is also ramping up hatred of other African refugees feeling persecution. (Israel has re-branded these refugees as “infiltrators” and “a threat to the fabric of Jewish society” — refusing to accept 1500 people per month, mostly African Muslims, while importing workers for cheap labor from East Asia – primarily the Philippines and Thailand.) When will we hear US refugee agencies speak out against these human rights violations? An article in Aljazeera explains the situation:
…The notion of a “Jewish and democratic state”, never a feasible reality, continues to unravel as its inherent racism is revealed in a new way. Any political discussion of refugees that are of the wrong ethnicity inevitably refers to African migration to Israel as an “existential threat”. Labelling these refugees as “threats” allows the state to criminalise and imprison them…
…State officials estimate that around 2,000 asylum seekers enter the country every month. Most of the men end up in Levinsky Park in southern Tel Aviv. At any time during the day or night, one can find young black African men sitting on the park’s benches, swings and concrete walls. In late January, a man who lived in the park died from exposure during the night.
The majority of the men who live in Levinsky Park are from Eritrea and Darfur…
…While community members and organisations have responded to the refugee-related crises developing in the country’s founding city by setting up an emergency shelter and serving warm dinners to a hungry crowd, these generous gestures are the exception in a state that fosters growing hostility to outsiders…
…”This is how the public becomes racist,” Yohannes Bayu, the director of African Refugee Development Centre (ARDC), tells me, explaining the government’s campaign against African asylum seekers, who are labelled as “labour infiltrators”…
…the media and the government has ramped up this hatred,” explains Bayu.
But Bayu adds that overt racism in Israeli society has become common, “People are attacked on the streets. People are not allowed to rent houses to African refugees.”…
…The desperate men – and some women – who leave their families and homelands behind in Africa escape torture, forced military conscription and murder. As confirmed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Eritrea and Sudan have been two of the top producers of refugees over the past two years. These states’ betrayals of their own citizens have rendered tens of thousands stateless.
Conventions and detentions
Israeli politicians’ claims that only a “drizzle” of the African immigrants are rightfully refugees is quickly belied by the fact that almost none of the men are deported. Of the approximately 17,000 asylum seekers who reached Israel in 2011 via Egypt, only 270 have been returned to Egypt. Israel is a party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees…
However, allowing asylum seekers to remain in the country without rights hardly fulfills the directions of the Convention, which was composed in 1951 after the world saw and acknowledged the dangers posed to stateless human beings.
Before reaching Israel’s borders, asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan must survive a harrowing journey across the Sinai. They routinely experience rape and enslavement, and are reportedly the targets of organ traffickers.
Whether jumping the fence or walking across the border into Israel, asylum seekers are immediately picked up by border police and taken to a detention centre where they are held for weeks or months. …immigration authorities will begin holding these men to the extent of [a] new law – three years – once [a] new detention centre is built…
…for now the scenario for these men follows a predictable pattern: They are released in less than three months and given a three to six-month visa and then bussed up to Levinsky Park in Tel Aviv, where they are left to fend for themselves… Read more here
Posted in abuse, Eritrean, Jewish, left-wing, NGO's (Non-governmental organizations), safety, Sudanese, UN (United Nations), xenophobia/nationalism/isolationism | Tagged: 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, Darfur, Eritrean, human rights, israel, Levinsky Park, racism, refugees, resettlement, sudanese | 5 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 5, 2011
Almost two years now after the Kansas City Star – and the Pitch a year earlier – published accounts about Jewish Vocational Service of Kansas City (JVS) placing refugees in substandard housing (here and here), comes word that three former employees of the agency are suing, claiming they were blamed for their supervisor’s bad decisions. The three are suing for discrimination due to their race, skin color and national origin, claiming that their supervisor, Deborah Fiene, who was in charge of housing, scapegoated them for her own poor decisions in placing refugees in extremely substandard and unsanitary housing. The three claim that JVS fired them due to “unsatisfactory job performance” yet they all had received positive evaluations and each promoted less than a year earlier. They claim in their suit papers that Feine was never punished despite evidence of impropriety on her job performance. They also claim that the agency rifled through their desks and stole personal documents, including citizenship papers, while later arguing in court papers that the agency was exempt from the lawsuit because it was a religious organisation. A Kenyen newspaper (one of the accusers originates from Kenya), The Standard, has the story:
A Kenyan US based journalist and two other African immigrants have gone to court and sued a Jewish organisation in the US for racial discrimination.
Peter Makori, a resident of Kansas City who originally hails from Kisii in Kenya and Abdi Murasaal and Bakar Abdalla from Somalia have sued Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) of Kansas City for damages claiming they were dismissed from their employment because their boss, of Caucasian origin (white) discriminated against them due to their race, skin colour and national origins.
The three, through their lawyer, Brian Barjenbruch complained in their suit papers filed in the circuit court of Kansas City Missouri, that a white female employee who was herself not punished committed the mistakes that led to their dismissal from work…
…Makori and Abdallah worked as refugee resettlement case managers at the JVS, while Mursaal was their general manager at the organisation’s Centre for New Americans.
They are seeking…compensation for unfairly losing their jobs and other inconveniences. They claim in their suit papers the fact that their colleague who is white was never punished despite evidence of impropriety on her job performance showed that they were victims of racial discrimination.
The centre works with the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) – a body that is contracted by the US State Department for Homeland Security – to bring refugees to America from turbulent regions around the world….
…The former JVS employees have claimed that their colleague, Deborah Fiene, who was in charge of housing, had allegedly placed refugees in dirty and sub-standard housing, which contravened the regulations of the State Department and USCRI. Despite this, she was not punished but the boss used the three as her scapegoat and summarily sacked them.
They claimed that their complaints against Fiene to the organisation’s executive director, who is also white, that the housing coordinator was putting refugees in poor housing, were dismissed…
…Makori…claimed in his suit papers that a few days preceding his dismissal, his desk at work was ransacked and numerous documents taken away…
…Bakar claimed in his suit papers that his desk was ransacked and several documents, including his citizen’s certificate, which was in his drawers lost. Abdi claimed that the management had ransacked his desk and several documents taken away.
They pointed out their employer had accused them in their dismissal letters that they were sacked because of “unsatisfactory job performance” yet they all had received positive evaluation and each promoted less than a year earlier… Read more here
The case involved more than JVS simply placing refugees in wretched housing. Newspaper accounts reported that refugees were left on their own for medical appointments, and that JVS failed to give a refugee family all sorts of minimum-required household items, while documenting that it had done so.
Posted in faith-based, household items, missing or broken, housing, housing, substandard, Jewish, Jewish Vocational Services, Kansas City, Kenyen, medical care, Somali, Sudanese, USCRI | Tagged: Deborah Fiene, discrimination, Jewish Vocational Service of Kansas City, Joy Foster, jvs, refugees, resettlement, scapegoat, substandard housing | 2 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 3, 2011
Once again there has been a tragedy involving refugees and a van rollover. One refugee from Myanmar is dead and two others were seriously injured in an accident near Rushmore, Minnesota. The killed and injured were on their way to meatpacking jobs in Worthington. An article in the Argus Leader has the story:
Myanmar immigrants, persecuted for years, have found happiness in Sioux Falls, says a priest who works with some of the newcomers.
But for the past two weeks, grief has subdued the joyousness they have felt.
One member of their community died Nov. 19 in a one-vehicle rollover near Rushmore, Minn.
Two other passengers remain hospitalized in Sioux Falls, beginning what could be weeks of rehabilitation.
Three families are suffering, says the Rev. Paul King of St. Lambert Catholic Church…
…“For Bya Reh’s family, he was the only wage earner. His eldest son is going to school.”
Reh, 48, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, which happened at 2:47 p.m. on a Saturday. Eight people, including the driver, were traveling on Interstate 90 on a surface that had been made slick by freezing rain that started earlier in the day.
The group was traveling to their jobs at JBS Swift & Co. meat-packing plant in Worthington. Five of the passengers were Sudanese, King says. The other two Burmese on the van were Oo Meh, 30, and Beh Reh, 51. Bya Reh and Beh Reh are not related.
The two men and Meh are members of the Karenni, a minority group in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma…
…Bya Reh, whose funeral was Nov. 23, the day before Thanksgiving, leaves behind a wife and four children, a 23-year-old daughter and three sons, ages 21, 13 and 12.
Beh Reh, who spent a week at Sanford Health in critical condition, broke a hip in the accident and also suffered bruised ribs, a bruised heart and a severe blow to his head.
“He’s still quite confused and agitated,” King says. “He was on a respirator for most of last week. He’s able to talk but quite confused.”
Beh Reh is married with four children. His daughters are ages 21 and 11 with two sons ages 19 and 15.
Meh and her husband both work at the meatpacking plant. They took opposite shifts so someone could be home with their children, daughters ages 12 and 4 and a son who is about 8. She sustained fractures along her spine and broke her pelvis….
…The three families moved to Sioux Falls less than three years ago and have struggled to find work… Read more here
In the past several years there have also been van rollover accidents with refugees in Arizona, central Georgia (and here), and north Georgia.
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, Karenni, Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota, meatpacking industry, passenger van roll-over, Sudanese | Tagged: Burma, JBS Swift & Co, karenni, meat packing, Myanmar, refugees, resettlement, roll-over, van, Worthington | 1 Comment »
Christopher Coen
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