Friends of Refugees

A U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program Watchdog Group

Archive for the ‘San Francisco’ Category

ORAM releases first ever guide on welcoming LGBTI migrants

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 29, 2012

ORAM (the Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration) has released the first ever guide for American LGBT and accepting communities on welcoming people fleeing persecution in their home countries, according to a recent email announcement from ORAM.

…Rainbow Bridges, a 48-page guide developed in a pilot project to resettle LGBT refugees in San Francisco, offers practical step-by-step guidance on welcoming new refugees, ensuring their mental and physical wellbeing, and helping them find support in their new communities. It includes sample forms, a suggested code of conduct, and outlines the avenues for refugees to receive housing, employment, and federal assistance…

…ORAM estimates the US receives about 2,000 refugees a year who are fleeing persecution based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, representing 6% of all refugees in America. Unlike other refugees, those who are LGBT or intersex often undergo the integration process alone, facing exclusion from the religious and immigrant communities that form the safety net for most newly arrived refugees and asylees. Rainbow Bridges will help U.S. LGBT, faith-based, and welcoming communities support these refugees as they build new lives in the United States…

…About ORAM
The Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration (ORAM) is the only organization focused exclusively on helping vulnerable LGBTI refugees worldwide find safety and rebuild their lives in welcoming communities. ORAM increases global support for refugees and asylum seekers through advocacy and education, as well as technical assistance to people and groups interested in working with refugees, asylees, and asylum seekers…

The report notes that resettlement agencies, “are unaccustomed to the isolation and challenges LGBTI refugees face and are unfamiliar with their unique needs. Many [resettlement agencies] lack the training and resources needed to effectively serve this vulnerable group. Perhaps most importantly, no [resettlement agency] has the resources or capacity to successfully integrate an individual without support from family or community.” This is an important point when you stop to think of all the other refugees resettled without support from family or community, e.g. the 3000+ Sudanese “Lost Boys” refugees.

Posted in best practices, LGBT refugees, ORAM, San Francisco | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Nickel City Smiler Movie will be screening at San Francisco State University

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 10, 2012

Nickel City Smiler Movie – Karen People of Burma Refugee Documentary Film

Nickel City Smiler will be screening at San Francisco State University on Thursday April 19th at 4:30pm in Burk Hall, room 408. For those of you in the area, come out and support Prof. Lee, the Burmese Youth Association, and the Burma Family Network.

Posted in Buffalo, Karen, San Francisco | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

FBI ‘community outreach’ to foster trust and generate goodwill?

Posted by Christopher Coen on March 29, 2012

Documents uncovered by The Associated Press revealed that the New York Police Department conducted an extensive surveillance campaign of the Muslim population in the northeast. Now it turns out that the FBI in San Francisco used a public relations program announced as “mosque outreach” to collect information on the religious views and practices of Muslims in Northern California. The claimed intention of the FBI outreach programs was to foster trust between law enforcers and members of the Muslim community so they could work together to fight crime and avert terrorism. We learn now, however, that the FBI was operating the community outreach in Northern California as part of a secret and systematic intelligence gathering program, and conducted without any apparent evidence of wrongdoing. The legacy of this deception will, no doubt, be to undermine trust for genuine outreach programs. An article at Msnbc.com has the story:

The FBI in San Francisco used a public relations program billed as “mosque outreach” to collect information on the religious views and practices of Muslims in Northern California and then shared the intelligence with other government agencies, according to FBI documents obtained by civil rights groups.

The heavily redacted documents, released after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, raise “grave constitutional concerns,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the National Security Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.

“In San Francisco, we have found that community outreach was being run out of the FBI’s intelligence division and was part of a secret and systematic intelligence gathering program,” conducted without any apparent evidence of wrongdoing,” said Shamsi. “The bureau’s documentation of religious leaders’ and congregants’ beliefs and practices violates the Privacy Act, which Congress passed to protect Americans’ First Amendment rights.”…

…The documents indicate that FBI was keeping records of conversations and activities within mosques and other Muslim organizations from 2004 through 2008, information that was provided by employees engaged in the outreach programs.

The announced intention of the FBI outreach programs is to foster trust between law enforcers and members of the Muslim community so they can work together to fight crime and avert terrorism…

…documents still under analysis by the ACLU indicate FBI San Francisco continued to mingle outreach and intelligence gathering through 2011, according to Shimsa.

The documents undermine trust for genuine outreach programs, said Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that makes policy recommendations to lawmakers and leaders.

“I think the recent documents further underscore how well-intentioned community leaders who talk with the FBI are instead the targets of this broad, intelligence-gathering effort,” she said. “It’s easy to see then how that community leader who had a conversation with an FBI agent finds himself being harassed when traveling or crossing borders.”

“These documents are illustrating the actual experiences of American Muslims that we have been hearing for a number of years now,” she added…

…Rules governing FBI surveillance were relaxed in 2008 to give more leeway to FBI “assessments” — a stage of surveillance that takes place before the opening of a formal investigation. These more lenient standards, critics say, allow information gathering on individuals without probable cause.

Rights groups are asking the Department of Justice to restore stricter rules on surveillance and to prohibit racial and religious profiling in all cases.

“What we need is for the FBI to go back to the standards set after the Hoover-era abuses.… guidelines put in place that required the FBI to engage in surveillance only if there’s evidence of wrongdoing,” said Khera of Muslim Advocates. Read more here

Posted in California, FBI, Islamic, NYC, Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, security/terrorism | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

State Department Spokeswoman Says Resettlement Guidelines Don’t Consider Crime Rates

Posted by Christopher Coen on December 28, 2011

An article in the San Francisco Chronicle identifies the many Iraqi refugees who have been attacked in East Oakland. In response, the State Department’s PRM spokeswoman, Beth Schlachter, reminds us about its lax, partner-friendly regulations by saying that the department’s guidelines for relocating refugees don’t even consider crime rates (funny how that works). A reader commenting on the article reminds us that Bosnian refugees had similar problems in the 90s, so the private resettlement agencies and their friends at government oversight agencies have obviously long-known about this problem. Refugees from Burma/Myanmar in the area have also experienced muggings and robberies, as have refugees from Bhutan/Nepal. The article details the situation in Oakland for Iraqi refugees:

…In June 2008, [Ghazwan Al-Sharif] moved in with two other Iraqi refugees, sharing a two-bedroom apartment in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood – a situation arranged by the nonprofit International Rescue Committee…

…One night, he decided to walk home alone. Two men attacked him, bashing him in the face with a metal object and robbing him of some money, his cell phone and his ID. He was left screaming on the ground, his face gushing blood.

He said the police never identified his attackers.

Al-Sharif, 40, is one of more than 50 Iraqi refugees who have been moved to East Oakland by the International Rescue Committee. The nonprofit’s officials say they won’t settle refugees in unsafe neighborhoods, but Al-Sharif and dozens of other Iraqis blame the organization for exposing them to an unfamiliar type of violence – one perpetrated by gangs rather than political militants…

…Like many of his fellow Bay Area refugees, Al-Sharif does not believe the International Rescue Committee has done enough. “Why are you putting them in Oakland and letting them suffer?” he said, referring to his fellow refugees. “I want to be safe. … I can find work and manage to survive, but I need to be safe.”

Oakland as refuge

Oakland has a long history of hosting immigrants from around the world. Affordable housing, easy access to city services, efficient transportation such as BART, and an accepting, multicultural society make the city a great place for refugees, said rescue committee spokeswoman Melissa Winkler.

But the nonprofit receives only $1,800 in federal funding to provide each refugee with housing, employment and other basic needs. That doesn’t go far in the Bay Area, and refugees are expected to be financially self-sufficient within four months.

That’s why the IRC chose to resettle many of them in Oakland, where housing is often inexpensive…

…Unfortunately, the city also has one of the country’s highest crime rates, according to federal statistics and other studies.

Beth Schlachter, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration at the State Department, said government guidelines for relocating refugees don’t consider crime rates. The requirements for “decent, safe and sanitary housing,” she said, extend only “from the apartment itself to the building or apartment complex they’re living in.”…

…[Harith Al-Kaiate, 47] hasn’t forgotten the time a nighttime gunfight near his home left his car, which was parked outside, riddled with bullets…

…Ragheed Abdulameer, 32, another recent arrival, [was] robbed at gunpoint earlier this year just a few blocks from his home at East 24th Street and 14th Avenue…One of Abdulameer’s friends has yet to bring his wife and children from Iraq, believing they’re safer in Basra. The friend declined to be interviewed or identified for this article, saying he fears retaliation from federal authorities and the rescue committee.

More than a dozen Iraqi refugees who have been resettled in Oakland say they live in varying degrees of fear.

“Had I known about this place, I’d never have agreed to come,” said Oday Fatah, 33…

…the only solution for you is to get beaten or mugged and then you can get out,” quipped Al-Sharif, who says he became depressed and attempted suicide after he was mugged. His condition persuaded the International Rescue Committee to help relocate him to San Francisco.

The rescue committee agreed to move another refugee and his family after he was shot multiple times in a drive-by shooting outside a Fruitvale mini-mart earlier this year, Climent said.

[Iraqi refugees who make it to the US] almost certainly suffered horrendous trauma in their home country.

“They’ve survived, and they’ve come to the U.S. to start a new life, and if you settle them in an environment like that, you bring back all these things,” Abdulkhaleq said… Read more here

Posted in dangerous neighborhoods, Iraqi, IRC, Oakland, PRM, public/private partnership, safety, San Francisco, State Department, suicide | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

First refugees resettled due to anti-gay persecution abroad

Posted by Christopher Coen on September 1, 2011

A 30-year-old gay Ugandan refugee named Daniel, displaced specifically due to anti-LGBTI persecution, is one of the first refugees resettled to the US in recognition of that fact. U.S.-based evangelical movements assisted in Daniel’s persecution in Uganda. An article in the Contra Costa Times has the story:

OAKLAND — Being gay in Uganda was never easy for gospel singer Daniel Dyson, but the anti-gay hysteria that erupted in the African nation two years ago forced him to flee.

Prominent Christian pastors had launched a political movement to eliminate homosexuality in the country. They employed professed ex-gays to reveal the names, whereabouts and other identifying details of gay residents in Kampala, the capital city. Dyson was on the list…

...Dyson, who landed in the Bay Area in the spring, is among the first refugees the United States has invited to live in California specifically because of anti-gay persecution abroad. The nonprofit groups that helped him move here — Jewish Family and Children’s Services of the East Bay and the San Francisco-based Organization for Refuge Asylum and Migration — are among the first in the country to take sexual orientation into account in the way they integrate refugees into a new community, aware that the ethnic communities and extended families most refugees rely on for support won’t necessarily accommodate them…

…”They were saying that we were destroying African culture, so I went to the media houses, trying to educate people that gay people, we are African people, we are here,” he said.

He had been involved in low-profile lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activism for more than five years, but the barrage of venom grew in 2009. On his way back from a radio station that spring, armed men kidnapped and brutally assaulted Dyson, he said, leaving injuries from which he is still recovering. He fled across the Kenyan border several days later…

…Uganda is debating whether to imprison gays and execute those with “aggravated homosexuality” offenses. The lawmaker who proposed the bill and other Ugandan anti-gay activists have close ties to U.S.-based evangelical movements, though many American pastors have since distanced themselves from the bill and its proponents.

As more countries threaten to penalize homosexuality with jail or death, the United States and United Nations are breaking down some of the institutional barriers that prevent many gays, lesbians and transgender people from seeking refuge. Most of those awarded refugee status belong to a political, ethnic or religious groups and are in danger in their homeland and have no place to live safely. LGBT status also can be considered a social class in countries where gays and lesbians have a well-founded fear of persecution.

“It hasn’t been a legal obstacle in a long time, but there have been enormous systemic obstacles,” said Neil Grungras, director of the nonprofit Organization for Refuge Asylum and Migration. “Few people, extremely few people, said this is the reason I’m being persecuted. We’re trying to make the system more open, less blocked.”…

…”I don’t know what it’s like for him every day. He carries a lot of pain around. Those scars just never really go away,” Grungras said… Read more here

Posted in LGBT refugees, ORAM, San Francisco, Ugandan | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

First pilot resettlement program for refugees fleeing sexual & gender-based violence

Posted by Christopher Coen on February 4, 2011

ORAM (Organization for Refuge Asylum & Migration) has began a pilot refugee resettlement program out of their Bay Area office, according to the blog LezGet Real: A Gay Girl’s View of the World (Note: 6-15-11 – this blog turns out to have been written by a male). Currently ORAM is reaching out to the local community to ask for assistance with housing for a gay Ugandan refugee.

Melanie Nathan – Jan 12-2011 – SAN FRANCISCO - ORAM, the first migration organization focusing exclusively on refugees fleeing sexual and gender-based violence worldwide, has began a pilot resettlement program out of their Bay Area office. This service will add to the new network spanning national, ethnic, religious, racial and gender divides, as ORAM provides clients with free legal representation and conducts advocacy and education on their behalf.

Today the group – an imperative resource for LGBT refugees, is reaching out to the Bay Area for help, with an urgent call to for housing for a Gay Ugandan Refugee. The young man (approximately late 20’s-30’s) has fled Uganda and is being legally directed to San Francisco, where he will receive assistance from ORAM and some financial support from the US Government. He will be seeking employment as soon as he arrives. He will have a stipend and medical coverage – the most difficult to arrange is a place to stay…. Read more here

For more information about ORAM click here. Here is a posting from August about an article on ORAM.

Posted in LGBT refugees, Oakland, ORAM, San Francisco, sexual and gender-based violence - refugees fleeing | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

No furniture for Catholic Charities of San Francisco’s Iraqi refugee clients

Posted by Christopher Coen on August 25, 2010

The Catholic San Francisco reports about an Iraqi refugee family resettled by USCCB’s Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco that arrived in San Francisco in April. Although the minimum standards of the State Department refugee resettlement contract (see Operational Guidance: furnishings) that Catholic Charities signed requires that they give refugees basic furnishings, they apparently didn’t bother to do so for this refugee family.

The Abeds are clients of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, which helped them find an apartment in Daly City and line up what little government aid was available for rent and groceries. But the young migrant family, homeless for five years, is struggling as it tries to set roots in a new land.

The funds the Abeds were given in Jordan to get established in the United States, enough for a car or some furniture, were used up on rent. The Abeds are merely subsisting, on welfare and food stamps, and do not have easy access to services in their suburban neighborhood. They have no cash to take their children to a movie at the local multiplex, let alone for furniture or a car.

…“You see no furniture, no money,” Abed said, looking over the empty apartment. here

So why did Catholic Charities San Francisco place this refugee family in a suburban area without easy access to services? No doubt because rent is astronomically high in San Francisco. But then why not have a van easily available for refugee clinets to transport them around the Daly City area? I guess its silly to ask that question if Catholic Charities won’t even abide by their contracts and give the family basic used furnishings for their apartment.

Here we have a published report of a refugee resettlement agency committing contractual fraud, yet what will be the consequences? None. The State Department’s refugee Admission’s Office believes that because the refugee resettlement program is a “public/private partnership”, that it would be non-partner-like to penalize Catholic Charities for violating its contractual responsibilities and neglecting its refugee clients.

Too bad for the refugees.

Posted in Catholic, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, faith-based, furnishings, lack of, Iraqi, Operational Guidance, public/private partnership, San Francisco, State Department, transportation, USCCB | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

 
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