Month: April 2008

More on the Rohingya problem

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is another article that reports on the demonstrations in Asia the other day.   I was interested in adding this bit of information to our growing Rohingya file. 

Five Western envoys to Bangladesh, including European Commissioner Dr. Stephen Frane, Italian envoy Italla Maria Marta Ochi, Dutch envoy Ria Tan Tushar, Swedish envoy Brith of Horford, and Candian envoy Richardson, visited Cox’s Bazar from 21 to 24 April to look for ways of solving the problems of the Rohingya refugees.

“The envoys came to Cox’s Bazar to solve the Muslim refugee problem….

So, several countries are actively involved in possibly bringing more Rohingya to the West.  I was glad to see the US had no envoy involved in this jaunt.

Read about Jihadi training camps at Cox’s Bazar in this earlier post.

See all of our discussion on Rohingya Muslims here.

Maoist election puts things into sharper perspective regarding Bhutanese refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As we reported before, the United States has agreed to take 60,000 Bhutanese refugees from camps in Nepal.   The Bhutanese who are of Nepali descent are divided on whether they want to be resettled in the West.  Many are holding out in hopes Bhutan will take them back.  This article adds more clarity while it reports a dramatic shift in policy by the newly elected Nepal government. 

Kathmandu, April 27 (IANS) The historic victory of Nepal’s former Maoist guerrillas in this month’s crucial election and their bid to lead the new government has cast a dark shadow over the process started by the US and other western governments to offer Bhutanese refugees in Nepal new homes abroad.

The Maoists, who fought a 10-year armed battle to overthrow Nepal’s Shah kings, are opposed to the US-led initiative by seven western governments to resettle over 105,000 Bhutanese, who have been languishing in refugee camps in Nepal for almost two decades after being evicted by the royalist government of Bhutan in the 1980s.

‘We oppose the process started (under the Girija Prasad Koirala government of Nepal) to resettle the Bhutanese refugees in third countries,’ said Maoist foreign affairs chief Chandra Prakash Gajurel, who was also one of the winners in the April 10 election.

‘How can Nepal give documents to the Bhutanese to go abroad when they are not Nepali citizens?’ Gajurel told private radio station Ujala FM. ‘Our party will try to ensure they go back to Bhutan.

‘From there, they can go to foreign countries if they want to.’

The Maoist announcement comes even as the International Organisation for Migration and the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Nepal (UNHCR) jointly started flying out Bhutanese refugees from closed camps in eastern Nepal to the US, Australia and New Zealand. 

Then here is a critical statement to help our understanding of why Bhutan definitely does not want them back now.

……15 rounds of negotiations failed to see any thaw in Bhutan’s attitude with the Druk government saying the refugee camps had been infiltrated by Maoists and to allow the refugees back home would be tantamount to ‘importing’ terrorism. 

Then finally comes some real explanation about how we got in the middle of this.  

As the donor governments, which helped to keep the camps in Nepal going, began to grow weary of the deadlock and started cutting aid, the US, also goaded by the fear of a militant movement brewing in the camps, played a major role in persuading the Koirala government last year to allow the refugees to go abroad.

For readers who wish we weren’t mucking around all over the world, this last is revealing.   A “militant movement” might be brewing in camps so we should take them to America where our melting pot will do its magic and militants will be transformed into kitchen workers and meat packers too busy chasing American materialism to be bothered with their Maoist politics.  

This last may in fact be the great myth that volags have about the Islamists too—once in America the melting pot goes to work and poof any wish to bring Shariah law to the world is forgotten.  Not!

See all of our posts on this controversial resettlement here.

Erie, PA refugee commits suicide

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 1 Comment

A Ukrainian refugee woman has apparently committed suicide in Erie, PA by walking into the waters of Presque Isle Bay bringing more headaches to the International Institute of Erie which has had a rough year.  The story begins:

The woman who drowned in Presque Isle Bay on Thursday stepped into the water on purpose, according to the Erie County coroner. He said a witness watched it happen.

Coroner Lyell Cook ruled the death a suicide.

He identified the woman as Anna Lisichenko, 47, a Ukrainian immigrant who lived on Bird Drive in Erie. He said she was in the 46-degree water for less than an hour.

According to officials at the International Institute this all came as a shock because they thought she had assimilated well.

“They were very much a success for us,” said Sharon Stasiewski, the acting executive director of the International Institute of Erie. “They had done a real good job of attaining self-sufficiency.”

“If they are having trouble resettling, or are having trouble with depression, it usually comes out during the case management,” Stasiewski said. “In this case, it didn’t.”

Others in the refugee business in Erie admitted there are flaws and some unhappy refugees do fall through the cracks.

The signs are easy to miss, said Paul Jericho, the director of the refugee program for the Hispanic American Council. He works with two members of Lisichenko’s extended family.

“There are some flaws in the system,” Jericho said. “It’s not set up to identify every mental-health issue.”

I didn’t know that something called the Hispanic American Council* was now in the refugee resettlement business.

Check out our previous posts on the beleaguered International Institute of Erie here and here.

*  Just as I thought, had a look at their Form 990 and they are another group providing services to Hispanics and refugees funded primarily by the taxpayer.   Their overall income in 2006 was $1,735,280 and you paid $1,155,021 of that or 67%. 

 

Shelbyville, Emporia, Richmond (oops Roanoke), Helsinki, it’s the same story

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Thanks to reader ‘Bill’ who has set me straight and it’s not Richmond, it’s Roanoke!

What a coincidence that this story should pop up the day after we reported the conflicts on-going in Richmond Roanoke between Somali refugees and local black American citizens.   This story is from Finland. 

A Finnish family complained that an immigrant family in the apartment below them was playing music too loud. The immigrants denied the accusation: they said that as devout Muslims they do not even listen to music.

The Finnish mother had tried to approach the immigrant family to discuss about the noise, but the approach was perceived as a racist attack. 

In Finland they think they have the problem solved with mediation.  

The conflict concerning noise, which was mediated by Mohamed, was resolved when it was noted that the sound insulation in the building was inadequate, and should be upgraded in connection with an upcoming refurbishment. It also came out that the sound that the upstairs neighbours had heard was from the reading of the Koran.

Blame the building owners and, oh, it was only the Koran reading that was making so much noise.  So, it looks like everyone is happy, make the landlord put money into the building and let the loud Koran reading proceeed. 

Finnish Refugee Council coordinator Terhi Joensuu says that the disputes have often been connected with the use of common facilities, such as saunas and laundry rooms, children in the playground, and annoyance caused by differing customs.

Yes, that is what we heard in Richmond  Roanoke too, common room problems and kids playing (I wonder if spitting is going on in Finland too as it did in Emporia and now Richmond Roanoke?) 

In the Helsinki region, in Turku, and the Tampere area, most of the dozens of disputes in which mediation has been applied, has led to a positive result. “We have had good experiences”, Joensuu emphasises.

Mohamed says that many of the conflicts result from the fact that immigrants do not know the rules of living in Finland. It might be unclear for some of them what the requirement of silence in the evening really means, and how waste should be sorted for recycling.

“Finns assume that once information has been posted about rules, they will be known, but for Somalis, for instance, an oral message is more valuable than a written one”, Mohamed observes.

Didn’t I see that in Shelbyville there was an attempt to discuss the problems in an apartment building verbally?   And, in this story the Finnish mother did try to talk to her neighbors but was called a racist. 

Immigrants often accuse Finns of racism. “It can be true, but can also come from a misunderstanding”, Mohamed points out.

Richmond   Roanoke  had nothing to do with racism. 

In many cases cultural differences have nothing to do with the problem. People are simply individuals, and those coming from the same background can have completely different interpretations of their own culture. Neighbourhood mediators have also arbitrated in a number of disputes between native-born Finns.

Cultural factors could be one reason why Somalis, for instance, are often eager to take part in a mediation effort. Mohamed says that similar methods of conflict resolution are the tradition in Somalia.

“Mediation is something that Finns should learn from immigrants.”

I guess mediation means the Finns have to change their culture to fit the immigrants.

If you are a regular reader of RRW, this is a quiz.   What is the common thread in these stories and who do you think needs to do the changing?

Trouble brewing between black Americans and African refugees in Roanoke, VA

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update!   Thanks to reader “Bill” I had this story happening in Richmond when it really was happening in Roanoke!  

Uh oh,  we have heard anecdotal stories about tensions brewing but this is the first news account we’ve seen.  Look at this story today in the Roanoke Times.   It’s not clear where the fault lies but things seem to be out of hand.

The small barren courtyard that separates the apartment buildings of Dwan Dillard and Mohamed Adin in Northwest Roanoke might as well be an ocean, so deep is the dislike that the American-born black woman and the Somali Bantu refugee have of each other.

“That out there is a war zone,” said Dillard, whose four children live with her at Maple Grove Apartments, a blighted complex of four buildings with a total of 40 units on Pilot Street near Melrose Avenue. “The African children attack ours. They throw rocks.”

“I have a gun. If they hurt my kids, I’ll use it,” said Tricia Arrington, an American-born black woman with five children. Interviewed Monday outside her apartment, she said, “My 9-year-old daughter came in from riding the school bus with those Africans and they had spit all over her face. I ain’t about to let them keep doing that.” Further complicating the issue and this story is the reference to the cheap rundown apartments in which the  Catholic agency places refugees.   That part of the story is not new!

Further,  the rundown apartments in which the Catholic resettlement agency is placing refugees may be a contributing factor—nothing new there.

The Catholic Diocese of Richmond’s Refugee and Immigration Services office in Roanoke has been placing families from Africa and other countries in area apartments for years, with low rents being a key factor in settling them.

Maple Grove has been a favored destination for refugees from Somalia and other African nations since 2003, said Beth Lutjen, the agency’s director. “They have become a community here,” she said, walking around the complex Monday after receiving several complaints from her clients. “But now the tensions between the Africans and the American blacks have reached a crisis point.”

A contributing factor of late is the worsening physical conditions of some apartments and the public laundry room. Roanoke city code enforcement officials have cited four apartments as needing repairs since March 19, and one was condemned and ordered vacated.

I guess we have a malfunctioning melting pot situation.  I wonder do all those who get warm feelings about the joys of multiculturalism ever have any doubts when they read stories like this one.   By the way, can’t call this racism now can we.

Brian Mosely of the Shelbyville Times-Gazette has posted on this story today here.