A month ago today, I told you about the unhappy Iraqi refugees who have been resettled in Concord, NH.  Well, things are getting worse.

Note to reporter Chelsea Conaboy:  Keep up the good work!  Your fellow reporters in Shelbyville, TN and Waterbury, CT are winning awards for their investigative work into how refugees are settling (or not settling) into communities or how the volags have been neglecting refugees.  In Waterbury, CT the volag was actually shut down by the State Department.   I am sure reporters at the Salt Lake City Tribune will also win awards for their extensive work.   In the meantime, national reporters, like AP’s Matthew Lee, continue to advocate for more refugees entering the US, but never look into the reality of what is happening in city after city in America.

So now to the latest at the Concord Monitor where Iraqi refugees are saying they have been humiliated by Lutheran Social Services (a federal contractor):

Aleaa, a 31-year-old doctor from Iraq, urged her family to leave their home country after she was nearly killed last year. But months into her new life as a refugee resettled in Concord, Aleaa considered going back to Iraq. She even began packing her bags.

She had come to the United State full of hope and gratitude. But as the weeks went by, those feelings were replaced with anger.

Aleaa, who asked that her last name not be used because she fears for the safety of friends still in Iraq, says she and her family were mistreated and, at times, neglected since arriving here. She points the finger at Lutheran Social Services, the agency charged with helping them start their lives in Concord. She’s not alone.

Part of the problem revolves around something we have written about on so many occasions I’ve lost track.  Many Iraqi refugees are highly educated and expect to walk into middle or upper class lives in America.

In Iraq, the refugees lived middle-class lives. They owned homes and cars and had professions. The life they are offered in Concord includes sparsely furnished apartments, minimum-wage jobs and food stamps.

How they were not properly prepared for the reality of life in America is a fault of the US State Department, but I gather from this article the State Department is now trying to rectify the problem and prepare them better.

Iraqis actually protested on the street which I assume prompted this meeting.

Lutheran called a meeting with the Iraqis on Thursday to discuss their concerns. The meeting was not open to news media.

The last thing these volags want is negative publicity.  Of course it isn’t open to the media, the less the US State Department hears in the news about a volag (supposedly voluntary agency) screwing up the better the chances the volag will keep its government contract.

Then there is this curious comment.  I say curious, because although I have heard of this before, volags shutting out other volunteer help (it happened in Waterbury, CT), frankly, it makes no sense.  You would think these “church group” contractors would be looking for all the help they could get.

Each refugee interviewed for this story said he or she was told by Lutheran staff members not to take help from people outside the agency, a claim that some African refugees in Concord have echoed.

Lutheran Social Services say they just need more money and imply that the Iraqis are irrational due to war trauma.

She [Lutheran rep] said it is caused in part by a lack of funding by the federal government. And, she said, the Iraqis have experienced such trauma that adjusting to their lives here is particularly difficult.

Aleaa hits the nail on the head with this line:

“It’s like we’ve asked for millions of dollars or something,” she said. “They humiliate us. To treat a human with respect, does it require funds?”

Reforms needed!   As I have said dozens of times since we started writing Refugee Resettlement Watch, we can disagree about how many refugees come to the US and from where, but when we do take refugees and their resettlement is paid by the taxpayers, then we darn well better do it right.

I have lots of ideas on what needs to be done!