Update May 21st: Apparently this APFA story came from a longer Denver Post article, here. The Denver Post had a couple of additional items that add to the story. We have heard this frequently, caseworkers were not available to help frightened refugees (sick refugees where we live were unable to reach their caseworkers):
Dahal tried calling a caseworker instead, but nobody could come to speak with Mishras that night.
And understandably the refugees lament:
Our feeling is that we may be targeted,” Dahal said. “We’re new here. We’re lost. What do we do?”
Bhutanese refugees resettled in Denver have become the latest refugee victims of crime. It seems that the Bhutanese (really Nepalese) and Burmese Karen Christians, both longtime refugee camp residents make attractive targets for robbers. From APFA a Bhutanese news service:
Denver, May 20, 2009: The newly resettled Bhutanese in Denver, Colorado are getting passing sleepless nights due to increasing attacks on them in the recent days.
“Before leaving the refugee camp, I was thinking: We have problems. . . . I’ll feel safe in the United States. Now my feeling has changed. I’m not safe in the United States,” said Yadav Rizal, 39, who was robbed of $250, beaten and dragged behind a liquor store in northeast Denver.
Due to the attacks, he has to change his apartment, again becoming refugee in America. His family shifted to a new place on Tuesday.
Denver and Aurora police are investigating three crimes. This was the fourth instance of attack on the Bhutanese. After the May 8 robbery, Rizal was unconscious for five hours in a hospital. Seven stitches closed a gash over his blackened right eye. His head and neck still ache today, he said.
Arrrrrrgh! Same old excuse from the resettlement professionals, we only have so much money and so we put refugees in the cheapest crime-ridden slums we can find, then we expect them to travel extreme distances to get to work and then we wonder why they are having a tough time. Maybe consider bringing smaller numbers of refugees and giving them a better quality of life.
The attacks aggravate a difficult situation for resettled Bhutanese. The government grants them only $450 a month for eight months to resettle, forcing most to live in rougher areas where police and caseworkers say street crime is more frequent.
Since most resettled Bhutanese work for long hours, it is always late when they get back to home.
“Our promise is not just to bring them here,” said Paul Stein, Colorado’s refugee coordinator, who is planning emergency meetings with the Bhutan immigrants to help them improve their personal safety. “Our promise is to help them integrate. We have to do a better job.”
I will bet you a buck that Mr. Stein and whatever agency has the federal contract to resettle the refugees in Denver is busy right now lobbying for MORE refugees for Denver. It is all about the almighty buck (taxpayer funding to keep them in jobs) and about patting themselves on the back for doing good works. Good works, my foot!
BTW, in light of the crimes perpetrated by refugees in places like Portland, ME that I just told you about this morning, or the crimes where refugees are targets, I wonder what the law enforcement costs are for the refugee resettlement program. I bet no one knows.