I know we previously told you about Tarek Darwish a seventy year old Iraqi refugee resettled in Utah who returned to Iraq distraught over his miserable life here. It’s not clear if the Salt Lake Tribune is running the exact story again or has added some new material, but it’s worth repeating for our new readers.
From the Salt Lake Tribune which has done excellent investigative work on the Refugee Resettlement Program of the US State Department and how it is impacting Utah:
As human rights organizations call for aid and resettlement for millions of Iraqi refugees, some who are exasperated by America’s refugee system are going home or attempting to return to other countries in the Middle East. They feel abandoned by federal policies that offer limited and brief financial support and leave many refugees living in poverty.
Refugees planning to leave acknowledge they may be less safe in Iraq, but believe they will be better able to afford food, pay rent and receive medical care.
[….]
An Iraqi family with seven children living in Utah returned to Iraq a few weeks ago. Another Iraqi single mother is planning to leave for Syria soon. “We feel like we’re human beings there,” said Mohammed Abd, an Iraqi refugee whose family briefly considered leaving Utah. “We feel like here we are mice.”
Here is a line worth mentioning also:
When Darwish’s 25-year-old daughter, Nada, arrived in Utah ahead of the family last August, she was shown to a bare room without a bed — a sign of the strain on agencies that contract to aid new arrivals with few federal dollars and a small staff.
Just a reminder that back in January we posted on a presentation given by Barbara Day who heads up the Resettlement Program for the US State Department. Beds are required for all refugees. We suggested a complaint hotline be set up for refugees and volunteers to report resettlement agencies that were not fulfilling their contracts with the State Department. Apparently no move has been made and instead the State Department is alerted to abuses in the program by random news accounts like this one.
Hoping for reform, the Refugee Council USA and other organizations are requesting a review of the system by President Barack Obama and the federal agencies that administer it.
Resettlement agencies want reform of the program? This is a joke, they only want more taxpayer money, not real reform. We have been asking readers for reform ideas and here is one we received that suggests penalizing agencies that don’t fullfill contracts.
Refugee resettlement agencies, if you need more money, go to the Tides Foundation not the US taxpayer. Or, start running your agency more like Christian Freedom International with private charity!
And then here is a novel idea! Consider the words of an Iraqi refugee boy who seems wiser by far than all the high paid refugee industry professionals inside and outside government.
It is better to have 10 Iraqi refugees who are satisfied with their lives than having 100 angry ones with no life at all.
Of course that makes sense if your goal is to have happy, assimilated refugees who have a bright future in America. If your goal is to bring about “change” by creating chaos and flooding the country with poor and angry immigrants, then these agencies, all part of the Refugee Council USA, are right on target (following the George Soros/Cloward-Piven play book.)