In my previous post I told you about a Bhutanese prospective refugee who asked us to help figure out how he/she could bet signed up to be resettled.
We have some vague notion that the UN is out scouting for refugees to come to the US which is partially true, but the US State Department has what I can only call LARGE processing centers scattered around the world. Recently it came to my attention that bidding is open for anyone (LOL!) wishing to apply to run one of three big processing centers.
Nepal presently run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Istanbul run presently by International Catholic Migration Ministries (ICMM)
Nairobi run now by Church World Service (CWS)
These are large contracting jobs often employing 100-200 employees. They do all the initial processing and paperwork for the refugees. They also coordinate the cultural orientation, so come to think of it, when refugees come to the US and are shocked at their living conditions, I guess it would be these contractors that didn’t give them the complete picture. Frankly, since two of the three are also affiliated with resettlement agencies in the US who need warm bodies to get their government payments to resettle refugees, I can see where there might be a tendency to gloss over the difficulties refugees are having in the US, and encourage as many as possible to sign-up!
How about the State Department establish a new restriction—no connection to a US resettlement agency. Take away any appearance of conflict of interest! Also, it gives me the creeps that these are “church” related groups doing the processing. What happened to the separation of church and state?
Good luck applying, I’m betting these contractors have a lock on the contract.