Month: April 2010

Yikes! A Bhutanese refugee killed himself in Pittsburgh in January

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a story we missed at the time but I see it was reported a couple of days ago at Friends of Refugees where blogger and refugee advocate Christopher Coen tells us more about “refugee syndrome” and a study about the Bhutanese in New York City.

I told you about problems the Bhutanese were having in NYC last fall here in an apartment building somehow connected to the filthy rich International Rescue Committee.  I see that Coen has noted that the IRC would  not be interviewed for the report on “refugee syndrome.”

The refugee who committed suicide in January had been resettled to Pittsburgh, another city we have previously mentioned where refugee overload was causing hardship for refugees and for the community.  As a matter of fact, I believe the refugee quoted in this article about the suicide is the same Bhanu Phuyel we heard from when we wrote about refugee exploitation in Pittsburgh late last fall.

The Bhutanese man, Jit Bahadur Pradhan,was found hanging in the laundry room.

Six members of the family were sharing a two-bed room apartment along with another family with four people. They had not received any other facility except food card.*

Phuyel said that Pradhan was annoyed with the circumstances, and used to complain with his two sons that the situation there was no better than in the camp in Nepal.

More than 150 Bhutanese refugees, who were earlier taking shelter in eastern Nepal, have been resettled in Pittsburgh and outlying areas including Prospect Park and Green Tree. Sixty of them are working in a food-packing company.

* Am I reading this right?  If he had been resettled in only December, why in hell were two families (10 people!) living in a two bedroom apartment.  During the first three months at least, resettlement agencies are required as part of their contract with the US State Department to have housing adequate for their family.  And, I will bet there are local housing code regulations prohibiting that many people in one apartment.  How did the resettlement agency—Catholic Charities??? Jewish Family Services???—let this happen.  Incidentally we hear story after story of refugees piling in with each other when families are evicted but that is usually months after the resettlement agencies claim they are no longer responsible.

And, I see we have Prospect Park again!  That is the shoddy housing complex run by Catholic Charities or their ‘friends.’

Note the reference to 60 refugees working in a food packing plant.  I know they need work, but I swear one day we will learn that the resettlement agencies get some sort of cut out of supplying cheap refugee labor—some sort of employment service fee.   But, its that damn presumption of good intentions and political correctness that keeps investigative reporters from finding the truth, or even beginning to look for the truth!

Note to mainstream reporters:  One day when you get around to looking into collusion between the humanitarian do-gooder organizations and big business in need of cheap labor, check out the connection between resettlement agencies and certain landlords.  In the meantime, I won’t be holding my breath.

USCRI keeps the Rohingya drumbeat going

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

USCRI is the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (one of the top ten federal refugee contractors).   I just mentioned them yesterday, here, in a story about unhappy Iraqis resettled in Boston.   Today I see they have two articles that continue the Rohingya resettlement drumbeat.  It’s way too much to go into—we have 91 posts on the Rohingya issue going back a couple of years—but for new readers the Rohingya are Muslims who along with Christians are being pushed out of Burma (Myanmar).

Muslim Bangladesh doesn’t want them either.  Some have gotten into boats and tried to enter Thailand causing an international outrage last year when charges were leveled at the Thai military for towing a boatload of asylum seekers out to sea.   We have also learned that thousands are imprisoned in MUSLIM Saudi Arabia. 

I’ll let you read USCRI’s two recent articles, here and here.  The gist of all this is that they are pushing first for Bangladesh to take in the Rohingya and if that fails, and they know it will, the Rohingya should be resettled in the West.  I’ve noticed the following line cropping up in comments from Muslims recently (even once in a comment to RRW) so it must be part of Islamic supremacists’ ‘talking points!’

It must also make all diplomatic efforts to find shelters for these stranded refugees in sparsely populated and prosperous countries of Europe and North America, and the Gulf states.

Calling all environmentalists (Carl Pope of the Open-Borders Sierra Club take note)—-what sparsely populated parts of the US might they be referring to?

And, finally, if all these drumbeat stories mentioned one thing I wouldn’t object so much.  They NEVER mention one important reason why people (and countries including Saudi Arabia) are leery of the Rohingya.  Some, and I say some, Rohingya have been linked to Islamic extremism with reports that Al-Qaeda-linked groups have recruited at Cox’s Bazaar (the refugee camp in Bangladesh).  If only they would throw a line in these stories about the terror links so people understood the full picture, it would make these reports more credible.

St. Cloud, MN man admits threatening Somalis

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We first told you about this case, here.   And, to learn more about the on-going controversy swirling around the Somali issue in St. Cloud start here (or use our search function for ‘St. Cloud’).

From the St. Cloud Times:

A New Hope man who posted an online threat to shoot Somalis at a St. Cloud State University cultural event pleaded guilty Monday to making terroristic threats.

[…..]

James Scott Miller, 49, admitted posting the threat in response to an advertisement he saw on Craigslist that gave details about a Somali cultural night at St. Cloud State.

Miller has been in custody since his arrest in late March, and he was released from jail after his plea. He will be sentenced at a later date, and a plea agreement caps his sentence at 90 days.

Miller said he saw the advertisement for the Somali event on Craigslist. That ad listed the admission price at $10 per person. Miller admitted that, in response to the post, he wrote: “I’ll bring my rifle. I’ll gladly pay $10 for target practice.”

Miller admitted he posted the threat to “get a rise out of some people.”

[…..]

Officers spoke to Miller, who told them he made the post because he lives in an apartment building with a large Somali population and that he’s mad at them because “they have no respect for anyone else in this building,” according to the complaint charging Miller.

I’ve heard of this problem in apartment buildings from several places in the US.  The one that comes to mind at the moment is Shelbyville, TN where tenants were forced to move from an apartment building due to the disrespect Somalis showed to other tenants.  One big complaint I recall was that Somali drivers would dent cars in the parking lot and then not report what they did to the owner of the car.   I sure hope this guy isn’t going home to the same building!

SOS (Same old ….) Boston this time

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Boston again, Iraqis again, evictions again, no jobs again, International Institute screws up again, commenters almost uniformly critical again!

I am truly sick to death of these stories.  We’ve had Fredericksburg, VA, San Antonio, TX, Boise, ID and Chicago, IL recently reporting the same story—no jobs, refugees suffer, resettlement agencies screwing up, some refugees are sorry they came, citizens ask why we are doing this!

From the Boston Globe:

“This is the tip of the iceberg. [Iraqi] families are coming to Chelsea on a weekly basis,’’ said Rushdan. “Housing and jobs. That’s what they need.’’

According to the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants, 5,836 refugees have arrived in Massachusetts since 2007, including 1,199 from Iraq, the biggest refugee population in the state. Of those, 214 Iraqis were resettled in Greater Boston.

Unemployment and homelessness affect other refugee populations, but those who work with refugees say Iraqis are especially vulnerable.

Read the whole sorry tale.

Only two things I want to comment on.  First this case involves the International Institute in Boston.  We heard about them involved in a screw up with refugees in New Hampshire here last year.  International Institutes are USCRI (US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants) affiliates.  The former VP at USCRI now heads the whole refugee program in the Department of Health and Human Services—the revolving door in action.

Now look at this segment of the Globe story, does this sound like a woman who loves the refugees and her work?  Sounds like she doesn’t like Iraqis very much at all.

Carolyn Benedict Drew, International Institute president, said she agreed that the financial assistance was inadequate but also said many of the Iraqis came from well-to-do families and had higher expectations than refugees from poorer backgrounds.

“If somebody has been in a refugee camp all of their life, and has never really used a fork and spoon, that’s a very different expectation in coming to America than somebody in Iraq who was a physician and did very well,’’ Drew said.

What the refugees and the resettlement agencies can agree on is that before the Iraqis immigrated, they were given unfounded promises about America from refugee agency workers in Iraq.

“People were sometimes promised things, or perhaps misunderstood, before coming, that a car would be waiting, that they would have a home, that they could continue their medical practice. And that’s clearly not the case,’’ said Drew.

I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve heard this complaint, that someone is telling Iraqis that everything is great in America and they will be provided for.  Can’t the State Department get this rumor-garbage under control!

Then here we go again, Bob Carey of the filthy rich International Rescue Committee whining about not having enough tax payer money!

Carey, of the International Refugee Committee, said the problem lies in the formula used to calculate how much money and how much time refugees need to become independent: It was devised during better economic times.

“The program is not working because it’s reliant on people going to work, and that’s not happening in this economy,’’ said Carey, whose group shuttered its Boston office in 2008 because it felt it lacked enough money to effectively help the refugees here.

We told you about the corporate humanitarians at the IRC closing their Boston office here last spring.  I’ve speculated that all of these Iraqis suffering stories are legit but fueled by an International Rescue Committee media campaign to get more federal funding for the resettlement industry.  You know crisis begets change!   Maybe the IRC could use some of its own millions to help refugees.  I just this week came across a funder list for the filthy rich IRC—check it out here!  Those millions are in addition to the nearly 100 million they get from the taxpayers of the US.

Oh, just one more thing.  If the IRC felt that Boston did not have the “capacity” for more refugees last spring then why in hell is the State Department still sending refugees to Boston to another agency for more refugees to suffer this year?

P.S.  Be sure to read the comments at the Globe story!  And, visit Friends of Refugees where Christopher Coen posted this story yesterday.

Send in the National Enquirer to find the missing illegal Somalis!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That is the suggestion of radio talk show host Roger Hedgecock writing at World Net Daily yesterday!  The National Enquirer has gotten so good at investigating maybe they could show the FBI* a thing or two.   Although obviously meant to be humorous there is a grain of truth in the suggestion in addition to a bit of news I didn’t know about this case (for background see Judy’s recent post)!

Anthony Joseph Tracy has been arrested on charges he conspired with the Cuban Embassy in Kenya to smuggle some 300 Somali young men into the U.S. Immigration officials are “concerned” about Mr. Tracey’s admitted contacts with the Somali terrorist organization Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida ally.

In support of the charges, Justice Department attorneys told the federal court that prosecutors had “issued numerous subpoenas, reviewed Department of Homeland Security records and conducted witness interviews throughout the U.S., as well as in Australia and Africa.”

The feds allege that Mr. Tracy got the Somali men visas from the Cuban Embassy in Kenya. The Somalis then traveled from Kenya to Dubai to Moscow to Cuba to South America to Mexico – then entered the U.S. illegally across the Mexican border.

No evidence was presented as to how poor young Somali men could afford such an expensive, circuitous travel itinerary.

However, under questioning by Federal District Judge Leonie Brinkema, the feds admitted that they could not identify any of the Somalis smuggled into this country or identify where in the country they might be. The judge threatened to dismiss the charges unless the government could produce evidence that even one of the Somalis was actually illegally in the country and was here through the efforts of Mr. Tracy. [Wow!  I did not know that Tracy could escape prosecution if they don’t find any evidence that these guys are in the US–ed]

So far, the federal government cannot find any of these Somalis.

Send for the National Enquirer.

Good idea! 

* By the way, shouldn’t the Secret Service and the FBI have known about John Edwards affair with a staffer that was ultimately exposed singlehandedly by the National Enquirer?