Day: March 23, 2011

Egyptian who converted to Christianity can’t get into the US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is one guy who does deserve a visa to get into the US.  He converted from Islam to Christianity years ago and thought when the recent Egyptian “revolution” occurred he would be free to escape the Muslim “prison” he and his daughter had lived in for years.

He got out of Egypt but only as far as Syria.  Now the US (where his wife lives!) won’t let him in.  All the while, and every day, the US admits Muslim refugees from all over the world, but we don’t let this Christian refugee in—it is maddening!

From Compass Direct News:

CAIRO, Egypt, March 21 (CDN) — When the plane carrying Maher El-Gohary and his daughter, Dina Mo’otahssem, took off from Cairo International Airport last month, they both wept with joy. After spending two-and-a-half years in hiding for leaving Islam to become Christians, they were elated by their newfound freedom.

They also felt secure that once they arrived in Syria, they would quickly obtain visas to the United States and start a new life. That hope soon proved unfounded.

After spending more than a week and a half unable to obtain a visa to the United States or to any country in Europe, they realized they may have traded in the reality of being prisoners in their own country for being refugees in another. And as El-Gohary watches the weeks pass and his resources dwindle, he said the stress is almost unbearable.

Read it all.

Apartment building fire displaces Iraqi families in Worcester, MA

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A fire a month ago has resulted in a whole group of Iraqi refugees living in a motel.  The bill is being paid for by the state of Massachusetts.

From the Telegram:

When the early morning fire hit their apartment building on Feb. 22, the first thing the refugees attempted to save — after themselves — was their documents. They waited years to receive refugee status, and were not about to lose more ground to red tape.

While the refugees escaped without physical injuries, they still endure psychological damage.

Mr. Jabar’s daughter has been experiencing emotional stress since the fire.

“She re-experiences the events every day. When she hears a voice or a loud noise, she thinks it is a fire alarm,” said Mr. Jabar, whose family lived in Syria for four years while they waited for their refugee status to be approved.

Because of the fire, he said his daughters felt safer in Syria.

Their resettlement agency and the apartment building owner paid the hotel tab for a few days, now the taxpayers of Massachusetts are footing the bill.

The next day, the refugees were transferred to the Quality Inn located at 50 Oriol Drive. The hotel costs were paid for by the property manager Bill Holmlund and Lutheran Social Services.

A week later, their case was transferred to the state Department of Transitional Assistance, because almost all of the families involved had children [one woman without children was sent to a homeless shelter]. The refugees remained in the hotel, but the bills began being paid by the state.

My questions are many.  How did the fire start, I see nothing in this story about a report from the fire marshall?   Didn’t the property owner have insurance to take care of tenants in such a situation?  What is the financial relationship between Lutheran Social Services and Bill Holmlund or the unnamed property owner?  Since Lutheran Social Services (with funding from the US State Department) placed the refugees in this building, why is it not LSS’s responsibility to now take care of those refugees’ needs? Why has it become the Massachusetts taxpayers problem? Is this one more story about refugees placed in unsafe housing?  And, I could go on and on and on….

More measles in Minnesota; baby brought it from Kenya

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is an update on the Minnesota measles story I posted the other day.  Number is increasing.

From Fairwarning:

Seven children in Minnesota have come down with measles since February in an outbreak that public health officials are blaming, in part, on parents’ fears about having their youngsters vaccinated for the disease.

The seven children with measles have ranged in age from 7 months to four years, and they include two Somali children who had not been given the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. Officials said the vaccination rate has dropped in Minnesota’s Somali immigrant community, largely because of concerns about a possible link between the vaccine and autism.

One doctor estimates that as many as 70 percent of the Somalis he knows have not given their children the vaccine. “Every family will tell you that, ‘We’re not going to give our children the MMR. We’re afraid that they’re going to get autism,’” Dr. Abdirahman Mohamed told Minnesota Public Radio.

State Epidemiologist Dr. Ruth Lynfield said that before the current outbreak, there had been only six measles cases in Minnesota over the previous five years. Investigators have traced the outbreak to an infant who traveled to Kenya and returned home in the beginning of February.

Nationally, as the Associated Press reports, the most recent federal figures show only 140 reported cases of measles across the country in 2008. Worldwide, however, the disease strikes nearly 10 million people, and kills 200,000, annually.

I thought the refugee resettlement agencies were supposed to make sure Somali kids got vaccinated.