Day: February 15, 2018

As Trump shrinks refugee program, twenty offices will be closed

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

“We’ve never seen a cut of this size and also a cut of this impact.”

(Hans Van de Weerd an executive at the International Rescue Committee)

Warning! Although this is news you will find valuable, especially if you live near one of the soon-to-be-closed resettlement sites, remember that this is temporary and when Trump is no longer in the White House, the refugee industry will go in to high gear to make up for what they will call the lost Trump years!
In order for that not to happen, CONGRESS must dump or reform the Refugee Act of 1980!
Reuters is reporting the impending closure of 20 offices.
Demonstrating that elections have consequences, it was only in 2016 that the State Department was on a high attempting to add about 47 offices to their roster of resettlement towns and cities.  Now this….

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Refugee resettlement agencies*** are preparing to shutter more than 20 offices across the United States and cut back operations in more than 40 others after the State Department told them to pare their operations, according to plans seen by Reuters.

Hans van de weerd facebook
It should come as no surprise to you that refugee contractor employees like Hans here also support illegal aliens getting amnesty. It isn’t about humanitarian concern for refugees, but is about flooding America with immigrants, like Hans himself.

The slated closures, which are being reviewed by the State Department for final approval, follow President Donald Trump’s decision to dramatically reduce the number of refugees that will be allowed into the United States in 2018.

The State Department has said the drop in refugee numbers, from the 110,000 ceiling set by the Obama administration to 45,000 for 2018, means the country no longer needs all of the 324 resettlement offices that were operating at the end of 2017. This year’s cap on refugees is the lowest since 1980.

The offices, run by private non-profit agencies that contract with the U.S. government, provide a range of services to refugees, from assisting them in finding housing and jobs, to helping them navigate banking, medical care, school enrollment and other complexities of life in America. [Complexities=getting their welfare!—ed]

Opponents of the resettlement program say it is more costly to resettle refugees in the United States than it is to give aid to displaced people overseas.

“The changes will consolidate smaller affiliates, reduce costs and simplify management structures to help the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program run in a way that is fiscally responsible and sustainable in the long term,” State Department spokeswoman Cheryl Harris said in an email.

[….]

“We’ve never seen a cut of this size and also a cut of this impact,” said Hans Van de Weerd an executive at the International Rescue Committee, one of the nine resettlement agencies. [Why isn’t newshound Miliband quoted?—ed]

While the size of the U.S. refugee program has fluctuated over the years, it has never seen an across-the-board cut to dozens of offices in such a short period of time, he said.

Van de Weerd said the cuts could make it difficult for the United States to ramp up refugee numbers in the future. “It took years to build up this capacity,” he said. “Once you break it down it’s not easy to build it up again.”

Continue reading here.
Below is a screenshot of a portion of a very useful graphic Reuters has prepared. Click here to see the entire page.
 
Screenshot (203)
 
***These are the nine federal contractors which refer to themselves as VOLAGs (Voluntary agencies, Ha! Ha!) which will lose some of their subcontractor offices (see list here before it is revised). The number in parenthesis is the percentage of federal funding each gets to place refugees in your towns.
They are paid by the refugee head thus the focus on Trump’s admission numbers.

 

Messy business as Miliband and refugee agency embroiled in fraud and sexual harassment charges involving DR Congo

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Two days ago I wondered why the International Rescue Committee*** statement on Trump’s budget cuts did not feature newshound David Miliband (IRC CEO) making the comments against the President.
Look at this!
Headline from the UK Daily Mail yesterday. I guess he had bigger problems bubbling up than Trump’s budget this week:

Charity fronted by former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband ‘hushed up 37 allegations of fraud, sex abuse and bribery’

 

Government ministers froze funding to a charity led by David Miliband after it silenced 37 sex abuse, fraud and bribery allegations, it has been claimed.

The International Rescue Committee, which is headed by the former Labour foreign secretary, was given millions in taxpayers’ cash before the allegations were made.

hillary-and-miliband (1)
He said he loves Hillary’s smile. She called him cute.  https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2016/03/31/david-miliband-loves-hillarys-smile/

A team from the IRC was sent to probe claims of wrongdoing in the Democratic Republic of Congo. [Readers should know that refugees from the DR Congo are among the top numbers arriving in the US right now.—-ed]

This is the first time I learned that the IRC, besides getting nearly a half a billion US dollars in less than five years from US taxpayers, is also feeding off UK taxpayers.

Yet a leaked report from the Department of International Development (Dfid) shows the funding to the charity was cut after ‘direct reporting of sexual harassment and fraud’.

A Dfid spokesman told The Sun: ‘DFID became aware of serious allegations relating to this programme in August 2016.

‘The Department acted swiftly to ensure the reported misconduct was fully and comprehensively addressed by the IRC and relevant authorities.’

Mr Miliband left politics and joined the IRC in 2013 shortly after losing the Labour leadership election to his brother Ed [Ed’s nickname is ‘Red Ed’—ed]. He remains in the post today.

miliband and soros 2
Here Miliband is awarding George Soros the IRC’s highest honor—Freedom Award—in 2013.  Soros’ son Jonathan is on the left.

He is mentioned by name in the report, although there is no suggestion he is involved in any alleged wrongdoing.

More here.
Doing well by doing good!
The Daily Mail mentions Miliband’s huge salary (in the last reported tax year it was $671,749)!

Any real investigative reporters out there?

We have a very large archive on the life and times of Moneybags Miliband as head of the IRC in Manhattan, click here.
Do not miss this post: Miliband: We must embrace political Islamism.
And here he was the first contractor in 2015 to call for the US to resettle 65,000 Syrians (vast majority are Muslims).

The ol’ gang is breaking up, is Miliband next to depart?

***The International Rescue Committee is the largest (financially) of the nine contractors that resettle refugees in the US.
Recently, we reported that two of the nine have lost their CEO’s under questionable circumstances, see USCRI (Lavinia Limon) here and then just yesterday we learned that Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service CEO Linda Hartke is out.