Nothing much here to report other than the International Rescue Committee(IRC), which claims its funding is not adequate, put on what appears to be a pretty lavish Thanksgiving spread in New York City this week—obviously a publicity stunt because here is the article in USA Today :
NEW YORK — Mohamed Hashem*, a college student who studied dance as a child and worked as a model, was threatened often on the streets of Baghdad. He ran to Jordan, languished in Lebanon and hid for two years in Syria before finally making it to New York in July as a refugee.
Having fled persecution, he is a pilgrim, too. On Thursday he celebrated his first Thanksgiving.
“What keeps me going is I always remember where I was and where I am now,” says Hashem, 25, who shares a room with another Iraqi refugee in Brooklyn. “I have no job. I am lonely, but I’m in New York where I always wanted to be. I’m safe.”
Hashem and dozens of other refugees gathered Thursday night for an early celebration of the holiday that commemorates the feast shared by America’s indigenous people and refugees of a different sort centuries ago. Like Hashem, many were celebrating Thanksgiving for the first time.
The dinner was one of three organized this week by the International Rescue Committee, one of nine agencies that resettle refugees throughout the USA. Celebrations also were held in Phoenix on Thursday and Salt Lake City on Tuesday.
A ho-hum article is livened up by a comment from Chris Coen, Friends of Refugees. Mr. Coen is the ever-present reminder that these Volags (supposedly voluntary agencies) funded with your tax dollars often times leave the refugees in their care uncared-for!
Government inspection reports of IRC are not quite as rosy as this article. When the US State Department visited IRC refugees at their homes in New York City they found a refugee family that had not been provided with the minimal ‘minimum required’ used furnishings that are required by IRC’s government contracts. The refugee family told the government inspectors that they had asked IRC to provide an additional bed a month earlier, yet the IRC never brought it. The family also was not receiving food stamps or welfare even though they qualified for both programs. Another home visit revealed a family of five that had been placed into a crowded one-bedroom apartment. The family said that they felt unsafe in the neighborhood that IRC had placed them as they had been robbed, and a homicide had occurred in front of the building next door. This family also was not receiving food stamps even though they qualified for the program.
Christopher Coen
Friends of Refugees
FORefugees@hotmail.com
See the handy graph with the article that reminds us that we are expected to resettle 80,000 more refugees into a beleagured job market in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.
*We wrote about Hashim previously here. He gets around doesn’t he? Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the UN was even at this dinner. For the diversity worshipers reading this, take note that gays are persecuted (and at times executed) in Middle Eastern countries that follow strict Islamic law.
And, check out the photo (by a USA Today photographer so we know this was a publicity stunt set up in advance) of Hashim. Are those adult beverages the refugees are enjoying? Cash bar? Or, were drinks on the IRC (the taxpayer) too?
IRC top brass make huge salaries, here.