Category: Iraqi refugees

Iraqi translators feel they are dumped upon, others are missing?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

IRAQI interpreters given asylum in Australia after working alongside Australian troops during the occupation of their country say they feel short-changed by the Federal Government since arriving in Australia two months ago. 

Gee where have I heard this before, oh yeah, yesterday in Baltimore.  The Age from Melbourne Australia joins the Baltimore Sun in whacking the stingy, bad, pro-war West and our allies and goes on:

The interpreters, who faced persecution in Iraq and were branded traitors by many of their countrymen, feel they have been dumped in Australia with little help or prospect of work.

They say they were promised jobs, immediate health care and moderately priced housing.

However, most have been told since arriving that they will need to retrain to work in their existing professions. Some, with family health issues, have been placed on public hospital waiting lists, and those who have been housed are paying almost half their Centrelink payments in rent. Many say they have had to scrounge for furniture and clothes from church and charity groups. Several families are still living in motels.

I don’t know if NGOs (non-government organizations) are responsible for resettling refugees in Australia as they are here, so I have no clue if this is the same story there as in Baltimore.   However, we have written so much about conditions refugees face that I wonder how all these Iraqis are getting some idea of ‘shangri-la’ in the West.   We have reported innumerable times that Iraqi refugees, even well-educated ones, are doing menial labor when they get to the US.  And, we have reported that the Iraqi government wants its well-trained people to return to rebuild Iraq.

According to this article, some may already be returning (or are they?):

A small number of the Iraqis, many of whom are trained teachers and university educated, became so disillusioned that they are believed to have returned to Iraq at their own expense. Others say they plan to follow, putting themselves at great risk from vengeful militia, according to their colleagues.

“…they are believed to have returned to Iraq.”   You mean the Australian government DOESN’T KNOW WHERE THEY ARE!

I am sure there are decent deserving interpretors and other Iraqis who will make a better life for themselves in the West.  But, I will remind readers that when translators went to Denmark, some were found to be spies for insurgents, see Judy’s post here.  And then there is the story that no one discusses about how 365 suspected terrorists were weeded out of the Iraqi refugee program in recent months by Homeland Security.

I don’t know if some of those 365 were translators but it doesn’t take a genius to see that insurgents and other terrorists would be sure to plant their best and brightest in the interpreter profession.

Learn everything (and more then you ever wanted to) about the Iraqi refugee issue by going to our category entitled Iraqi refugees here.

Lutheran Immigration agency dropping the ball in Baltimore

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is an article from Baltimore, MD about an Iraqi translator who lost his legs when an IED exploded near his American convoy.   Now he is in Maryland, a resettled refugee, and none too happy about his treatment.  

Ahmed’s rough landing is hardly unique for Iraqi translators who helped the U.S. From Seattle to Phoenix to Denver, his complaints are echoed by other wounded Iraqi interpreters now trickling into the country as part of a government push to admit thousands of Iraqis.

Miserly federal support and the strain on strapped nonprofit refugee agencies have soured many maimed translators, who say they’re not getting help commensurate with their service to the U.S. in Iraq.

This line of reporting caused some readers to lash out at Ahmed for what they see as a lack of gratitude on his part that he has been given a new life in America (be sure to read the comments).

Clearly the reporter wants you to come away with the idea that the stingy federal government is to blame for all this, so it is the last comment that is the most important.  Oh yeah, the federal government (read, US State Department) is to blame but not in the way you think.   According to Chris Coen of Friends of Refugees there is money flowing to the volags like Lutheran Social Services in this case, but is anyone making sure they fulfill their obligations as government contractors?

Here is what Chris Coen told readers of the Baltimore Sun today:

This article says that American soldiers are buying basic necessities for Saad Ahmed with their own money, e.g. dishes and a lamp. Readers should know that the State Department contract that LSS signs in order to receive government funding actually REQUIRES them to provide basic necessities, including dishes and lamps. Why do the soldiers have to waste their money on these things when they could instead be helping Saad with other needs?

The article says that Saad sleeps on a mattress in the living room. An LSS employee said it is not always possible to find both a frame and a mattress for each refugee. This is an amazing statement. LSS’s government refugee contract, again, REQUIRES them to provide a frame and a mattress for each refugee as a minimum requirement. It’s indicated that the apartment that the Washington-area Lutheran Social Services (LSS) put Saad in is ill-suited for a wheelchair. Again, their government contracts supposedly REQUIRE them to provide disabled refugees with housing that accommodates known disabilities. LSS was said to have made an “offer” of job-seeking assistance. Yet, they are REQUIRED to provide this assistance, not simply make an offer. Saad’s LSS caseworker should have brought him some job applications by now, and/or taken Saad to places of employment to fill out applications and do interviews.

The article also mentions “miserly federal support”. Yet, refugee resettlement agencies do not rely solely on the $425 per refugee they receive from the State Department refugee resettlement program. They can also receive such government grants as refugee micro-loans program, Employment Services (lasts up to 5 years), Employment Assessment Services and On-The-Job Training, English Language Instruction, Vocational Training, Skills Certification, Day Care, Transportation, Case Management Translation/Interpreter Services, Assistance in Obtaining Employment Authorization Documents, professional refresher training and other recertification services, ownership society grants, marriage initiative grants, faith-based organization grants, community-based grants, individual development account grants, etc. By the way, the refugee program is supposed to be a “public/private partnership”. How many dollars does LSS contribute for each public dollar they consume? Refugee resettlement is supposed to be heavily financed by these “charity” organizations, such as LSS, and not rely mainly on government handouts. These handouts can be substantial.

The failure of LSS to provide these minimal household items and services is not at all unique. Our group has found these failures at refugee resettlement agencies all over the country. Until the State Department decides to start enforcing the fairly minimal “minimum requirements” of its contracts, these problems will continue.

Christopher Coen
Friends of Refugees
FORefugees@hotmail.com

We are very grateful to Chris Coen for his enormous knowledge about the inner workings of this complex federal contracting program.    As we have said on previous occasions, we can debate all day about how many refugees come to the US and from where, but when they get here and want to assimilate and become Americans then those paid to care for them better darn well do their jobs.

International Crisis Group says there is an Iraqi refugee crisis

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Somewhere recently I said I wanted to see an independent study of the Iraqi displaced people issue.    I wanted to see something written by some group that had no dog in this hunt.   So someone sent me this report entitled, “Failed Responsibility: Iraqi refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon”  published just last month.

First thing I noticed was that it used the word “crisis” about a million times.  Actually I am exagerating but I searched the word “crisis” and gave up after about 10 pages of the 47 page report.   The word was used on every page at least once in the text and another whole bunch of times in the footnotes because virtually all footnotes were from information gathered by themselves—the International Crisis Group.

But, it’s on page 47 that I found the most telling information about the “independent” report.    I don’t know all the names on the International Crisis Group Board of Trustees, but here are a few I know:  George Soros, Wesley Clark, Kofi Anan, Richard Armitage, Zibigniev Brzezinski and the best of all HRH Prince Turki-al-Faisal.   LOL, such a bunch of independent members of the anti-war crowd.    As security improves in Iraq, this refugee “crisis” is the last thing they have to wrap around the neck of the Bush Administration.

Besides looking at who wrote the report, here is one of the ways I can tell if an Iraqi refugee report is legit.   If the report mentions the FACT that prior to 2003 and our arrival in Iraq, the Saddam Hussein government had displaced about a million people (many Shiites in particular went to Syria) and the volags were squawking about the refugee “crisis” then.  I could find zero mention of this fact—it’s all about the bad US.  Most of those pre-2003 displaced people are now counted in the group we are expected to bring to a city near you.

As for His Royal Highness Turki, I searched the report for any mention of Saudi Arabia and the fact that it had done nothing to help Iraqi refugees—-zip, zero, nothing!   Except check out Appendix A (map) on Page 37.   If you are not up on your geography of the region you might not know that the southwestern part of Iraq shares a very long border with Saudi Arabia.  Note how all countries joining Iraq have at least some Iraqi refugees—EXCEPT Saudi Arabia.   In fact, refugees have skipped over the Kingdom and gone to Egypt.   So, maybe old Turki had some role in that ommision?    Saudi Arabia is scared to death that a democracy could evolve in the Middle East, so they don’t want a bunch of people with democracy ideas settling in their midst (especially Shiites!).

Funny thing, I don’t think the Saudis ever resettled any Palestinian refugees either.  As a matter of fact, I will venture to guess that the ‘International Crisis Group’ kind of likes the Palestinian model and just maybe some of these folks want to recreate the model with Iraqi refugees.   It has been so successful beating the Israelis over the head with the so-called Palestinian “refugees” that they may see the same opportunity to beat the US over the head with the Iraqi refugee “crisis”.    And, lazy lap dog reporters in the mainstream media will suck this report right up and never mention who was behind it!

See more on the International Crisis Group here (this report says some Obama advisor is part of this “crisis” group too).  If any of our readers can point to anyone on this Board of Directors who might be a pro-America conservative, let me know!

More news on Iraqi IDP’s, government announces incentives to return

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

On July 16th the Iraqi government announced incentives for IDP’s (Internally Displaced Persons) to return home.   Judy reported on this in an earlier post here, and now we are hearing some of the details.

NGO’s* and their reporter friends have been saying we broke it (Iraq) and now we need to fix it by bringing thousands of Iraqis to the US.   So it is welcome news to see that the Iraqi government is taking steps to resettle its own people.     Note in this story that there are incentives not only for internally displaced but for displaced people who have left Iraq to return as well.

BAGHDAD, 20 July 2008 (IRIN) – The Iraqi government has adopted a number of measures aimed at encouraging the return of over four million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees to their homes, a government statement has said.

The most significant measure is the one-off payment of 1.8 million Iraqi dinars (about US$1,500) to families who are illegally occupying the houses of other displaced families from a different sect and who want to return to their homes, the statement said on 16 July.

The aim is to help those families to rent other places, the statement said.
All IDPs or refugees willing to return to their houses will be paid one million Iraqi dinars (about $840), it said.

Another measure stipulates an additional monthly payment of 150,000 Iraqi dinars (about $145) to each internally displaced family which has not yet returned to its home. The payment will be for three months while the family is still displaced.

Other measures include helping Iraqi refugees in neighbouring countries with free airline tickets if they choose to return home, the free shipment of their belongings, and compensation for damaged property.

“These decisions are designed to facilitate and expedite the return of displaced families to their houses to boost the peaceful coexistence among Iraq’s different components in mixed areas,” the statement said.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), over 4.2 million Iraqis have fled their homes since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Of these, about 2.2 million are living as refugees in neighbouring countries – mostly Syria and Jordan – while the remainder are IDPs.

* NGO’s (volags) need refugee numbers entering the US because that is how they are paid, by the head.  And, since this is also an opportunity to whack the Bush Administration over the war, the issue is a ‘twofer’ for them.

Readers help needed!  If you see this story reported by the Associated Press, send the link to us.

Some Iraqi IDP’s are not legit

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

IDP’s are Internally Displaced Persons in the vernacular of the refugee resettlement industry folks.  The mainstream media tells us that a couple of million are displaced within Iraq and we must begin resettling these so-called refugees to the US.    The normal definition of “refugee” specifies that the person must have left his or her own country due to persecution or the fear of persecution; economic migrants don’t count.   We, at RRW, are trying to get to the bottom of this issue.  

Here is an article from Relief Web that gives us a bit more information:

BAGHDAD, 27 July 2008 (IRIN) – A provincial investigative committee in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf is to go check the files of more than 200 displaced families living in a camp outside the city to determine who are genuinely displaced and who are not, an official said on 26 July.

Mashkour al-Mousawi, director of the Ministry of Displacement and Migration’s Najaf province branch, added that the committee will expel from the camp those families claiming to be displaced and will encourage the return of some genuine internally displaced persons (IDPs) to areas now deemed safer for them to return to.

“We have reports that there are some families from remote areas pretending to be displaced who have joined other displaced families in al-Manathira camp to benefit from financial, food and non-food assistance,” said al-Mousawi.

We are glad to learn that the Iraqi government is working to sort this out and look forward to reports from reporters in the US media telling the American public the whole story and not simply regurgitating press releases from NGO’s.