Category: Other refugees

Bhutanese/American blacks scuffle in Columbus, Ohio

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, one black suspected robber was killed by police.   I thought I had written about this case but maybe I only read it and never posted on it.

From the Columbus Dispatch (Hat tip: Trish):

A clash last month between black and Bhutanese Nepali residents of a North Side apartment complex started when two men tried to rob one of the refugees, witnesses said.

Now, the city of Columbus is trying to set up a meeting between the Bhutanese Nepali community and other residents to try to discuss cultural differences and other simmering issues.

Read about the incident that brought on the need for a meeting.

By the time police arrived after an onlooker called 911, the melee had grown. One woman who saw the fight said that as many as 20 Bhutanese Nepali refugees were beating four black men.

She said cultural differences between the two groups have been causing tension in the complex. She did not want to be named for fear of retaliation.

Among complaints: Bhutanese Nepali children play in the carports seemingly without regard for traffic, and drivers have to shoo them out of the way. People are occasionally awakened in the early morning by drumming from what they believe to be religious ceremonies.

On the other hand, some Bhutanese Nepali residents said they have seen or heard of black residents hitting or harassing members of the immigrant group.

It really is the same old story we’ve been writing about for years.  The resettlement agencies find some initially “welcoming” city or town and then overload the place so badly that tensions come to the surface from the sheer overload on an already financially challenged area (in dreadful economic times).  There is also something fishy about these apartment complexes that are “favored” by resettlement agencies—probably some kind of cronyism going on!

The refugees*began arriving in Columbus in 2008. Originally from Nepal, they had moved to the nearby kingdom of Bhutan, where the growing ethnic minority was considered a threat and expelled. Those coming to America are among 100,000 Bhutanese Nepalis who have lived in refugee camps in Nepal for nearly two decades.

The first group of more than two dozen families was placed at the Breckenridge and another complex by the refugee agency US Together. By 2009, the immigrant community had grown to about 120. Since then, the community has grown to at least 500, most of whom live in the same North Side area.

While communities deal with the tension—the do-gooders rake in the bucks!

So who is US Together?  When I googled them I came up with a post from where else?—RRW! in 2007 when they were bringing Iraqis to Columbus.  An affiliate (aka subcontractor) of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society ( a member of the top 10, or is it 11? federal refugee contractors) they don’t appear to even have their own website.

I had to laugh, I couldn’t find any financials on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (if they are at the website they have it hidden well!)  until I decided to try their initials—HIAS—and sure enough here is their most recent Form 990.  Seems that HIAS (2009) had an income of $20,484,336 and $12,231,825 came from you—-the taxpayer!

US Together got about a million of that money.  But, here is the kicker—salaries and benefits at this organization amounted to around $12 million dollars!  HIAS’s CEO, Gideon Aronoff, racked in a cool $340,000 salary (with benefits) and the organization had at least another 8 executives making 6-figure salaries.    Once again that old adage applies—doing well by doing good!

In case you are wondering, HIAS doesn’t just resettle Jews anymore—Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists are all welcome.

*To new readers:  In 2007 the Bush Administration Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, Ellen Sauerbrey, gave the green light for the US to resettle 60,000 Bhutanese (really Nepalese) to the US over 5 years.  Remember there is a Republican Open Borders faction whose members are convinced that we need a continuing stream of cheap immigrant labor.

The story with the Bhutanese is that they really aren’t Bhutanese but Nepalese who went to live in neighboring Bhutan, many at the beginning of the twentieth century, but then Bhutan had a resurgence of ethnic nationalism and wanted Bhutan for the Bhutanese and drove out the ‘foreigners.’   Nepal, a stable country, didn’t want to take its ethnic people back so they have lived in camps for upwards of 20 years.  It is those people we are now resettling by the tens of thousands into our miserable economy.

I bet we have close to a hundred posts here at RRW on the Bhutanese/Nepalese… so just type ‘Bhutanese’ into our search function to learn more.

Author: Catholic Church and International Red Cross aided Nazi escape from Germany following WWII

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is an interesting interview published by George Mason University’s History News Network with author Dr. Gerald Steinacher (Nazis on the Run: How Hitler’s Henchmen Fled Justice) who contends there was no formal ODESSA that helped Nazi war criminals escape Europe and justice, but rather an often loose (maybe that’s not the right word) affiliation between the Catholic Church in Italy and the International Red Cross that facilitated the movement of famous, and not so famous, Nazis to freedom intermingled with legitimate refugees.

Author Steinacher warns that this is basically a standard practice (or cover) for undesirables to be among large refugee population flows.  NO!  you’re kidding!

Bhutanese refugees shot in Baltimore, one dead

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It was only two days ago we told you that a young Bhutanese (Nepalese) woman is missing in Prince George’s County,* MD when news comes that two refugees were shot in Baltimore and one died (so far).  The article is not accurate on how many Bhutanese have been resettled in the US to date (the number resettled so far in the US is closer to 42,000, here.  Last week the UN celebrated the 50,000th Bhutanese to leave camps for the West).

From the Baltimore Sun:

Two Bhutanese refugees were shot, one of them fatally, in an apparent robbery in Northeast Baltimore, one of two double-shootings investigated by Baltimore police Tuesday night.

Big Bahadur Gurung, 20, had immigrated here from Nepal two months ago, after being given sanctuary following years of persecution in his home country, said Holly Leon-Lierman, the outreach manager for the International Rescue Committee, which helps refugees assimilate.  [He was likely not persecuted in Bhutan or in Nepal because someone as young as Gurung most likely grew up in the camps in Nepal since they have been there for two decades.—ed]

“He came here seeking freedom and safety,” Leon-Lierman said. “These are people who were persecuted for a long time, and it really makes this attack all the more tragic.”

The incident is the latest in a series of crimes that have sparked concern for members of Baltimore’s Nepalese and Bhutanese community, which officials say is centered in Northeast Baltimore’s Frankford neighborhood and has been growing in recent years.

Officers were called to the Parkside Gardens apartments in the 5200 block of Bowleys Lane at 10:12 p.m. for a report of a double shooting, and found two men suffering from gunshot injuries. A 17-year-old male, also an immigrant who arrived here last year, was shot multiple times in the torso and taken to an area hospital in critical condition.

Gurung, of the 4900 block of Gunther Ave., was shot in the chest and was pronounced dead.

Bhutan is a tiny kingdom in South Asia located at the eastern end of the Himalayas. For years, thousands of Bhutanese of Nepali descent have been fleeing the country, alleging ethnic and political repression, and were stranded in Nepalese refugee camps.

In 2007, the United States announced it would offer sanctuary to up to 60,000 refugees, with Ellen Sauerbrey, then the director of the State Department’s refugee division and a former Republican state legislator from Maryland, playing a key role. More than 30,000 refugees have settled in the United States since then, one of the largest refugee groups in recent years, according to news reports. More than 700 have settled in Baltimore.

The Bhutanese are mostly Hindu and a twenty year old like the young man murdered in Baltimore possibly lived his entire life in the security of a United Nations Refugee Camp in Nepal sheltered from the crime that plagues cities like Baltimore.   I’m sure they make an easy target for inner-city thugs.

But like other immigrant populations, they have encountered challenges in their new home. The IRC has been working with police and city officials over concerns about robberies and violence, with advocates and community leaders organizing meetings.

Frances Tinsley, the IRC’s director since April, said the crimes are isolated and there is no evidence that Bhutanese refugees have been targeted, and she said the group’s work is largely proactive.

“Baltimore has been an accepting community, but it is also an urban city and we have to do the best we can to make sure these newcomers feel safe,” Tinsley said.

For new readers, it’s the same old story—resettlement agencies imagine a neighborhood is “welcoming” and place naive newcomers into a multicultural mix that is anything but welcoming (or accepting!).   But, bottom line, it’s all about the bucks—apartments are cheaper—so that’s where these agencies, even rich ones like the IRC, place refugees!

I just typed ‘Bhutanese murdered’ into the search function here at RRW and up came this archive of all the problems the Bhutanese are experiencing—others murdered, one killed by an abortion doctor, inner city beatings, suicides, and the list goes on.

* No word that I’ve seen so far on her whereabouts.

Addendum:  Maryland has resettled a total of 32,986 refugees through 2008 (check out the appendix of the 2008 Annual Report to Congress, here).

50,000th resettled Bhutanese refugee arrives in South Dakota

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

LOL!  That does not mean 50,000 have gone to South Dakota!   It means that 50,000 people of Nepali descent have left camps in Nepal to resettle in the West over the last 4 years.  The US has taken 42,000 thus far and has promised to take 60,000 total.

To new readers:  In 2007 the Bush Administration Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, Ellen Sauerbrey, gave the green light for the US to resettle 60,000 Bhutanese (really Nepalese) to the US over 5 years.  Remember there is a Republican Open Borders faction whose members are convinced that we need a continuing stream of cheap immigrant labor.  (By the way, the Left’s latest bogeyman, Grover Norquist, is all for amnesty and open borders.  I think some of these Republicans also believe that they will get the immigrant voters for their party if they advocate for amnesty.)

The story with the Bhutanese is that they really aren’t Bhutanese but Nepalese who went to live in neighboring Bhutan, many at the beginning of the twentieth century, but then Bhutan had a resurgence of ethnic nationalism and wanted Bhutan for the Bhutanese and drove out the ‘foreigners.’   Nepal, a stable country, didn’t want to take its ethnic people back so they have lived in camps for upwards of 20 years.  It is those people we are now resettling into our miserable economy.

Here is the news from the UNHCR:

KATHMANDU, Nepal, August 17 (UNHCR) – Jai Prasad Sunuwar flew to South Dakota in the United States earlier this month, becoming the 50,000th refugee originating from Bhutan to be resettled from Nepal under a programme launched four years ago by UNHCR and its partners.

[….]

Under one of UNHCR’s largest resettlement programmes, more than 42,000 of the refugees have begun new lives in the United States. Others have left camps in eastern Nepal for resettlement in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. They had come to Nepal during the early 1990s, fleeing ethnic tensions in Bhutan.

[….]

When the resettlement programme began in November 2007 there were almost 110,000 refugees from Bhutan residing in seven camps in eastern Nepal, three of which have since been closed. Of those remaining in the camps, some 47,000 have expressed an interest in resettlement.

By the way, when this wholesale redistribution of people and their culture to different parts of the world began there was a faction of the refugee population trying to stop the resettlement because they were holding out hope that continued pressure on Bhutan would result in that country relenting and letting them return.   Instead the US stepped in to help remove the pressure from Bhutan.   I’m not a big fan of  Presidential candidate Ron Paul, but he would probably recommend staying out of other countries’ domestic issues that have NOTHING to do with our national security!

What do you bet we are going to end up taking more than the 60,000 Ellen Sauerbrey promised?

We have written a lot on the Bhutanese, just type that word into our search function for our archives on the subject.