Category: Other refugees

Former Vietnamese refugee rips off New York Chinese, says she hates them

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I know! I know she clearly has mental problems but once again we have an example of how there is no love lost between immigrants from different cultures.   This is not the first time I’ve heard about conflicts between the Vietnamese and Chinese—heck there are thousands of years of history between the two ethnic groups that the overrated American melting pot can’t completely melt.  To see what I mean about the long history, check out the Trung Sisters who died in the first century AD while waging a battle against their Chinese enemy.  Their bravery is still celebrated in Vietnam today.

From the New York Daily News:

A Vietnamese refugee who claims she steals to give to the poor faces three years in prison – and possible hate crime charges – for a pick-pocketing spree in Chinatown, officials said Tuesday.

Ho Vasko, 67, a wealthy former New York restaurant owner, was arraigned on grand larceny and jostling charges for stealing $350 from the purses and pockets of four victims last week.

Prosecutors told a Manhattan Criminal Court judge they may increase the charges against Vasko because of a hate-filled rant she made after her March 21 arrest.

“I hate the Chinese people, they sell fake stuff,” Vasko told cops, according to court documents.

“They get benefit cards, and they don’t contribute anything back, so I take their money and give it to people who need it,” she said. “I want to die. I hope they electrocute me.”

I should have a category entitled, no bad white people in this story!  Or, maybe tribalism is part of human nature even if you wish it would go away.

Who resettled Karnamaya Mongar?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, more importantly who took her to a Pennsylvania abortion clinic where she died?

Only four months before she died at the hand of an abortion doctor in a squalid office in Philadelphia,  Karnamaya Mongar was a Bhutanese refugee who had been resettled in Woodbridge, Virginia, according to this account from WUSA9.

The whole horrific event happened in 2009, but is only coming out now as prosecutors prepare their murder case against abortion doctor Dr. Kermit Gosnell.

From WUSA9:

WOODBRIDGE, Va. (WUSA) — Her name was Karnamaya Mongar. She was born in Bhutan and then survived nearly two decades in refugee camps. She had finally immigrated to Woodbridge, Virginia, only to die in a squalid, Pennsylvania abortion clinic, filled with bags of aborted fetuses. The operator, Dr. Kermit Gosnell is charged with her murder and the murder of seven babies.

“Children were born and then killed. Killed by putting scissors in their back and then snipping spinal cord,” said Seth Williams, the Philadelphia District Attorney.

Mongar, 41, was a desperately poor mother of three and pregnant with her fourth in her second trimester. Unfortunately, someone directed her and her husband, Ash, to Gosnell’s West Philadelphia clinic where she died in 2009 after being giving too much anesthesia. The nearly 300 page investigative report says paramedics who arrived at the clinic found her lifeless, and Gosnell was just standing there not doing anything.

She had only been in the US for four months,* would have still been under the care of a resettlement agency and would not have known how to arrange a trip to Philadelphia without help?   What did her resettlement agency know, and did they help her?

First read this incredible article from last month in, of all places, The New York Times. It seems this was the abortion clinic of choice for poor women of color. Who in Virginia helped Karnamaya Mongar get there?

Did a “church” resettle Karnamaya Mongar?

Enterprising reporters should start here with a list of resettlement agencies in Virginia.  Woodbridge is twenty miles south of Washington, DC so it wouldn’t take long to figure out who resettled Karnamaya Mongar because agencies usually have territories.  As one Catholic website from Texas reflected, here, this story is going to be huge.

It will be even larger if it turns out that those who helped her find Gosnell in Philadelphia work for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Lutheran Social Services, or Virginia Council of Churches (a subcontractor of Church World Service)—all involved in resettling refugees in Virginia along with the secular International Rescue Committee.

I am reminded of a story in 2008 where Catholic Charities was involved in an abortion for a 16 year old unaccompanied minor in Virginia.

For new readers: We are in the process of resettling a minimum of 60,000 Bhutanese of Nepali descent.  They have been living in camps in Nepal and there is no reason many couldn’t have been taken in by their ancestral home—Nepal.

This resettlement plan was approved by Ellen Sauerbrey, Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration in the Bush Administration.   We just learned in December that the Obama Administration would place no cap on the number of Bhutanese coming to the US, here.  Some Bhutanese are doing well we are told.  But, we have also had cases of Bhutanese murdered or beaten in horrible neighborhoods in the US (where they were placed by resettlement agencies), we’ve had at lease one suicide, here.

* Some resettlement agencies unload their refugees on to communities as early as 3 months after arrival, but many refugees are still involved with the agency for up to 8 months.

An afterthought: I wonder do the good folks at Unbound Philanthropy really know what they are funding.

 

California Christians converting Bhutanese to Christianity

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It’s illegal for Christian refugee agencies (taking the big bucks from the federal tax payer) to promote Christianity with refugees they resettle.  However, it seems that, according to this article from the Contra Costa Times, Christian church leaders are actively converting mostly Hindu Bhutanese to Christianity.  I can’t say how big a trend this is based on this one article.  But, what do you (readers) think?

Contra Costa Times begins:

OAKLAND — Of all the wonders the Mainali family hoped to experience in America, salvation through a newfound faith in Jesus Christ was not on the list.

Then the family matriarch, Bishnu Mainali, discovered a Baptist church near downtown Alameda and listened each Sunday to the scripture and sermons. The lifelong Hindu found camaraderie among the friendly congregation and a positive message in the Christian teachings. Now, she is trying to convince her reluctant family it is time to be saved.

“The U.S. is a country of Christians,” said the 64-year-old refugee, speaking at her apartment a few days before Christmas. “We have to move toward the side of the majority.”

Read it all.  Send us your comments.

US Ambassador to Nepal: No cap on the number of Bhutanese to be resettled in the US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Just a reminder readers, the Bhutanese are really of Nepali origin.  When they were banished from Bhutan, the Nepal government did not let them simply come home and reenter the country of their original heritage.  They have been living in refugee camps for nearly two decades.  The Bush Administration agreed to take 60,000 over a five year period, but it looks like there is no end in sight, making this one of the largest refugee relocations in the world.

From Nepal News:

US ambassador to Nepal, Scott H DeLisi, has revealed that there is no fixed quota for the American government for the resettlement of Bhutanese refugees from Nepal.

“Initially, we proposed for 60,000 refugees for resettlement in our country,” DeLisi informed while addressing a programme at the transit camp run by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Monday. “However, there is no cap for the number of refugees to be resettled.”

According to DeLisi, who is himself a grand-son of a immigrant, the US government will keep on accepting refugees as long as they express their desire for relocation

As the UN refugee agency prepares to mark its 60th anniversary this Tuesday globally, it announced that the resettlement of refugees from Bhutan in Nepal has reached a major milestone today with the departure of 40,000 refugees to various eight resettlement countries.

Of the 40,000 the US has taken over 34,000 so far.

To date, some 72,733 refugees from Bhutan still remain in various UN-monitored seven camps in Jhapa and Mornag districts. Of this, 55,000 are expected to depart from Nepal for relocation in the next four years.

Another 55,000 to go!  Just helping out our friends in Nepal, at the UN and in the meatpacking industry.

Note: When you visit the Nepal News link (above), you will see there is a little news clip most of which you won’t understand, but check out the US ambassador with his apparently captive refugee audience—the poor people, looking thoroughly unhappy, appear to have been bused in to be props at a press conference.

South Africa: Huntley will come back in shame

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

For new readers, Brandon Huntley, a white South African, had been granted asylum in Canada on grounds that he was being persecuted for his skin color in the Rainbow Nation.  A couple of weeks ago a judge threw out his claim.  This article from IOL (Independent On Line), a South African publication, sounds a bit ominous to me about whether Huntley will be safe if deported to his home country.

Once he returns to South Africa, Brandon Huntley, the man who has just lost his refugee status in Canada, will “forever suffer the indignity of his false claims”.

This is the view of Home Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa, who said Huntley should never have been granted refugee status.

Huntley now faces deportation and a return to South Africa.

“We welcome the decision of the Canadian federal court,” said Mamoepa. “From the outset, our view has always been that his claims are based on falsehood that tarnishes our image and the people of South Africa in the eyes of the world.”

He said the ruling vindicated South Africa and any negative perceptions Huntley’s claims may have caused. “We are looking forward to his deportation to South Africa, where he will forever suffer the indignity of his false claims,” he said.  [And, IOL has prominently posted his photograph.]

Heck, we have so much crime going every which way in S. Africa we should all be refugees! Astounding comment from a government official.

John Kane-Berman, chief executive of the South African Institute of Race Relations, said Huntley did not have any grounds on which to argue that he, or any one race group, was at a greater risk of being a victim of crime than any other in South Africa. “South Africa has a very high level of crime, particularly violent crime,” he said. “If South Africans were entitled to refugee status based on the level of crime in the country, we should all be given refugee status.”

No where do these government officials say they will protect Huntley.   Huntley’s attorney should use these remarks to argue his client will not be safe if deported to S.Africa.