Category: Other refugees

Sorting out the Bhutanese refugee situation, kind of

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Last year, then Asst. Secretary of State Ellen Sauerbrey traveled to camps in Nepal and announced that the US government had agreed to take 60,000 ethnic Nepalese who had been pushed out of Bhutan.   Here is an article from the Observer that seeks to explain the latest news from the region:

The small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is hailed as the last Shangri-la in a region plagued by conflict and poverty. Attracted by its policy of Gross National Happiness, Western media have held up the country’s apparently peaceful transition to democracy as a model of wise governance by a Buddhist regime protecting its culture from the ravages of consumerism.

But behind its facade of otherworldly charm, Bhutan holds a secret. Twenty years ago, its monarchy, threatened by an increase in Bhutan’s ethnic Nepalese population, hit on a simple solution: ethnic cleansing. Families who had been living in Bhutan for generations were stripped of their citizenship. One hundred thousand Hindu Bhutanese – around one sixth of the country’s entire population – were driven into exile and their land redistributed among the Drukpas, Bhutan’s Buddhist elite.

I suppose one way to look at this is to ask if the Nepalese had been illegal immigrants to Bhutan in the first place (although the article claims they were citizens), settled in,  and when the government of Bhutan tried to send the ethnic Nepalese back to Nepal they are accused of ethnic cleansing.   Wonder if that charge will soon be leveled at the US government if illegal aliens are urged to return to their own country.   Just wondering, don’t throw eggs!

Enter the Maoists (Communists): 

Now a combination of divisions among the refugees, renewed tension inside Bhutan and the surprise election victory by Maoists in Nepal, is threatening a plan that finally gives hope to 107,000 refugees who have been languishing in camps in eastern Nepal for the last 17 years. Tens of thousands of unregistered refugees are living stateless and in abject poverty in Nepal and India.

Read it all and go back to all of our previous coverage of the situation with the Bhutanese refugees and see if you can get a firm understanding of the situation.  You can see from past posts that I sure don’t get the full picture.

Update already:   Moments after posting this I came across an article from St. Louis about the first Bhutanese family to arrive in that city.   They are Hindu and St. Louis has become home to a very large Muslim population primarily Bosnians.  I guess the old melting pot will need some firing up!   Note the article says 60,000 Bhutanese will come this year.  That figure must be wrong because we are expecting to take only 70,000 80,000 refugees world wide this year.

Liberian refugees: State Dept. makes position clear

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is the entire US Embassy statement today on the situation in Ghana.

Following recent public order offences by Liberian refugees in Ghana, the U.S. Embassy in Accra issued the following statement last weekend.

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The U.S. Government continues to support repatriation and reintegration in Liberia for those who had to flee during Liberia’s troubled times but who are now returning home to rebuild their lives and communities. The U.S. Government is also supporting UNHCR’s efforts to secure local integration as a durable solution for Liberian refugees in countries where they have had asylum.

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Large group resettlement of Liberian refugees to the United States has ended and is not being re-opened. Unless you have a parent, spouse, or child already in the United States, you should have no expectation of being resettled to the United States.

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On September 30, 2006, the U.S. government stopped accepting new P-3 (family reunification) applications. Only P-3 cases filed in the United States before this deadline will be processed. To qualify you must be the parent, spouse or unmarried child (under age 21) of a Liberian already in the U.S.

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You must also remain outside Liberia and demonstrate that you have a valid refugee claim. We understand that there are some people purporting to be agents registering people for resettlement in the United States. You should be aware that these people are frauds.

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Source: Press Attaché Public Affairs Section US Embassy, Accra

We have resettled 27, 465 refugees from Liberia through 2005.  That is still a lot of family connections that could produce many more refugees arriving in the US from camps in Africa.  See our previous story here.

Liberians in Ghana protest against the UN

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This story is a bit confusing.  I’ve read several versions of the same story in the refugee resettlement news for the last couple of days and this one is the clearest.   It seems that the UN’s chickens have come home to roost.    The UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) is attempting to repatriate Liberians from camps they have lived in in countries such as Ghana for as long as 20 years.  

These are just poor people who have been housed and fed for, in some cases, most of their lives.   They don’t face violence if they go home, just poverty, so some 600 women staged a demonstration recently and have been removed from the camp.

ACCRA, Ghana (AFP) – “Ghana is not nice.” That is how Tina Johnson, a 22-year-old Liberian refugee, describes the country that has been her home for around 15 years. “I want to go to Norway or Canada,” she says.

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Like Tina, hundreds of other refugees in Ghana want to be resettled anywhere but Liberia.

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Dissatisfied with plans by the United Nations refugee agency to repatriate them, they recently staged daily demonstrations outside the gates of the main Buduburam Refugee Camp, about 30 minutes’ drive from Ghana’s capital Accra.

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Police intervened Tuesday because of what Nana Obiri Boahene, a minister of state at the interior ministry, described as “anarchic conditions”.

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Under the UN plans, they will be given 100 dollars (65 euros) and sent back to war-torn Liberia to start life all over again. The refugees are demanding 1,000 dollars and resettlement in a third country.

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“I am not very well educated, when I go to Liberia how will I live?” she asks. “In Norway or Canada, at least I will get a chance.

Wouldn’t you think that as long as the UN is taking care of these people, it might at least teach them a useable trade. 

As long as the UN keeps running these warehousing-type camps and holding out hope that the excess human population will be moved to the West or Australia or New Zealand, there is no incentive for Africa to solve its own problems.   

“White flight” believed to be happening in Australia

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We keep hearing rumblings that things are not running smoothly in Australia, one of the world’s leading refugee resettlement sites.    No comment from me on this story from The Age of Melbourne.

Refugees should be housed across a wider spread of suburbs to halt the so-called “white flight” from some government schools, according to a senior Federal Government MP.

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Laurie Ferguson, parliamentary secretary for multicultural affairs, said white flight — where Anglo-European parents shun state schools that have a high proportion of students from other racial backgrounds — had become a big challenge for multicultural Australia.

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“People fear there is a monoculture in some suburbs. They believe there is an over-dominance of some cultures in schools, which is denigrating the quality of education,” Mr Ferguson told The Age.

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“So they are withdrawing their kids from government schools and sending them to religious or selective high schools. This leads to further concentration of marginalised communities in government schools and the further stigmatisation of these schools.”

What’s up in Wagga Wagga?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

 Update March 11th:    Downunder News Link responds here, sheds some light on the same question I have.

When I first saw this story I was confused.  I couldn’t figure out what Wagga was?   After searching around a bit I found out it’s a city in New South Wales, Australia and its full name is Wagga Wagga (crow crow in the aboriginal language).  They have lots of crows.  But, anyway, back to my story.

It seems there was a racial incident that inspired some letter writing. 

Racist websites Downunder News Links and US based Stormfront have both seized on an alleged incident reported by The Daily Advertiser involving African refugees.

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Prominent Wagga volunteer Erwin Richter said he was concerned Wagga was being associated with racism.

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Mr Richter, who volunteers as a refugee resettlement coordinator, reported receiving letters and phone calls, blaming him for bringing African refugees to the Riverina and telling him to “back off”.

You can read about the ‘incident’ that prompted the letter-writing campaign here.  It involved an altercation between a woman (color?) and some black men, the men left and returned with eight African friends who proceeded to beat the woman with tree branches.

But, here is where I’m confused.   Maybe Australian English is differant from American English!  This is in the first article I mentioned above.

Wagga crime manager Detective Inspector Rod Smith warned those found to be guilty of racial abuse could face prosecution.

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“It is unlawful and we consider it offensive,” he said.

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“Regardless of race, colour or religion police will investigate all allegations of crime without discrimination.

Is the police detective talking about prosecuting the criminals who beat the woman as a racial abuse, or are the letters written to the refugee guy considered the racial abuse? 

Clarification please!  Australian readers please tell me you don’t have hate speech laws.