Today’s Waterbury, Connecticut Republican American has a follow up to a story we posted on back in March about the squalid conditions of housing and related resettlement services for 64 Burmese Keren Christian refugees. Our State Department had contracted services from with a volunteer agency (VOLAG)-the International Institute of Connecticut (IIC) an affiliate of the umbrella group US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI).

Would you believe the State Department had the gumption to revoke the IIC contract after the information had been provided to them from news media and others? The IIC and a few members of the Connecticut Congressional delegation were ‘shocked’ that State would do this.

Note these comments from the Republican American article:

This follows months of reports of poor housing, fractious relationships with volunteers, missed immunizations for students and insufficient assistance with daily tasks. The State Department brought the refugees here to escape the tyranny in their native Myanmar.

“The contractual obligations of the International Institute actually doesn’t exist anymore,” Limon [of USCRI] said. “We don’t know what the consequences of this is. There will be a large hole in the community. They’ve been providing services to refugees for 90 years.”

The State Department says the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, of which the institute is an affiliate, will need to come up with a plan to serve the refugees.

Limon said she was puzzled and surprised by the action, believing the institute was fixing its problems. “It does seem a very harsh step after 90 years. I had every expectation that the deficiencies would be corrected.”

Note the exchange between US Senator Chris Dodd’s office and a State Department official:

“The IIC has made it clear that they are taking the necessary steps to improve their resettlement program, including incorporating the recommendations of the U.S. Committee on Refugees and Immigrants” Dodd spokesman Bryan DeAngelis said. “The IIC has only asked to be returned to suspension status, so they can continue to make the necessary improvements in their program, and the Senator believes their request should be considered fully by the State Department.”

A State Department spokesman, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, said he was shocked at the delegation’s support for the institute. “I’d love to know why they’re coming so quickly to the defense of an organization that is clearly not doing its job,” he said. The spokesman said State Department investigators were shocked and embarrassed by the squalid apartments where the refugees were initially housed.

We had forwarded the original Republican American articles and our blog reports along with those from Ann Corcoran of Refugee Resettlement Watch to an office in the Connecticut Congressional delegation. We know at least one member of the Connecticut delegation assigned staff to investigate the issue. We had raised with the Congressional office the Waterbury incident and others like across the US that necessitated a GAO audit of the contractual refugee program under the Refugee Act of 1980. Now that the State department has wisely cancelled the IIC contract in Waterbury and ‘sent a message’ to the parent USCRI, perhaps the visibility of such a request might be raised.

In the thread of comments to this Republican American article were those of Chris Coen of Friends of Refugee citing a particularly egregious example of VOLAGs abandoning refugee clients in the Tampa, Florida vicinity not unlike that in Waterbury. Note his comments:

” When the World Relief refugee program in Port Richey, Florida (Tampa area) was shut down in 2006 for abuses and deficiencies similar to the ones in this case, many of the refugees were left high and dry.

The affiliate began by destroying all of the refugees’ documents, including paperwork for pending immigration cases. There didn’t seem to be any consequences for that outrageous action from the State Department or Florida’s refugee coordinator. To this day refugees in the Tampa area still do not have green cards, seven years after their arrival, thus jeopardizing their ability even to work legally in the U.S. We recently counted seven Lost Boys of Sudan refugees in New Port Richey, FL alone who still did not have green cards seven years after their arrival.

A Liberian refugee mother’s immigration case to bring her husband to join the family was closed for lack of activity. With an infant and three other young children she has struggled to maintain fulltime employment and care for her children while also sending money to her husband in Africa, a displaced refugee in Ghana who is unable to find any work. Had the U.S. refugee program operated with some integrity and responsibility this refugee woman’s husband would be in the U.S. now and helping to support his family.

When the State Department closes a refugee affiliate agency – and only in cases of extreme neglect and/or media scrutiny – the refugees often get swept under the rug.