International Rescue Committee Closes

 

The International Rescue Committee's office in Boston, which over the last 30 years has helped settle more than 25,000 refugees, has told state officials it will close on June 1 - creating a vacuum in services for some of the region's most vulnerable residents, and leaving hundreds of refugees to figure out where to turn for help with housing, medical care, food, jobs, and much more.

"This is terrible for us," said Iqbal Abid, who works 25 hours a week on the salad line at a Panera Bread in Boston, a job arranged by the International Rescue Committee. "Now, there will be no one to help us. We are afraid. We are here just a few months. We need more help."

Officials at the New York-based organization said they had to close the Boston office, as well as satellite offices in Worcester and Lowell, because of insufficient aid from the federal government, rising local expenses, and a dwindling donor base. They're in the process of firing what's left of their 32-member staff statewide, cutting links to scores of volunteers, and transitioning their clients to other organizations.

"This is sad, and it was a very difficult decision," said Jenny Mincin, regional director of the International Rescue Committee, which has 23 other offices in the United States and operates in 42 countries. "But the cost of housing in Boston, the difficulty of finding the refugees employment rapidly, and the economic downturn made this necessary."

In the last decade, as the number of refugees admitted to the United States dropped sharply after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the Rescue Committee helped settle nearly 20 percent of the more than 17,000 refugees arriving in Massachusetts, many of whom were fleeing violence or political repression. They specialized in harder cases, such as youths like the so-called Lost Boys of Sudan, other youths, and those with medical issues from war zones including Iraq and Somalia.

Richard Chacon, commissioner of the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants, said the state is working closely with the Rescue Committee and is helping transfer the most recent arrivals to other organizations that help settle refugees, such as Catholic Charities of Boston, the Jewish Family and Children's Services in Waltham, and the Refugee and Immigrant Assistance Center in Jamaica Plain.

"We're clearly going to feel a loss," Chacon said. "You hate to lose an organization with their stature. But what we're seeing is a perfect storm of the downtown in the economy . . . and a situation where the level of cash assistance provided to refugee families has not changed in over a decade."

When the Rescue Committee opened its Boston office in 1979 in response to a flood of Southeast Asians fleeing Cambodia and Vietnam, the State Department provided $565 per refugee to resettlement organizations. The federal government now provides $900 per refugee, but with rent and other expenses significantly higher, that amount buys significantly less today in Boston. In exchange for the payment, the resettlement groups are expected to do everything from meet the refugees at the airport to rent and furnish their apartments, buy them food, set them up with public assistance, show them how to navigate the city, find them medical care, and enroll them in job training and English programs, among many other tasks.

In short, the groups say, the government aid no longer covers their costs; they now rely on private donations and volunteers to make up the difference. Carolyn Benedict-Drew, president of the International Institute of Boston, said resettlement organizations like hers need at least $1,500 per refugee to pay for their operations. She's campaigning for additional money from the federal government, and questions whether Boston has a sufficient social safety net to take care of the Rescue Committee's refugees, many of whom have expensive medical issues.

"I think it will be quite impossible for the remaining resettlement organizations in the Boston area to pick up the gap - mostly because with each refugee we bring in, there's a fiscal loss," she said. "When you multiply the loss, it's very hard. Just the rent alone is more than what they receive from the government. The gap of providing the service and the amount of resources to support that service has become immense."

-Adapted from: “ Rescue office's closing puts refugees at a loss: Rising costs, lack of federal aid blamed, By David Abel, The Boston Globe, May 2, 2009

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/02/rescue_offices_closing_puts_refugees_at_a_loss/ retrieved 5/29/09.

5/09