Another Bhutanese refugee robbed at gunpoint
Posted by acorcoran on August 11, 2009
This time it’s Georgia and there were no murders, but funny I have to read this in Bhutan News Service rather than an American publication. Below is the whole short article.
One refugee girl was robbed by a group of three people yesterday at around 12 AM local time in Stone Mountain city in Georgia on August 7.
Anupama Koirala, a former refugee from Timai camp, sector B/2, Hut no 19, was returning from her job along with her friends and a brother when the incident took place in front of her own apartment. They were being followed by three men as soon as they stepped in on Marta, the local bus that runs in the city.
After they got down at CVS pharmacy and headed towards Wyn View Apartments, where they live, they followed them further about 10 minutes before one of them pointed a gun at Shanti Ram Dhungel, a friend of Anupama. Then they snatched the purse from the girl and fled the scene before the police arrived.
This is one of the incidents of attacks on the resettled refugees in row. Lately the refugees have been living in intimidation; and it appears that those who work at night and who do not own car have been targeted more.
Read about the robbery and murder of another Bhutanese refugee here.
ralph parker said
Wanted to update your readers. I have been a volunteer with the family whode daughter was robbed at gunpoint.
Finally the resettlement agency is going to move the 4 families in the unsafe apartment and area they are in. There are 2 other families whose agency has not responded to a request to move their clients to a safer place.
All the Bhutanese families in this complex want to move. There was no excuse for 3 refugee agencies placing people in a apartment complex with almost a one mile walk to public transportation. The facts are that in urban America there are no safe areas, when apartments are concerned for low income folks. Even the place where they are moving has had problems but is better and there will be 30+ Bhutanese families there. We estimate a Bhutanese population of 1200-1500 in Atlanta and we will have the largest Bhutanese population in America. There is still about 50%
unemployment and there have been evictions
I agree the program is seriously flawed and we need to have a temporary stop to resettleemnt. As you can imagine the girl was quite shaken as were all the families. THey knew we were having economic issues but assumed they would be safe in America. Given our large population, we havenot suffered like Jacksonville as there have been only a few incidents but it will get worse.
As i have stated before, the Bhutanese are the most special group I have worked with in my 12 years as a volunteer. They are so humble and spiritual. I encourage your readers to actually meet and work with a fmaily
I understand concerns about other ethnic groups, but this one is so different as case workers can attest to..
Comment worth noting: Need temporary stop to resettlement « Refugee Resettlement Watch said
[...] Another Bhutanese refugee robbed at gunpoint [...]
TonyLEE said
Kind of strange that you have to follow the Bhutan News Service to see what is going on in your own city. why wasn’t it reported in the U.S. ? An example of “so commonplace it is not newsworthy” or “we only print what fits the agenda”?
In many matters Americans are in the dark, the rest of the world is informed: I tried to track down proceedings from an asylum hearing for a Chinese national seeking asylum in the U.S. under China’s one-child law.
I called various DHS offices who should know and was told the transcripts are not publicized to protect the asylum seeker or for some other reason.
I found a Chinese language transcript of the hearing on google and ran it through an online translation service and had what I needed.
In other words, any Chinese national (assumming china is not blocking the site)will have a heads up about how to seek asylum on the U.S. while Americans remian ignorant of their own system.
The rest of the world is laughing at us.
6-year-old Bhutanese refugee girl killed in Atlanta area accident last week « Refugee Resettlement Watch said
[...] This tragedy followed on the heels of the Bhutanese refugee murder that occurred in Jacksonville, FL last month and the robbery at gunpoint of another Bhutanese refugee in Atlanta ten days ago, here. [...]