Part I: I worked at a Safe Haven during Operation Allies Welcome. IRC’s failures endangered thousands of vulnerable refugees
(IRC Staff Experience)
In late 2021, I was hired to work at a Safe Haven as part of Operation Allies Welcome (OAW). The federal government had appointed IRC to manage the resettlement process for newly-arrived Afghan refugees. My job was to engage with these “guests” living at the military base, pending permanent resettlement to various communities around the country. Having worked at a different base during the early days of the mission, I was looking forward to this role.
I was born in Afghanistan and speak Pashto and Dari fluently, which became invaluable in my role. I understood these people, their hopes and challenges. I also had a 10-year background relevant to this position. In short: I was uniquely qualified for the role. When I arrived on base, it became clear that this carried little value.
I quickly discovered that IRC operates differently than what you’d expect of an international aid organization. I expected a base level of cultural competency and prioritization of safeguarding protocols. Imagine my absolute shock when I came across blatant racism from the top-down, incompetence and cronyism run amok and complete disrespect for the Afghan staff and the refugees.
Afghan women were trafficked on IRC’s watch and people with severe medical conditions didn’t have their cases elevated, resulting in at least one death. The miscarriage rate was alarmingly high and guests came to us frequently in mental health crises. The protection officer ignored their suicide threats and young women were put in danger and resettled away from their families (against their wishes). It was a shock to my system and when I raised the alarm one too many times, I was sent home. To this day, no one at IRC has been held accountable. That needs to change.
Part I
Leadership was checked out
My colleagues frequently joked about how our site lead’s primary role was to get drunk in the hotel lobby. She was utterly disengaged for most of the mission, choosing an office space in a separate building away from all the guest interactions. The program deputy was a 26-year-old intern with no prior job experience. When she butted heads with a generalist who had a background in refugee resettlement, she had him fired for insubordination. Granted, he was one of the few qualified people around. He made regular appearances at town halls and expertly calmed down guests who expressed frustration at their prolonged stay. Guests were initially told they would all be resettled within three weeks — another miscommunication from IRC Headquarters (HQ), since weeks turned into several months.
The rest of the generalists were a mix of former military, new college graduates and retirees looking for extra income. Training from IRC was sparse and it showed in instances where guests became agitated because they received inaccurate information. For the longest time, generalists were telling guests that they would not receive public benefits if they departed independently. This was not true, yet staff didn’t receive the correct information until a new site lead came onboard in December. People stayed on base for upwards of five months, afraid that if they left on their own, they wouldn’t qualify for food stamps or cash assistance if they needed it.
One generalist made a habit out of bullying guests to the point of tears. She frequently lied to them about what independent departures entailed, looked up their intended addresses and loudly exclaimed, “You can’t move your family into an apartment this small!”
In another instance, she tried to intimidate a young woman into divorcing her husband, a U.S. citizen, and moving to a different state. Playing the role of the White Savior, she insisted that this woman was “oppressed” and should leave her husband to attain true freedom. The woman felt cornered and ended up in tears.
The site lead ignored these reports and never reprimanded her. It became clear that the white staffers had carte blanche to behave however they wished — mistreating the guests and interpreters with no repercussions.
IRC is run by white women
Early on, one of my colleagues made a comment that sums up how IRC operates: “IRC is run by white women. That’s the only criteria.” It wasn’t far-fetched. Every leadership role from the program deputy to the site and Human Resources (HR) lead was filled by a white woman. A few Afghan staffers with backgrounds in data and resettlement inquired about those roles. They were told, “We need you as interpreters,” and proceeded to hire people who had no experience.
The Afghan staffers were continuously told to stay in their lanes and “just translate” even if the information was inaccurate. Many of these interpreters had resettlement experience and yet were routinely bullied by some generalists and treated like “the help.”
The HR lead, who hadn’t had a job in over two decades, let alone HR experience, got the job because she was close friends with the recruiter and “lived nearby.” Her lack of experience showed in the way she handled sensitive issues, including sexual harassment complaints by young female staffers.
Throughout my time, the only people who were promoted into leadership roles were white colleagues. They were far from the most competent or qualified for their roles. At one point, I suggested to a well-respected female translator that she apply to replace the outgoing site lead. Her response: “You know the only way they’d hire me is if I was white.”
Several Afghan staff members had applied for long-term IRC positions and told me they had been low-balled on the salary, with no room for negotiation: “They only do this to the Afghans because they know we don’t have a lot of options.”
HR from the ’50s
With an unqualified person leading HR, IRC staff were not protected. One woman had reported being told, “You look sexy today” by a colleague and was subject to frequent groping by another. When she reported her experience to the HR lead, her response was, “You took it the wrong way.” The consensus among IRC staffers was that the situation was handled “like HR from the 50’s.”
One offending staffer continued to work on base until late November, when he was sent home on administrative leave after I filed numerous complaints on behalf of guests who were sexually harassed by him.
Not only was he not reprimanded for his behavior until that point, he was sent home and paid while the EC team “investigated.” On the way to the airport, he was reportedly stunned about being sent home: “They didn’t tell me what I did wrong!” Abusive behavior was not only tolerated, but the perpetrators were rarely confronted about their behavior.
After the offending staffer was sent home, the HR lead was incredulous, “I can’t believe those [female staffers] didn’t come to me. I’m a mom of a teenage girl. Of course, I would have been on their side.” She seemingly forgot about the young woman whom she told “you took [sexual harassment] the wrong way.” That same young woman applied for a role as part of Phase 2 at a Virginia base near her home. She was not hired and suspects it was retaliation for her sexual harassment complaint.
When a new site lead came onboard — a woman whose prior experience lacked relevant crisis management skills — things didn’t improve. One day, an IRC staffer called me crying hysterically because she’d been banished to her hotel room for four days. She wanted to know how to contact the EC team because she was being unfairly targeted by her supervisor and the site lead. Her supervisor had been sexually harassing her for months and she, in turn, avoided him, since HR refused to do anything about it.
Some colleagues had gossiped in the hotel lobby with me just the night before. They mentioned how this young lady “hated” her supervisor, a friend of theirs. Every time he walked into a room, she would leave. They laughed about it, having become desensitized to this kind of behavior. I pointed out that maybe we should all be alarmed that she didn’t feel safe around him. They shrugged it off.
Another colleague remarked that the supervisor in question “Used to be really bad about harassing girls. But one of the interpreters set him straight and he stopped.” It became clear that it was up to the staff to protect each other since HR had no interest in doing so.
Now this woman was calling me to say her harasser had filed a complaint against her to the new site lead. The lead called them both into the office and reprimanded her for insubordination because she refused to be alone with him. Until she learned some respect and professionalism, she was instructed not to leave the hotel for the next four days.
I found this punishment utterly shocking. Not only was an acknowledged predator going free, but his victim was punished for protecting herself. She was allowed back to the office after her mandatory “grounding” and forced to interact with her abuser whenever he demanded it.
This is Part I of an IRC Staff Experience. Follow @RACISTorg on Twitter to read Part II and Part III which will be published later this week.
