Thanks to Ana Faguy and BBC News for the Headline.
A 56 year old man who had lived in Myanamar(formerly Burma) and had to leave due to ethnic violence has died on the streets of New York having been arrested, detained and then left at a coffee shop some miles from his or his families residence. The authorities had investigated his right to be in New York and had ascertained they were valid. This was despite the fact the man, Nurul Amin Shah Alam was blind and did not speak any English.
In the article the Border Authorities implied it was kinder to drop him off somewhere warm and comforting like a coffee shop , rather than just kick him out of their premises after interrogating him. This argument fails miserably when it turned out that the coffee shop was closed. Somewhat worse was that the Homeland Security Department wrote a summary of what happened saying that he “showed no sign of distress or disability requiring special assistance.” The man was blind.
The temperatures in New York after dark were heading into minus figures, having probably never risen above 1-2 degrees the whole day. The people who left Shah Alam didn’t care , they just wanted their burden removed.
What is even more infuriating is that Shah Alam had the right to stay, otherwise they would have sent him to one of their holding areas where he would have been at least safe and warm even if the conditions may have been overcrowded.
Instead despite establishing that he had been given sanctuary in America, he was abused by a system which clearly has no respect for humanity.
There will be an investigation but the fact remains, Shah Alam had family in New York who could have been contacted and would have looked after him. It was pure cruelty to leave him on the freezing streets.
It was a random woman who had seen him lying down and” moving a bit” (three hours previous) to her report to the Police that she had seen him lying down and not moving. On the arrival of the Police he was discovered to have passed away, having presumably died of the cold and neglect.
This is an absolutely tragic story of human indifference.
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