“Record-keeping errors in Puerto Rico refugee aid- Refugees lost in chaos”

“Record-keeping errors in Puerto Rico refugee aid- Refugees lost in chaos”

Ericka Teller, Tampa Herald, 3-14-18

Since the chaos that followed the destruction of Hurricane Maria last year, the American citizens of Puerto Rico have gone through an amazing range of experiences with the mainland. Everything from the warm-hearted solidarity of relief workers and aid donors, to the bemused confusion of a Midwest middle-class surprised to learn they were Americans, to the cold apathy of certain people in Washington.

So perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that they now see the most American experience of all- getting reduced to a statistic and lost in the bureaucracy. While it’s hard to determine how many refugees have actually relocated on a permanent basis to Florida from the island, even the most conservative estimates fall in the 35,000-50,000 range (a far cry from Governor Scott’s number of nearly 300,000, drawn seemly out of thin air).

But in the last months, relief agencies have begun cross reporting and confirming these numbers and reporting the safely relocated as safe to their counterparts back in Puerto Rico. And in this simple step that should be providing relief and good news to scattered families, discrepancies and faulty records are surfacing instead. Many, perhaps hundreds, of refugees are either incorrectly listed as leaving the island or unaccounted for with relocation agencies on the mainland, leaving their families to wonder about the fate of their loved ones.

For example: The refugee relocation service associated with the Hispanic Federation recorded that its agents had helped 12,552 people leave the island and begin resettling to temporary housing between September and October. However, a follow-up audit in February could not account for nearly 311 of these refugees, and the discrepancy was attributed to record-keeping errors and duplication. Other agencies have reported similar issues.