Day: May 17, 2009

IRC to Obama: give us $$$$$ and more refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That’s the gist of a letter writing campaign initiated recently by the International Rescue Committee.   It confirms just what we have been saying all along.  The only reform the volag government contractors want to see for the deeply troubled Refugee Resettlement Program is more taxpayer funding for them while keeping the refugee spigot wide open (nevermind that there are no jobs!).

Thanks to a regular visitor to RRW, here is what they are asking refugee industry advocates to say to Obama:

We urge you to renew America’s promise to refugees who are waiting to find safety and freedom in our country. We call on you to take the following steps to modernize the U.S. government’s system for refugee admission and resettlement:

– Provide increased funding to ensure the U.S. refugee admissions and resettlement programs are able to fulfill their goals for providing sanctuary to refugees who need protection.

– Streamline the current system for identifying, clearing and resettling refugees in the United States.

[Your name]

[Your address] 

For new readers, learn more about the International Rescue Committee and its public relations push to get more money from US taxpayers by starting here.

UN will be pushing more (a lot more!) Somali refugees our way in 2010

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Dadaab is the massive Somali refugee camp in Kenya run by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and it is growing daily as radical Islamists continue to throw Somalia into chaos—-their goal is for strict fundamentalist Islam to reign supreme in the Horn of Africa.

The US began taking Somali refugees in a serious way in the early 1980’s and since then we have resettled over 80,000 Somalis.   The numbers have varied over the years but more than half of the 80,000 plus came since 9/11 (see data here).  In FY2008 we resettled 2,523 Somalis in the entire year, most of those must have been “free cases” because fraud had shut down the larger P-3 “family reunification” portion of refugee resettlement half way into the fiscal year.

Although family reunification is still suspended, in FY 2009 we have already resettled 2,232 Somalis.   Now comes this news about the UNHCR:

The resettlement of the 270,000 Somali refugees in third countries is the most viable alternative to repatriation and local integration. Although it is fraught with difficulties, it remains the dream of most of the refugees. UNHCR, which runs the camp, is hoping to resettle around 8,600 refugees in 2009. Even it if resettles that many and reaches the 2010 target of 20,000 people, the arrival of new refugees means that the population at Dadaab is unlikely to decline.

The US takes the lions share of refugees worldwide.  I couldn’t find the percentage off hand but we top the other resettlement countries including various European countries, Canada, Australia and New Zealand by a wide margin.   So, if the UNHCR gets its way, I guess that means we will be ‘welcoming’ the lions share of 20,000 Somalis in 2010!

VDARE author says “do-gooders” work with businesses to supply cheap labor, calls it “neo-slavery”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been tossing this question around in my head ever since we started writing Refugee Resettlement Watch—are the volags (federal contractors who re-settle refugees) acting as employment services for big business while wearing their humanitarian hats?   Blulitespecial brought this provactive article by Brenda Walker to my attention, and although it is mostly about illegal immigrants, legal immigrants are also part of the cheap labor force.

I’ve mentioned this idea on several occasions—that Refugee Resettlement has been promoted by the Left as a humanitarian initiative but has a dark side.   I go back to this post, ironically written exactly one year ago today, in which I revealed that Bill Clinton supplied Bosnian refugee labor to the meatpacking industry in Iowa.

Now to Walker at VDARE:

Some patriotic friends of borders may have thought that a severe recession would be an impossible time for Washington to push through an amnesty for 10-30 million lawbreaking foreigners. But Senator Charles Schumer, Chair of the Subcommittee on Immigration, thinks now is a fine time for amnesty. He held a hearing April 30 to explore how to accomplish that goal.

Why?

It’s just another example the lengths to which business elites will go to protect and expand their firehose supply of the cheapest workers possible—by promoting everything from open borders to H-1b visas and permissive legal immigration. Labor can never be too cheap nor too exploitable for the captains of industry.

Hence the substantial lobbying arm in Washington to thwart the well-being of citizen workers. A recent FAIR report found that 521 corporations, business groups, unions, nonprofits and the like reported lobbying on three important immigration bills introduced in Congress over the past three years. Of those, 98 percent of activity was to secure more permissive immigration laws and lessened enforcement to ensure cheap, “willing” workers keep coming.

Neo-slavery (sound familiar?):

The neo-slaves of the iPod age may sleep several to a room or even outdoors. They depend upon do-gooders in churches to help out with clothing and other assistance. The unwilling taxpayer is forced to supplement the “cheap” labor with food stamps, housing and free-to-aliens medical care.

There is lots more in this thought-provoking piece, so go to VDARE and read the whole article.

Also, please return to this post in March about a Center for Immigration Studies report on how immigrant cheap labor depresses wages.

Rohingya attack NGO’s: Why didn’t we hear more of this?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I found this tiny little mention of riots sometime in the last week at a refugee camp in Bangladesh.   We told you about these Rohingya camps in the very first post we wrote about Rohingya Muslim refugees flooding out of Burma.   Cox’s Bazaar is considered a recruitment site for HUJI-B.

This is all I have on the incident, but would like to know more.  Who were the ten representatives of donor countries and who are the two NGO’s the Rohingya’s are apparently blaming for blocking aid to them?  From The New Nation:

Our Correspondent, Cox’s Bazar

Ten diplomats of the donor countries visited three refugee camps Rohingyas at Ukhia and Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar on Monday last.

The diplomats, besides the refugee camps, also visited Ukhia thana and health complex. After the diplomats left the camps, the Rohingya refugees attacked Leda refugee camp in Teknaf and damaged offices and health centers of two NGOs.

The European diplomats visited the Leda refugee camp amid tight security and they stayed at the camp for short time.

The officials of the two NGOs ran to safety after the attack by refugees. Police posted in those camp brought peace in the camps. But the refugees said the ten donor countries are not coming in aid of the refugees because of the two NGOs.

The European diplomats then visited the slums near the Ukhia refugee camps where around 20,000 Rohinga live.

Just a reminder that there is an NGO public relations campaign on-going to resettle the charming Rohingya in the West.  So far they have gone to Canada and the UK, will the US be next? 

For everything you want to know about Rohingya, see our category Rohingya Reports here.