Day: August 8, 2009

Iraqis denied asylum in Denmark have disappeared

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I told you about this story some time ago here.  A Copenhagen church was sheltering Iraqi refugees who had been denied asylum in Denmark.  Now, more than 40 are missing.  From Ice News:

The refugee support group Asylret has come forward and told Danish police that 44 of the Iraqi asylum seekers who were staying in Denmark have disappeared. The group of 80-plus Iraqis was facing forced repatriation to their home country, prompting more than half of them to flee into hiding. 

[….]

Up until last week, some 80 Iraqi asylum seekers were staying in Copenhagen’s Brorsons Church. But 44 of them have gone missing, and Danish police can’t find them.

More Muslim immigrants for Europe I guess.

Much gnashing of teeth in Australia about refugee policy in wake of terrorism bust

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’ve got a couple of these stories to post, so I’ll split them up so you might read each without having to read an opus.    This one from The Age includes suggestions that Australia offer scholarships for Somalis to study in Malaysia rather than accepting student visas for Australia.   But later in the article the issue is raised of the orientation program refugees receive before entering Australia. 

We hear over and over again that refugees coming to the US are not adequately prepared and educated about how they are expected to behave in the US.  Here is a suggestion that Australia do it (orientation) in Australia and not abroad.

Mr Ferguson [Parliamentary secretary for multicultural affairs Laurie Ferguson]also flagged adding to the orientation programs for refugees, which currently are run before arrival in Australia. He said there had been strong lobbying for onshore orientation to complement the existing AusCo offshore training.

“The view is that perhaps when people are getting on planes to come to Australia, they are not really listening,” he said.

“We are looking at whether we have got to refashion orientation courses here in Australia – perhaps it can be more effective with an onshore one.”

Two comments, first, in order for any orientation to work, the ‘teachers’ need to get rid of any notion of cultural relativism—if one is going to live in the West, then one must be prepared to accept our values (except maybe values promoted by South Park!) and the instructors must teach those values!  And, secondly, the refugees must want to become good citizens of the US, or Australia or wherever.   I contend that many Somalis do not want to assimilate.

And, here is a bit of evidence to make my point.  I have had this article kicking around in my queue for a couple of weeks, it is from Finland.   It seems that Somali parents (and other Muslim parents) are sending teens back to the home country to de-westernize them indicating to me that there isn’t any real interest in embracing their adopted country’s way of life no matter how well its taught.

Officials say they are learning of an increasing number of cases in which immigrant parents in Finland are forcibly sending teens back to their home countries to de-westernize them.

The Finnish Red Cross as well as social welfare offices say that every year dozens of parents who believe their children are becoming too westernized send their offspring back to African, Asian and Middle Eastern states.

If you are new today and don’t know about the Australian Somali terror bust, check out our Australia category for all the recent news from Down Under.

More on Malaysia: a Muslim country that treats refugees like dirt (or worse)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We’ve told you about this before during my rant about a UN report that said the idea of charity toward refugees originated with the Islamic so-called faith.  I told you then that Muslim countries generally do not welcome the stranger and here is further confirmation that a fairly prosperous Muslim country is abusing the refugees who arrive there.  Hat tip:  B.L.

Where are the refugees all hoping to go—to Australia of course!  A very lucrative human trafficking business has sprung up in Malaysia as a result.   From The Age:

RAMESHWAREN, a young Tamil asylum-seeker from Sri Lanka, speaks quietly, with a painful melancholy that belies his years.

“I feel castrated,” he says, looking up from the floor. “All of this is unbearable. I am on the edge of a mental breakdown.”

One of an estimated 100,000 refugees living precariously in Malaysia, and one of 16 million recognised asylum seekers worldwide, Rameshwaren’s helplessness is a frustration felt around the world.

Just one of every 250 people who have been forced to flee their countries because of war, famine and persecution can expect to be resettled as a refugee this year.

And this is why, he says, he is prepared to chance his arm and take a boat to Australia.

“I can’t return to Sri Lanka but there is no life for me here in Malaysia,” he says. “I cannot work here legally, there is no medical (care), there is no education. I don’t think that the UN will be able to resettle us. So we have to find somewhere else, we have to find some way to get there by ourselves. That is why I want to take a boat to Australia.

“It is a land of freedom. It is somewhere safe for me, my mother, my sisters and brother.”

Along with Afghans and Pakistanis, Sri Lankans are making up an increasing share of the asylum seekers paying thousands of dollars to reach Australia. Almost 200 Sri Lankans arrived last weekend, taking a vessel direct from Malaysia to Christmas Island.

Apparently the UNHCR isn’t able to protect the refugees entering Malaysia.

Yet, for all the infrastructure for illegal migrants, many refugees find Malaysia profoundly unwelcoming. It does not recognise the UN convention for refugees and its corrupt and sometimes brutal immigration officials, police and a paramilitary civilian volunteer corps known as RELA are accused of frequently harassing migrants, even those with UN Commission for Refugees cards.

UN: Boats trying to get to Australia, just the tip of the iceberg.

The UNHCR deputy representative in Malaysia, Henrik Nordentoft, says there are “great difficulties” for asylum seekers in Malaysia and that the boats intercepted recently along the route between Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia are “probably the tip of the iceberg”.

I don’t know what is to be done about the following, but I do know that if the US, Europe and Australia succumb to pressure by Leftwing open borders do-gooders and try to take on this huge challenge, just like a life boat that is overloaded and sinks with all aboard, so also will we.

He [UN Rep] points to the global dimensions of the problem. While asylum claims rose 28 per cent last year, and there were 42 million displaced people and more than 16 million officially recognised asylum seekers, only 67,000 people were resettled.

Endnote:  Yesterday I reported that the Obama Administration could expand the definition for asylum and possibly open the door for even more asylees to seek entry into the US.

Hillary goes to Somalia and ticks off Al Shabaab

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Well, no that is not the headline in the New York Times that reports glowingly about Secretary of State Clinton’s visit to the Somalia this past week, but it should be.  Clinton promised the tottering government that the US would continue to send all sorts of goodies and weapons to help prop up the “moderate Muslim” government. 

I hope, however, that our Homeland Security people are ready for retaliation.  If you will recall the Jihadists claim that the US-backed invading Ethiopian troops entering Somalia were the reason they were fighting—for nationalism, for defense of their homeland.   Garbage of course,  the Ethiopians are gone and they are still fighting.  The Al Shabaab is fighting to create a radical Islamic state in the Horn of Africa.

Anyway, here is how the NYT begins its schmaltzy story:

NAIROBI, Kenya — Somalia’s beleaguered transitional government received desperately needed support on Thursday as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton praised its president as “the best hope we’ve had for some time,” then strongly warned Eritrea to stop supporting insurgents in the country.

Mrs. Clinton met with Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, elected Somalia’s president in January, for more than an hour. She promised more aid, training and equipment, in addition to the millions of dollars’ worth of weapons the United States has recently shipped to his government.

“We need to be there to help them deliver the results of stability to the people of Somalia, who have suffered for so long,” Mrs. Clinton said.

Sheik Sharif can use the help. His moderate Islamist government controls no more than a few city blocks in a country the size of Texas, with extremist Islamist groups, like the Shabab, in charge of much of the rest.

Now, here we go with this head-in-the-sand notion that I witnessed at the Senate Homeland Security hearing last March, that somehow as long as we could keep Al-Qaeda out of Somalia we were safe.  What the hell!  Al-Shabaab is virtually the same organization with the same goals—destroy the West!  And, they are already in the US!  They also have no respect for Obama as we saw when Al-Amriki made fun of Obama’s Cairo speech.

“No doubt that Al Shabab wants to obtain control over Somalia and use it as a base to influence and infiltrate surrounding countries,” she said. “If Al Shabab were to obtain a haven in Somalia which could then attract Al Qaeda and other terrorist actors, it would be a threat to the United States.”

The handshake death sentence.

Then this was a really stupid move on Hillary’s part.  They could have planned ahead of time to not shake hands in public.   Shaking hands with a woman, an infidel woman no less, is strickly forbidden in Shariah law.  

Sheik Sharif seemed to bask in the attention. He stood riveted at a lectern next to Mrs. Clinton at an end-of-the-day news conference, wearing a crisp blue suit, an Islamic prayer hat and a lapel pin of joined Somali and American flags.

Before saying goodbye, he vigorously shook Mrs. Clinton’s hand — which caught the eye of one Somali journalist, who asked the president if that was religiously forbidden.

“No, no,” Sheik Sharif said and flashed a nervous grin. “Next question?”

Obama, Hillary, the NYT, the Left, they just don’t get it.  I’m not suggesting we tip-toe around Al Shabaab, just that we do nothing overtly naive and stupid.  All of this—giving weapons and support to the “moderate” government—could have been done with no fanfare and no overt ‘in your face’ gesture like this lovefest/handshake press conference.  Now that Hillary has added more fuel to a raging bonfire, are she and Obama going to do anything more for Somalia—I doubt it.