Sri Lankan official warns Australia not to let Tamils in

Update November 5th:  If you object to letting in the boat people you are “xenophobic” so says Australian immigration activist Julian Burnside, here.

The headline to this story is all about a fear that the Australian government might put “chillis” in the food of illegal aliens (aka asylum seekers) occupying an Australian ship in a standoff now 3 weeks old.   Titled, “Chilli weapon ruled out in asylum seeker boat standoff,”  I thought the story should more appropriately be titled as I have it above.   Incidentally I came across this story after reporting on the “boat people” that Indonesia is sick of,  here.

CHILLIS and water rationing will not be used to force 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers off an Australian Customs ship stuck in a standoff in Indonesia.

Officials denied they would tamper with the asylum seekers’ food to help break their resolve, despite claims by refugee advocates the chilli solution had been used before.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Australia was prepared to play a waiting game as the saga entered its 12th day.

The Oceanic Viking remains anchored 10 nautical miles off Indonesia’s Bintan Island as the Federal Government attempts to navigate around a diplomatic stumble that saw local officials refusing to allow the Sri Lankans to land, and a vow by the asylum seekers to remain on the ship.

Many have started a hunger strike.

Mr Rudd has not ruled out using force to get them off the ship, but suggested the patience of Indonesia and Australia would win out.

“Indonesia has an abundance of patience in handling these matters. Australia also has great patience in handling these complex matters,” he told Parliament.

Mr Rudd also ruled out cash incentives to persuade the Sri Lankans to end their protest and disembark.

In my view the above is your typical leftwing reporting.  The charge that the government would fool with the food of the illegal aliens puts the government on the defensive right off the bat making the illegals more sympathetic characters.  In the meantime, the part of this story that should have been highlighted is that a high level Sri Lankan official is telling the Australian government not to set a precedent, let these Tamils in and possibly open a floodgate to more.  He also says they pose a threat to Australia.   The UK and the US have both designated the Tamil Tigers a terrorist group, although it isn’t clear from this report whether it has been confirmed that Tamil Tigers are on board.

With no end in sight to the standoff, the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Australia warned the group represented a security threat.

“They pose a threat to peace and security of Australia,” Mr Senaka Walgampaya said.

There are more than 250,000 people in camps in Sri Lanka as a result of a 20-year civil war that ended this year.

Mr Walgampaya rejects claims Tamils in Sri Lanka are being persecuted.

I first mentioned this story here, but I had no idea this has been going on for 3 weeks.

Wasn’t it only a few days ago that I reported that the EU wanted to emulate Australian immigration policies and practices, here.

‘Progressives’ badger Japan on the Rohingya issue

Poor Japan, one of the few countries* left in the world that wants to maintain its unique culture and strictly control immigration and its borders, is now constantly under attack by groups supposedly motivated by pure humanitarian concerns.   I say supposed because I believe these are really far left ‘progressives’  and elitists who ultimately seek a borderless world.   Here is the latest assault, posted on the Rohingya Info Corner:

(Tokyo) – Japan’s new administration should protect Burmese Rohingya asylum seekers in Japan and press Burma to end abuses against the minority group, eight Japanese and international organizations said today. The groups sent a joint letter to the newly inaugurated justice minister, Keiko Chiba, and foreign minister, Katsuya Okada.

“Tokyo’s silence sends a message to Burma’s generals that their horrendous persecution of the Rohingya can continue,” said Kanae Doi, Tokyo director at Human Rights Watch. “Japan’s new government should urgently review its policies to protect the Rohingya both in Japan and in Burma.”

Apparently there are 110 Rohingya asylum seekers in Japan wanting refugee status.  This letter says they arrived in Japan by air.  Now, how on earth did abjectly poor Rohingya Muslims get the airfare money to get to Japan?  And, don’t you just love the phrase “made their way!”  Could this have been a set-up?   I don’t doubt that for a minute.

The organizations urged Chiba to rescind deportation orders that would return asylum seekers to Burma and to grant Special Residential Permits to Rohingya in Japan. Over the past decade, more than 110 Rohingya have made their way to Japan, mainly by air, and petitioned the Japanese government for asylum. While there have been no reports of forcible repatriation of Rohingya asylum seekers to Burma, many Rohingya in Japan have been denied refugee status, detained, and issued deportation orders.

Here are the ‘progressive’ groups planning action in Tokyo today:

The letter was signed by Amnesty International Japan, Arakan Rohingya Organization-Japan (JARO), and the Lawyers’ Group for Burmese Refugee Applicants, the Burmese Rohingya Association in Japan, the Christian Coalition for Refugee and Migrant Workers (CCRMW), the People’s Forum on Burma, BurmaInfo, and Human Rights Watch.

[….]

The eight organizations will hold a public event today in Tokyo around the report and the treatment of Rohingya asylum seekers in Japan.

Progressives use buzz words like ‘social justice’ which we are learning is code for far left political organizing.  I wanted to find out more about this group Christian Coalition for Refugee and Migrant Workers (CCRMW) and couldn’t find much except a tiny mention of them as a ‘progressive’ Christian group.  I then did come across the wikipedia definition of  Progressive Christianity which I found interesting, and I believe you will too when you think about the ranting of Obama’s Marxist pastor, Rev. Wright.  Liberation theology, according to this article, is one of the streams of religious thought that led to Progressive Christianity.

If you would like to see more posts on how Japan is being badgered, just use our search function for ‘Japan.’

* I reported yesterday that France is now belatedly trying to recover its French culture after being swamped by immigrant Muslim cultures for decades.

Indonesia: We’ve had it with all these asylum seekers

The Indonesian government is making it very clear they cannot afford to keep all the illegal aliens (aka asylum seekers) landing on their shores or being apprehended in their waters.   They want the UN and Australia to do something about it. 

Meanwhile, remember all those Muslim Rohingya boatmen that brought worldwide attention when the Thai government was accused of towing their boats back to sea, those who landed in Indonesia have been given refugee status by the UNHCR and are ready for resettlement in the West.

From the Jakarta Post:

The government said Thursday it would demand a time line of how long the 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers, on board an Australian vessel in Riau province, would stay in Indonesia once their statuses have been finalized.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Indonesia could not afford to let the boat people, who wish to go to Australia, stay in its territory for an indefinite period of time, as has been the case in the past.

“What would we do to them if they are not classified as refugees? And what would we do if they are? This has to be clear.”

Indonesia is struggling to cope with the rising number of illegal immigrants intercepted in its waters while making the perilous journey to its more prosperous southern neighbor.

The 78 Sri Lankans are only one group of people currently seeking asylum in Australia.

Another 255 Sri Lankans are refusing to get off a wooden boat at Merak Port, Banten, and their status remains unclear.

Reports in Australia have cited 66 incidents of interception in Indonesian waters this year, resulting in arrests of 1,642 illegal immigrants bound for Australia.

Many have become stateless, living in immigration detention facilities or shelters run by the UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar who were found adrift off the coast of Aceh early this year were granted refugee status by the UNHCR, but have not yet been sent to any third countries willing to accept them. Dozens have reportedly escaped from their facilities.

Sounds like a few have other motives than a chance at a good life in the West.

By the way, Indonesia is a Muslim country.  I thought the UN High Commissioner for Refugees told us that Muslims welcome the stranger!

Got guts? France certainly does as it launches national pride campaign

To combat Islamic fundamentalism, the French government has announced a campaign to remind citizens that they are French!  I love it!  When are we going to be as gutsy as the French?    From the Mail  thanks to Islam in Action:

France is to adopt a series of measures to ‘reaffirm pride’ in the country and combat Islamic fundamentalism.

They include everybody receiving lessons in the nation’s Christian history and children singing the national anthem.

Using words which infuriated ethnic minority groups and Socialist opponents, immigration minister Eric Besson also said he wanted ‘foreigners to speak better French’.

He called for all recent arrivals to be monitored by ‘Republican godfathers’, charged with helping immigrants to integrate better.

His proposed measures contrast sharply with the situation in Britain where ‘citizenship education’ centres on multicultural diversity.

M Besson, who was born in the former French protectorate of Morocco, suggested a debate on national identity’ entitled ‘What does it mean to be French?’

He also reignited the debate about face and body-covering Muslim veils, saying they should definitely be banned.

As well as providing civic lessons for adults – including classes about the country’s Christian history and liberal political institutions – the government will encourage school children to sing the national anthem at least once a year.

They are deporting Muslims too!

Mr Besson defended a decision to send illegal Afghan immigrants – all of them Muslim – back to Kabul on charter flights organised in conjunction with the British government last week, saying there would be many more.

More than 21,000 people have been deported from France this year – with 27,000 the ultimate target, said Mr Besson.

Muslim terror plots abound, other blogs have it covered

Thanks to readers who have been sending us information on the recent foiled terror plots by Islamists in the US.  I have to say they are getting difficult to keep up with!

Other bloggers are doing a good job following the stories so let me direct you to those.  Jihad Watch has lots of information on the Detroit shooting yesterday, here.   Update:  Atlas Shrugs has more, here.

The Jawa Report has done a lot of research on the Halal slaughter house raid and its connection to terrorism, here.

CAIR has its nose in both those cases, so you should see Frank Gaffney’s “Why you should care about CAIR,” here.

Just to save the link (I’m not saying its terrorism related), I also direct you to the murder of the UConn football player story where a man who looks to be East African named, Hakim Muhammad, is implicated, here.