Day: December 8, 2009

Climate Refugee blogs you should know about

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here are the first two I’ve come across.  These will be located in our ‘climate refugee’ category for your future reference.   Note that they too mention the contentious international legal issue of whether to help the millions of so-called “climate refugees” that they believe will need to be taken care of by the West by amending the 1951 UN convention on refugees or by creating a whole new legal structure.

The first is Toward Recognition here.  And the other one is Climate Refugee Advocacy Forum, here.*

This second blog tipped me off to a possible strategy to bring “climate refugees” to the US in an existing program, TemporaryProtected Status.   How much do you want to bet that there is nothing temporary about this, once in the US with jobs and homes, who is going to throw them out?  Note the Liberians are still here!

A larger problem arises when climate refugees become refugees in the truer sense of the word, when they cross international borders. Important protection measures already exist within the 1951 Refugee Convention, specifically Article 33(1), which prohibits the refoulement of asylum seekers to “the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened” (p. 11). But, again, UNHCR shies from expanding the traditional definition of refugee and leaves the designation up to each receiving state. They offer various examples, including the U.S. Temporary Protected Status mechanism — which was enacted in 1990, but put into use in 1998 after Hurricane Mitch. This mechanism allows nationals of foreign states temporary refugee status so that they can stay within the U.S. if they meet three key criteria: 1) there has been an environmental disaster in the foreign state resulting in a substantial, but temporary, disruption of living conditions; 2) the foreign state is unable to handle adequately the return of its own nationals; and 3) the foreign state has officially requested such a designation.

I can see countries like Bangladesh, Yemen, Somalia and others asking (#3) in a heart beat!  Can’t you?

* As I find more blogs on “climate refugees” I’ll post them here.  Or, readers, if you see some, send the links my way!  Thanks!

South Korea is considering US model for its refugee program?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That’s what this sounds like, but did no one tell them this self-sufficiency bit isn’t working these days?   And, it sounds like jobs are pretty scarce in South Korea too!

Lee Ki Young, a professor of social work at Pusan University, explained, “After allowing the admission and resettlement of refugees, the U.S. focuses on their employment and economic success, and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) under the federal government has organized a taskforce for promoting the economic independence of refugees. In South Korea, self-support and independence are proposed as the items of utmost priority.”

But he pointed out, “In South Korea, where even low-level employment isn’t guaranteed for the refugees, whether or not to pursue an early stage policy for promoting independence such as in the U.S. should be carefully considered. In particular, many North Korean breakaway citizens have debts after using brokers before entering South Korea, so their actual economic situation is quite precarious and they have a high desire for an income to bring in additional family members, but it is difficult to find ideal results from work.”

Canadian Somali youths missing too!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This story, sent to me weeks ago by Baron at Gates of Vienna, is another I have shamefully left in my queue.  But, it’s important to post it because I believe on our pages we have covered most of the news on Somali former refugees becoming Jihadists and we need to keep our archives complete.  Use our search function for ‘Somali missing youths’ and scroll back to the earliest posts last year (if you have the interest and stamina!) to learn more.

From The National Post:

TORONTO — Counterterrorism officials are investigating a group of youths who allegedly left Canada for East Africa two weeks ago, amid concerns they may have gone to join the Somali militant group Al-Shabab.

Two sources familiar with the case said investigators had been canvassing Toronto’s large Somali-Canadian community for information about as many as five men who departed Canada together in early November.

They are believed to have flown to Kenya, the sources said. Kenya borders the region of southern Somalia controlled by Al-Shabab, an Islamist militia aligned with al-Qaeda and sometimes likened to the Taliban.

The investigation comes as the Somali conflict has become a key focus of North American counterterrorism officials. Several Somali-American youths have left the Midwestern United States to join the Shabab, and the commissioner of the RCMP said in a speech last month he is concerned about a similar trend in Canada.

“Radicalization within the U.S. Somali community may be an indicator of similar processes at work in Canada,” Commissioner William Elliott said in his Oct. 30 address to the Canadian Association of Security and Intelligence Studies in Ottawa.

“As you know, we have one of the largest Somali diaspora communities in the Western world. The potential follow-on threat, from a Canadian and RCMP perspective, is Somali-Canadians who travel to Somalia to fight and then return, imbued with both extremist ideology and the skills necessary to translate it into direct action.”

The Somali threat at home

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I am so pathetically behind in posting stories in my queue, so I’m going to try to get a bunch of stuff up this morning (and not yak too much about each story). 

Incidentally, I only have a few hours each day to work on RRW and find myself easily distracted reading posts at Gateway Pundit, Jihad Watch, New Zeal, Gates of Vienna, Atlas Shrugs, Big Government, and Drudge, just to name a few of my favorites you can find on our blogroll.  So, readers, if you’ve sent me something to post recently, I have it here somewhere!

Here we go, this is the article on the Somali threat:

Yesterday Frontpage magazine posted an article by Ryan Mauro that summarizes pretty well much of what we have posted here on the Jihadist recruitment of Somali former refugees to return to Africa to fight with Al-Shabaab.  Of course the big question is,will they return and use their skills in America?  Thanks to several readers who sent me this link yesterday.

For more in our at least 100 posts on the topic since we began posting on it in November 2008, type ‘Somali missing youths’ into our search function.

Update on UN camp for ‘Bhutanese’ in Nepal, security village established

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We haven’t had any news on this in a long time, so here is a quick update.  It seems that the Maoists in refugee camps in Nepal are continuing to subject refugees wishing to be resettled by the UNHCR to violence or threats of violence, so much so that security villages have been set up within camps to further protect some refugees on the list to leave.

Just a reminder to new readers we are taking a total of 60,000 Bhutanese refugees over a five year period.  So far we have resettled around 20,000.  It’s inaccurate to call them Bhutanese because they are really ethnic Nepalese who had been living in Bhutan for a long time.  Bhutan expelled them for a couple of reasons, first Bhutan is concerned with ethnic nationalism (surprise, surprise, they want Bhutan for the Bhutanese) and fear that the Nepalis are infiltrated with Maoists who would overthrow the government of Bhutan. Here is just one of many posts on the Maoist issue.   Nepal doesn’t want to repatriate them either.

Anyway, the violence is coming from the Maoists who contend that the more ‘Bhutanese’ refugees that accept a third country resettlement, the less likely they will have enough of an ‘army’ to push for a return to Bhutan.

As for that security village:

This is not a wonder, as you feel when reading this, but the fact is a village has been created within the Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal. And it is named as security village.

Created on the lap of Armed Police Force (APF) base camp in Beldangi I, the security village turns to be a shelter for all refugees getting threats for opting to go third country as part of the resettlement.

The village contains only few huts where people recommended by the UNHCR, having felt the need to provide security due to increasing threats, are sheltered in. Attached is four-hut separate shelter called transit huts.

There is more, read on.