Day: April 15, 2010

A pair of crime stories involving refugees in the D.C. area

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A reader has sent us two articles overnight from the Washington Examiner involving former refugees who have found that the criminal life in America is a lucrative one.  By the way, I just posted a few minutes ago a story from Switzerland about their problems with African asylum-seekers who are allegedly crooks.

I’m wondering if the Washington Examiner is becoming a leader in stories such as these.  Remember it’s the Examiner that broke and has been tracking the story of 300 Somalis who were smuggled into the US and have since disappeared presumably into Somali refugee communities throughout the US.  Judy told you about it here just the other day.

First we have this story from ten days ago about a former Vietnamese refugee who has admitted he is a leader of a home invasion gang.  He claims to be involved with the “Vietnamese Pride” gang in Montgomery Co. Maryland (a wealthy suburb of Washington, DC).  He has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.

And, then just today the Washington Examiner has this more complicated crime story involving an Ethiopian taxi driver (we have admitted a ton of Ethiopian refugees).

An Ethiopian community leader has pleaded guilty to his role in orchestrating a massive taxi industry bribery scheme, fingering D.C. Councilman Jim Graham’s former chief of staff as one of his co-conspirators.

Over the past three years, Abdul Kamus gave more than $30,000 in cash, trips and free taxi rides to Graham’s former Chief of Staff Ted Loza in return for influence in the D.C. Council, Kamus admitted Wednesday. His admissions do not implicate Graham in any wrongdoing, although Kamus said in court documents that he met with Graham on at least two occasions to discuss legislation that benefited the taxi industry. Graham chaired the council’s public works and transportation committee, which oversees the taxi industry.

Graham told the Washington Examiner that the guilty plea, “has nothing to do with me,” and declined to comment further.

Read the whole article also by reporter Freeman Klopott.

Dear Mr. Klopott, Maybe you would like to look into my theory about the E-2 Treaty Investor program and food stamp fraud, here.  There was a bust in western Maryland of a food stamp fraud scheme if you need something in the vicinity of Washington, DC!

Swiss official in hot water for saying most Nigerians are crooks

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The head of Switzerland’s Office of Migration was quoted as saying 99.5% of Nigerian asylum seekers are petty criminals.  Well, that stirred things up a bit!  You think!

Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Alard du Bois-Reymond, director of Switzerland’s Office for Migration, has been on the job only since 1 January 2010, but if remarks he made to Swiss-German media over the weekend are a sign of what is to come, tensions over the country’s refugees policy could rise. The director told NZZ newspaper that his office will be setting up a task force which will bring together federal and cantonal offices to resolve what he referred to as Switzerland’s number one migration problem: Nigerians, the majority of whom are involved in petty crime and drug trafficking, he says.

“These people aren’t coming to Switzerland as refugees, but to make money”, he told NZZ, noting that 99.5 percent of Nigerians have no chance of being allowed to stay in the country.

His remarks prompted numerous negative reactions ranging from outrage to wonder that the head of a government office would stigmatize another nationality. Even populist media such as Le Matin went out of their way to point out that not all Nigerians are criminals, which du Bois-Reymond appeared to imply, interviewing asylum-seekers from Nigeria to tell their stories.

[….]

Du Bois-Reymond’s comments may have been aimed at reassuring conservative elements in Swiss politics about reducing the number of illegal immigrants and reducing crime, several observers told GenevaLunch, but they have stirred up a complex debate.

Even the UN agrees, most Nigerians are not in need of asylum:

Susin Park, the head of UNHCR’s (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) office for Switzerland and Liechtenstein, says the UN organization is aware that a large number of Nigerian applicants for asylum in Switzerland have been found not to be in need of international protection.

Not to worry!  It’s only boys involved in drug-related crime!

Du Bois-Reymond’s numbers outraged Mark Bamidele, president and CEO of the African Mirror Foundation, which recently set up an online African TV and radio service based in Bern. Bamidele says that while a majority of Nigerian refugee seekers are involved in petty crime it’s not 99.5 percent of those seeking asylum and “these are not drug dealers, they are boys peddling on the streets because it’s the only way they see to make some money.

Read the whole article, it is very interesting.