US refugee program attracting Somalis to Malta

I’ve been reporting this same story for years and making this very point, but now Maltese media is saying the same thing.  In hopes of getting a ticket to the US, more Somalis are coming ashore in Malta.

Here is just the latest story about the SINGLE ADULT MEN on the way to your town at this very moment.

From the Malta Star:

Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) personnel involved in search and rescue operations involving irregular migrants say that while most of the migrants who arrive in Malta usually want to reach Italy, they have noticed a new trend that Somalis are heading for Malta hoping that from here they would be sent to the United States through the US Refugee Settlement Program (USRRP).

[…..]

On Wednesday 12 persons from Somalia and Eritrea all of whom are single adult men granted subsidiary protection in Malta left to start a new life in the United States, under the USRRP.

[…..]

245 migrants have been resettled from Malta to the United States of America since the beginning of 2012. More beneficiaries of international protection are expected to leave to the United States in the coming weeks.

Bush ambassador to Malta, Molly Bordonaro, started the trend in  2008 (or at least that is when we learned of it) and it continues today.  These men are illegal aliens and economic migrants magically transformed into “refugees.”

Expanding the use of asylum to include wife abuse?

A California Law School is working hard to convince the Dept. of Homeland Security that women who claim domestic violence by their husbands anywhere in the world can be granted asylum by the US.   Although we have sympathy for abused women where their country’s government won’t help them, I doubt few of these cases involve women from Muslim countries where wife beating is permitted by law (see Janet Levy on that point yesterday).  Most other countries have laws to protect women to one degree or another.

Also, I can see how hard it would be for someone to prove to a judge (or for the judge to believe the story!) that their hubby beat them, perhaps years before they undertook a dangerous and expensive journey to get across our borders in order to ask for asylum (by hooking up with an immigration attorney who teaches them how to ask).

Here is the story:

The Center for Gender & Refugee Studies has been instrumental in helping women gain refuge from domestic violence.

This summer, in cases that made national headlines, two women whose legal teams were supported by CGRS won asylum after suffering years of abuse and lack of protection from authorities in their home countries.

Aruna Vallabhaneri lived first with abuse from her husband in Hyderabad, India, and then with the threat of deportation when she fled to the U.S. She initially filed for asylum and was denied in 1998 and ordered deported. But after hearing testimony of the abuse in her arranged marriage, she was granted asylum on the basis of domestic violence in June 2012.  [India doesn’t have laws to protect people against violence?—ed]

[…..]

Under current U.S. law, individuals should be granted asylum if they have suffered persecution or have a well-founded fear of persecution for one of five reasons — political opinion, race, religion, nationality or membership in a particular social group. Domestic abuse claims most often fall under the statutory ground of particular social group, the murkiest and most contested category.

Until recently, the Department of Homeland Security, which both adjudicates some asylum claims and prosecutes others, has not supported domestic violence claims, and regulations promised in 2000 have yet to be issued. In April 2009, the department filed a legal brief in a domestic violence case known as L.R., taking the position that women who are victims of domestic violence may qualify for asylum. Despite this recognition, the brief is not binding on immigration judges, and many Homeland Security attorneys have continued to fight domestic violence cases.

[…..]

Of the 619 domestic violence asylum cases for which the center has provided counsel between 1994 and 2011, 422 women were granted asylum, and 192 were denied.

So, what are they complaining about.  Accepting 2/3rds of the claims and rejecting 1/3 doesn’t sound all that bad of a record.  Do these lawyers expect the judges to approve 100% of the claims?

By the way, once asylum is granted these new “refugees” become eligible for all of the social services refugees get—food stamps, subsidized housing, health care, etc.

Somalis from Denmark tour Minneapolis to see how America does it…

…..how we make Somalis feel welcome.

From the Copenhagen Post:

MINNEAPOLIS — A delegation of six young Somali Danes, two Swedes and one Norwegian visited the American city of Minneapolis last week to break bread with their Somali immigrant counterparts and learn how this city has integrated them into civic and economic life. Minneapolis boasts the largest Somali population outside of Africa and became a haven for them when the country broke into civil war in the early 1990s.

The exchange was initiated by the American ambassador to Denmark, Laurie S Fulton,*** in conjunction with the Danish Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration. Fulton said that young Somalis have trouble feeling accepted into Danish society and a recent trip she took to Minnesota inspired her to initiate the programme.

“Danish integration minister Karen Hækkerup hosted a workshop several months ago for Somali Danes; I offered to host a reception that Karen attended and that’s how we talked about trying to get them together,” Fulton said. “One of the many common issues that Denmark and the US share is helping the Somali immigrants that come to our nations become successful citizens. And who in the US is doing the best job at helping the Somalis feel welcome, learn how to become Americans and be happy? It’s Minneapolis.”

Minneapolis’ thriving Cedar-Riverside neighbourhood, on the banks of the Mississippi River, is home to many of the estimated 30,000 Somali Minnesotans and was the ideal setting from which to draw inspiration.

New readers:

Search RRW for “Cedar Riverside” for more information on the neighborhood.  Remember that most of the Somali youths who left the US for jihad training a few years back were raised here.  You could start your education with this post, Why so many Somalis in Minneapolis? which is one of our top posts here almost every day.  And, then there is the ever popular post still after four years–-How did we get so many Somalis?

Just for fun I searched RRW for Somalis Denmark and the list of problems is long—includes immigration fraud/human smuggling, terror arrests, refugee youths joining Al Shabaab, khat chewing and more….

***And don’t miss Laurie Fulton’s bio!   Fulton was a major bundler for Obama and the first wife of former Senator Tom Daschle!  Kind of reminds me of Molly, ambassador to Malta during the Bush years, who figured out how to get more Somalis from Malta to the US.