Month: April 2013

Rep. Keith Ellison: It’s a new day in Somalia; send money

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update:  Lawlessness and mayhem are back as al-Shabaab attacks the capital—and as our commenters noted earlier.

If it’s a new day and Somalia is on the mend, then WHY ARE WE STILL IMPORTING SOMALI REFUGEES? 

If Somalis from the ‘diaspora’ are traveling back and forth to Somalia to buy real estate and do business, why is the flow of “refugees” still moving Westward?  Should we even be calling them “refugees” anymore?

Rep. Keith Ellison scans the horizon for Somali pirates (just kidding!). Photo: Minneapolis Star Tribune

Editors note:  As of the end of February (5 months into fiscal year 2013) see, here, the US State Department and its contractors have brought 2,814 new Somali “refugees” to the US (read: new Democrat voters and cheap labor)!

In his opinion piece at Insight News, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, the go-to guy for the federal refugee contractors, tells readers how great Somalia is doing and how the US needs to send more money to the country. 

Let’s make a deal—send Somalia more money and let them keep their so-called “refugees.”

Ellison (emphasis mine):

It’s a new day in Somalia. That’s the message I took away from a trip to the capital city of Mogadishu earlier this year. We have our best opportunity in more than two decades to help stabilize Somalia and advance U.S. national security interests — but only if we act quickly.

The improved security situation has filled Mogadishu with new life. Somalis can once again play music and dance, activities banned by terrorist group Al-Shabab, which until recently controlled much of the country. Crowds of people fill the streets, socializing and shopping.

Somali-Americans from my district in Minnesota are starting businesses and buying real estate. And a new generation of Somalis from the global diaspora is returning. One of them started Somalia’s first think tank, the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies. Another woman left her high-paying job on Wall Street to help build up Somalia’s financial sector from scratch.

These positive developments are largely a result of Somalia’s successful political transition last year. After many failed attempts, Somali leaders completed a process that produced the first representative, permanent government since the fall of Siad Barre’s regime in 1991.

Somalia now has a new constitution, parliament and president. In a strong vote of confidence, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton formally recognized the new government when President Hassan Sheik Mohamud visited Washington in January. Mohamud also met with President Obama and more than 20 members of Congress.

Nonetheless, Somalia’s new leaders face challenges that would be difficult even for an experienced, well-resourced government. Ministries are nonexistent or understaffed; there is no public education or established banking system; more than a million people are displaced, and security threats remain serious. However, even the pessimists can no longer say that Somalia is hopeless.

The new government is populated with public servants who want Somalia to succeed. President Mohamud made clear at his meeting on Capitol Hill that security is his top priority. His government must quickly move into areas liberated from Al-Shabab and prove that government can be a force for good, not just a source of corruption and oppression. It can do that by providing basic public services, including trash pickup, transportation, education and a functioning judicial system.

The United States has an opportunity to make an investment in Somalia that could pay huge dividends over time.

There is more.

New Zealand an asylum magnet now; Amnesty International takes opportunity to tighten screws

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Sri Lankan young male migrants aboard boat flying the flag of New Zealand: Let us in! Photo / Perth Sunday Times

The news from New Zealand this week is that a boatload of illegal aliens was found off the coast of Australia and its Sri Lankan “asylum seekers” on board held up a sign saying they wanted to go to New Zealand.  Now the new controversial agreement between the two countries will be tested (see our February post).

The Refugee Council of New Zealand says the policy will make New Zealand a magnet.  Kinda like Malta (or America for that matter) is a magnet (when a country doesn’t immediately send them back, it becomes a magnet).    Here is the story from The New Zealand Herald:

The arrival in Australia of a fishing boat, overcrowded with suspected asylum seekers appearing to have been headed for New Zealand, is the result of a deal formed between the two countries, says a refugee expert.

New Zealand has become “a magnet” for asylum seekers since an agreement was formed between the two countries earlier this year, said Refugee Council of New Zealand spokesman Gary Poole, who was critical of the agreement.

The boat believed to have travelled from Sri Lanka with 66 passengers holding a sign saying “We want to go to New Zealand” was spotted off the coast of Geraldton, about 400km north of Perth in Western Australia yesterday.

In February, Prime Minister John Key and his Australian counterpart Julia Gillard announced a deal in which New Zealand would accept 150 Australian-approved refugees each year.

It was at no extra cost to New Zealand, because the 150 will come out of New Zealand’s existing annual 750 refugee quota and would give access to Australian intelligence and other resources to disrupt and intercept people-smuggling, Mr Key said at the time.

However, Mr Poole said the arrival of the boat in Australia reflected Mr Key’s “bad decision” to enter the agreement, which he said was attracting more asylum seekers to this part of the world. [This Poole fellow sounds pretty sensible for someone in the refugee business—ed]

“This is precisely what we predicted. Unfortunately what our Government has done is they’ve actually fed into the whole problem in Australia.”

No boat has ever made it to New Zealand and it was unlikely to because of “treacherous” conditions in the Tasman Sea.

“But what it’s done, it’s now acting as a magnet, the particular policy, because he’s now accepting 150 out of their camps. We’ve become part of Australia’s problem,” said Mr Poole.

New Zealand only takes 750 “refugees” a year, and has said that 150 they will take from Australia is included in the 750.  Did you notice that the Rohingya in my previous post have their sites set on New Zealand?  The word spreads fast among the asylum-seeker enablers and coaches (the NGOs!).

Frankly, there is no end to this—once a Western country becomes “welcoming” the word is out and one day the illegal migrants trying to escape the hell-holes of their own countries (often Muslim ones!) will sink Western civilization.

Amnesty International New Zealand, taking advantage of the situation with the boatload of migrants from Sri Lanka, says New Zealand must take more!

Up until now New Zealand has capped its generosity at 750 refugees, but that won’t last for long because we also see this week that Amnesty International is tightening the screws on them.

Here is the report from News 3 New Zealand.  LOL!  How do you like that barbed wire photo to illustrate the story? Let the bullying for more refugees begin:

Amnesty International says New Zealand needs to up the number of asylum seekers it takes in each year, following the arrival of a boatload of Sri Lankans in Western Australia.

[….]

New Zealand’s annual refugee quota is 750, which from next year includes up to 150 who arrive in Australia by boat. Mr Bayldon (Amnesty New Zealand) says this is “tiny” compared to Australia’s 20,000, and New Zealand should be taking in more.

For new readers:  We don’t have a category on New Zealand (yet), but you can find a catalog of Australia’s problems with illegal immigration, here, in our Australia category (95 posts).

Rohingya Muslims: Australia’s next big problem (and our’s too!)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

They say they are trying to get to Australia, the US or Canada, even New Zealand—where they believe they will be “welcomed.”   (Sounds like they have already learned the refugee industry lingo!)

Tell me, when you read this story, does this ring true—how does a poor and downtrodden 26-year-old man (who has been on the run for 11 years already) “scrape together $12,000” to hire a people smuggler?   Something is fishy here—who is paying the advance guard?  Could it be the Saudi Arabia-based OIC? (See yesterday’s post).  

Buddhist monks stand up to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation last October. Want to keep it out of Burma! Reuters photo

Here is the story from The Australian:

TWO years ago the Indonesian office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees had fewer than 50 Rohingya asylum-seekers on its books. Today there are more than 800, and nearly all are trying to get to Australia.

“Some of my friends have gone to Australia already and after two or three years they get citizenship,” Feazel Ali tells The Australian. “Finally they can live in peace.”

Ali left Myanmar in 1994 and lived in Malaysia for 13 years before he, his wife and five children took a boat to Sumatra two months ago, hoping somehow to get a passage to Australia.

“Australians have pity for refugees, but actually anywhere that wants to accept us, I wouldn’t mind,” he says.

“I want to work. I want my children to have a high school education.”

Like many other asylum-seekers, he clings to the illusion that Australians would welcome his family, if only they knew his people’s plight. The reality is, as refugee officials say privately, no government wants the Rohingya, who are commonly described as among the most persecuted people in the world.   [The media doesn’t tell you that it isn’t because they are poor, it’s because they have a history of violence and connections to Islamic terror groups, aside from the fact that many believe they are simply illegal aliens who went Burma from Bangladesh initially.—ed]

Most of the dark-skinned Shia Muslim asylum-seekers who have reached Indonesiaare in immigration detention at Belawan, North Sumatra, or under UNHCR care in the community in nearby Medan.

Elsewhere in Indonesia they barely attracted notice until March 5, when men in the Belawan centre turned on 11 Burmese Buddhist fishermen and murdered eight of them.

The victims had been arrested for fishing illegally off Aceh last July and were vastly outnumbered by more than 100 Rohingyas.  [This is not helping the Rohingya image being crafted by the NGOs!—ed]

Festering camps:

Refused citizenship in their western Burma homeland, Rohingyas have long posed a huge refugee challenge to Bangladesh and Thailand, where more than 400,000 people live in festering border camps.

[…..]

At least 130 Rohingyas have been detained in the past eight days trying to get to Australia – 95 of them in two boats that were also carrying Bangladeshis, Iranians and Iraqis.

Refugee officials say almost all the Rohingyas interviewed in Indonesia are trying to get to Australia, though most would be happy with a visa for Canada, the US or New Zealand – other countries they believe would be welcoming.

Mark my words!  Rohingya will be the next Somalis coming to a town near you!

For more, visit our Rohingya Reports category where we have been archiving stories on the growing Rohingya problem for the last five years.  We have 140 previous posts on the festering issue and the media campaign to soften-up the West to “welcome” Rohingya.

Syrian Islamist: Kill Buddhists in Burma!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Religion of Peace directs us to this story at NOW News:

Jihadists don’t much like monks because monks are willing to stand-up for their religion. Note the “no OIC” on this banner—brave, very brave!
AP Photo/Khin Maung Win

Syrian Islamist have been attempting to smuggle Muslim extremists into Myanmar, a Syrian Islamist source told NOW.

According to the source, “many attempts have been made to send Jihadists to Myanmar for the sake of our brothers.”

“Contacts with Islamist groups in Pakistan, India and other surrounding countries are being made in order to facilitate their entry into Myanmar.”

The source, however, added that “these attempts have failed.” [so they say—ed]

Speaking to NOW, Salafist Sheikh Bilal al-Masri called on Muslims to attack Buddhists and their interests.

“I decree that every person who can get to a Buddhist should kill him because they are killing our people and the Muslims cannot be blamed for their reaction.”

So why do we care?  We care because your local friendly Catholic Charities would like nothing better than to add more Rohingya Muslims from Burma (aka Myanmar) to their diversity-is-beautiful collection of refugees for your multi-culty edification.  And, we need to be informed about who we are “welcoming” in the next batch of poor and downtrodden Burmese just yearning for a better life.

See our Rohingya Reports category with our 139 previous posts on this topic.

Related update:   Here is a report on those eight Buddhist fishermen beaten to death by Rohingya in a detention center in Indonesia.

Refugees “just dumped off” in Chattanooga; try to communicate with neighbors

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This must be refugee-news-story-dump day.  Just when I have other things I have to do, and thought I could get away from the computer, along comes one more story that should be posted today (hat tip to a friend from TN).

From the Times Free Press:

Evariste Simbananiye has a furnished apartment but prefers squatting on the floor. Photo: Dan Henry

Evariste Simbananiye lives in a fully furnished apartment in Boynton Terrace but prefers squatting, as he did in his native Burundi, to sitting in a chair.

Simbananiye, 64, is among a handful of refugees from at least three countries who live in or near the public housing facility. They’ve been there since 2007, but Boynton residents say some refugees still don’t have the support they need to adjust to a new culture and language.

Another Burundi refugee has had so many apartment fires that some residents say he shouldn’t use the stove. Instead of using a pot or pan to hold his cooking food, he holds it directly over the electric burner, much as he would have done with a fire in his homeland.

Before coming to the United States under a federal resettlement program, these refugees may only have known life in a refugee camp. Once here, they often cling to their old way of life because they can’t communicate well enough to understand and adapt to cultural differences.

“They were brought here and just dumped off,” said Bennie Haynes, president of the Boynton Terrace Resident Council.

The result can be friction with neighbors, and even public safety or health problems.

One of the things Boynton Terrace residents say needs to be communicated is not to use the bathroom in public places like the elevator.

So, I wonder why Bridge Refugee Services is closed (did the State Department shut them down? hmmmm!)

Two people from Burundi and one from the Sudan live in Boynton Terrace, said Haynes. Two families from Cuba and another from the Ukraine live in Boynton or other public housing buildings, according to Bridge Refugee Services.

The federal program to relocate refugees has closed, so no more are expected to come, said Marina Peshterianu, coordinator of Bridge Services.

Thousands of refugees fled war-torn Burundi in 1972. Some spent 30 years in refugee camps before being resettled here and elsewhere.

Between 2005 and 2008, Bridge brought about 80 of the Burundian refugees to Chattanooga.

Most have since relocated to other areas, said Peshterianu.

Simbananiye is 64 years old, has been here for going on 6 years, is unemployed and can’t speak English!!!!  He obviously lives off of the kindness of the US  and Tennessee taxpayers!

So, I guess one day we will be paying for his nursing home care too and the poor nurses won’t understand what the heck he is saying.  So much for Christian charity brought to you by Church World Service!

Endnote:  Back in 2007, Bridge, a subcontractor of CHURCH WORLD SERVICE, was the subject of one of the first posts I wrote at RRW and it was about the agency filing a lawsuit (with CAIR and the ACLU) to block the FBI from getting some information it wanted on Iraqi refugees who had passed through Tennessee.