And, as we reported earlier, the US will be taking 50,000 (actually the resettlement is already underway).
1,811 (from DR Congo) have arrived so far this fiscal year. Check out the numbers herefor all nationalities arriving in 2013. Somalis are approaching the 5,000 mark as of June 30th.
New Congolese refugees waiting for space at new UN transit center. UNHCR photo
BUNDIBUGYO, Uganda, July 18 (UNHCR) – More than 14,000 Congolese refugees have moved voluntarily to a transit centre in western Uganda’s Bundibugyo district but tension is rising between locals and thousands of people still camped in a school closer to the border with Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The transit centre was opened last Sunday by the government and its partners, including UNHCR, to help cope with an influx last week of almost 70,000 Congolese refugees fleeing fighting across the border in North Kivu province between the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan rebel group, and the DRC armed forces. The centre is 30 kms from the border.
UNHCR staff in Bundibugyo said that 14,372 people had registered at the centre by early Thursday afternoon. They included at least 60 unaccompanied minors, mostly male…
Tensions building in the local community.
A bigger group of 20,000 to 30,000 peopleremain camped in and around Butogo Primary School located near the border. Many of these people wish to remain close to the border so that it will be easy to check on their homes and crops during daylight hours, but their presence has started causing tensions with the local community.
So, the “rebel” group—Allied Democratic Forces (“puritanical” Muslims, but the UN can’t say the word)—are on the move, and we will get the refugees to add to our unemployed and needy people in your city. I’ll bet you this project ends up involving a lot more than the proposed 50,000.
Sheesh, and I thought the burgeoning ‘unaccompanied minors program’ of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (in the US Dept. of Health and Human Services) only took in kids who had come across our borders or had been abandoned by their parents when the family came across the border. Now, we learn we are plucking ‘kids’ (16, 17, 18 year olds?) from camps elsewhere in the world, who supposedly have no parents/no family, and bringing them to the US. And, you are paying for this!
Linda Hartke, CEO of Lutheran Immigration Services, will help facilitate the Muslim “adoptions.”
I recently mentioned the astronomical size of this program, here, in my report on the Lancaster meeting, and wondered about the huge number of kids I thought were coming across the borders. Now we know they aren’t just ‘finding their way’ to the US on their own! And, notice the word “orphan” isn’t being used. This is what I learned in Lancaster:
In 2012, 14,700 kids arrived in the US without parents and in 2013 the number is expected to be 20,000.
It has been nearly six months since the U.S. Government launched the Action Plan on Children in Adversity at the White House. [here is a linkto the Obama Administrations Action Plan—ed]
[….]
The Action Plan represents the first-ever whole-of-government strategic guidance for the U.S. Government’s international assistance for children.
[….]
The Joint Council on International Children’s Services, a Virginia-based NGO has been working for decades on the pillar of advocating for children in family care – especially for those around the globe who may be growing up on the streets or in orphanages or other institutions.
[….]
In the greater Washington DC area, government agencies identify refugee youth overseas (often living in camps outside of their country of origin) who are eligible for resettlement but who do not have a parent or a relative in the US.Due to their age (under 18), these children are placed into the Unaccompanied Refugee Minors program and receive refugee foster care services and benefits. [Ahhhh! What about a parent or relative right there in the camp?—ed]
One of these benefits is placement in a compatible home with matching ethnicity, language, and religion where possible. The placing agencies are always seeking families to volunteer to help these teens by providing a home as they are receiving schooling (which may have been interrupted in their country of origin or while they were living in a camp) and be involved with their case-specific programs with an aim to helping them achieve eventual independence by their early 20s.
So we could see a youth of 17 or 18 (who says he has no parent) plucked from a refugee camp for Syrians brought to the US to be “adopted” by an American Muslim family and then when he turns say 21, he just becomes one more alien on the path to US citizenship who will also be able to bring in his family who will surely be ‘discovered’ at about that time!
And, to top it off, the family who “adopts” the teen gets paid by you—the American taxpayer—to care for the child! Some racket! And, look who is here—LIRS and the USCCB (getting paid to make the arrangements)!
The two leading placement organizations, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, are especially keen to work with the Muslim community in our area since it is likely they could find matches for many of the children enrolled in the program. Specialized training in helping these children adjust to their new life and situation is a part of becoming involved as is a background check. Financial support for participation is provided. [Yippee! They will get paid for their “charitable” work!—-ed]
I sure hope LIRS and the USCCB are doing some really good screening of American families—sure would hate to hear about a sexual abuse charge or a slavery charge (wasn’t it only a week or so ago a Saudi woman was charged with keeping aliens as slaves?)
Have a look at a recent Form 990for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, page 9. They had income in that year of $31,653,748 and, of that, you, the taxpayers of America, gave them $30,376,568. Their CEO makes $204,186 in salary and benefits. (Doing well, by doing good! Hartke’s bio is here.)
