Month: August 2013

Malta: Tanker stalemate ends with Italy taking the illegal aliens

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Liberian-flagged MT Salamis was kept from docking in Malta for nearly three days after picking up illegal aliens off the coast of Libya.

This is a story I’ve had in my queue for the last few days and didn’t get to because news is hopping all over the world on the asylum-seeker/refugee front.  So this morning I see the crisis has been averted by Italy agreeing to take its passengers—another batch of migrants.  American readers, please continue reading—this story involves you!

Malta told the tanker ‘no way’ were they entering Maltese waters with that cargo.

Here is the story from the Times of Malta:

A stand-off of almost three days ended early this morning when a tanker carrying 102 migrants lifted anchor and headed for Syracuse after having been blocked just outside Maltese waters on Sunday night.

The MT Salamis had rescued the migrants from a boat just 24 miles off Libya and had been heading for Malta when it was stopped from entering Maltese territorial waters. The government said the ship’s master had ignored orders by the Italian and Maltese rescue authorities to return the migrants to Libya.

Last night the government said Italy had accepted to take in the migrants, diffusing the situation after diplomatic contacts between Malta, Italy and Greece.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat thanked Italian Premier Entrico Letta and said his decision would continue to reinforce the good relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, a new group of 86 migrants arrived in Malta this morning after being rescued off the coast.

Visit the Times of Malta for more on this story.

Malta is under-going a boat people crisis as thousands of North African illegal aliens attempt to reach its shores.  The situation is growing worse and there is no doubt in my mind (after nearly 6 years following the Malta mess) that the increasing numbers arriving on the island nation are partially due to the US State Department transforming hundreds of them into “refugees” bound for America in what is surely a perversion of international refugee law.   True asylum seekers are expected to ask for asylum in the first safe country in which they land—-not shop for a country as is apparently also going to be encouraged in Papua New Guinea.

Malta in US propaganda!

Just a reminder that the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIARS) has produced a piece of propaganda using Malta.

I hate to give them any space here with their “Myth Buster” campaign being used in the US at the moment to shame Congress and the public into accepting more refugees and illegal aliens as the Gang of Eight bill progresses in Congress. See my earlier post on their campaign here.

Check out LIARS (formally LIRS, but a reader recently suggested a more appropriate acronym!) hand out implying that Malta is more generous than the US because it “resettles” more refugees per 1,000 sq. km. than any other country.  THESE ARE NOT REFUGEES, THEY ARE ILLEGAL ALIENS and poor Malta is trying to figure out how to stop them from coming and to keep them from staying!

I guess at some point I should go over the whole handout above and show you how LIARS (96% funded by US taxpayers) is twisting the facts on refugees with the help of the hard Left at the Center for American Progress.

Obama opens the gates to Syrians

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here they come—the first 2,000 Syrian refugees (some of the most difficult refugees in the world!) will be processed into the US in the coming months.

Yippee! We are coming to America!
Thank you President Obama!

We will be waiting to see if the US Catholic Bishops, Church World Service and the Lutherans demand that only the beleaguered Christians be allowed to enter.   (But, we won’t be holding our breath!)

From Foreign Policy (hat tip: a friend from Tennessee):

With conditions continuing to deteriorate in Syria, the Obama administration is making a major policy shift by agreeing for the first time to allow thousands of new Syrian refugees into the United States,The Cable has learned.

The numbers are relatively small: just 2,000 refugees, compared to an estimated two million peoplewho have fled Syria during the civil war. But it’s a significant increase from the 90 or so Syrian refugees who have been permanently admitted to the U.S. in the last two years. And it’s not entirely uncontroversial. The refugees, mostly women and children, will be screened for terrorist ties — a process that could take a year or more to complete.

Unlike previous efforts by the Department of Homeland Security to give temporary protected status to Syrians already in the United States, the State Department effort will bring in Syrians from overseas for permanent resettlement in America.

“Referrals will come within the next four months. We will need to interview people and perform security and medical checks,” Kelly Clements, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for Population, Refugees, and Migration, tells The Cable.

[…..]

By Clements’ own admission, given application processing times, “We’re not likely to see Syrian refugees into those numbers before well into 2014.”

Ah, the truth!

Despite their vulnerable condition, even the youngest of children will be thoroughly vetted to ensure they do not pose a national security threat. It’s not that they’re worried about infants enlisting in al Qaeda. The worry is that terrorist relatives can more easily enter the United States, once they have relatives in America. “Refugees are subject to an intensive security screening process involving federal intelligence, law enforcement, defense, and homeland security agencies,” a State Department official said. “The U.S. government makes every possible effort to uphold and enhance the security screening aspects of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. Refugees are among the most carefully screened of individuals traveling to the United States.”  [One day I’ll make a list of all the refugee terrorists and criminals that got through the screening!—ed]

Wow!  I didn’t know that Germany sends them back!

Other major resettlement countries, such as Germany, have pledged to bring in up to 13,000 refugees since the fighting began. However, unlike in the U.S., refugees to Germany are required to return after the fighting subsides. “We’re very proud of the fact that the U.S. judges applicants on need and seek out the most needy cases,” Erol Kekic, director of immigration at the Church World Service, tells The Cable.

If you are concerned about the Obama Syrian resettlement plan be sure to let your Senators and Member of Congress know of your concerns!

It’s yet to be seen if Congress will push back against the Obama administration’s acceptance of the Syrian refugees. (Ordinarily, the U.S. only admits refugees after a conflict has gone on for five years or longer.) Though the State Department’s refugee admission program is authorized by a presidential determination, it does involve consultation with Congress.  [Consultation is a joke!  Congress let’s them do whatever they want!—-ed]

For more, our complete Syrian refugee archive is here.

The photo is from this story.  They really aren’t saying yippee, but they could be!

Why is Catholic Charities calling the shots on the demographic make-up of Nashville?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Why?  Because the US State Department assigned the supposed non-profit that role after a foolish Governor gave it up.   Writer and Nashville resident Don Barnett tells us more about this stunning loss of state’s right in his opinion piece at The Tennessean today (posted below in its entirety).

Old graphic, but you get the point! Nashville (the home of country music) has more refugees than 29 other US states.

Be sure to have a look at my post in February, here, also about Nashville and how it’s all about turning ‘red’ states ‘blue.’

Barnett (emphasis mine):

At what level of taxpayer support for an entity do we stop calling that entity a “non-government organization” or a “religious nonprofit”?

Revenue in 2011 for Migration and Refugee Services, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) refugee contracting arm, was more than $72 million, about 98 percent of which came from the taxpayer in the form of government grants or federal contracts. Would it surprise anyone to find it subject to the same incentives and laws of behavior that have driven federal contractors since the birth of the republic?

USCCB’s main source of contracts and grants comes from refugee resettlement. The U.S. resettles nearly three times the refugees as the rest of the industrialized world combined, and the USCCB wants that number increased.

According to a recent report from the Washington think tank Migration Policy Institute (MPI), publicly funded private resettlement agencies, USCCB being the largest of nine, “meet with state and local agencies on a quarterly basis regarding the opportunities and services available to refugees in local communities and the ability of these communities to accommodate new arrivals. They also consult with the state refugee coordinator on placement plans for each local site. … If a state opposes the plan, the State Department will not approve it.”

A July 2012 GAO report was a little more real world than the MPI report stating that “Most resettlement agencies … consult with some public entities such as state refugee coordinators; however, most public entities such as public schools and health departments generally said that agencies notified them of the number of refugees expected to arrive in the coming year, but did not consult them regarding the number of refugees they could serve…”

Both reports assume a state government role in the resettlement process. The state refugee coordinator evaluates the plans of the private contractors, representing the interests of the taxpayer in the process. That’s the way it is supposed to work, in theory.

In Tennessee, however, the state refugee coordinator is an employee of Catholic Charities, an affiliate of USCCB. Resettlement of the U.N.-selected refugees is Tennessee Catholic Charities’ largest mission and largest revenue item by far.

In 2008, Gov. Phil Bredesen thought he was streamlining the process and saving money by outsourcing the state coordinator function to the contractor. Instead, he gave up the opportunity for the state to have any input in a process that affects the state and set up a textbook illustration of a conflict of interest.

The annual cost of the program to Tennesseans went up immediately after the state handed over the position of state refugee coordinator. Today, Metro Nashville alone resettles more refugees than each of 29 states in the U.S.

A bill introduced in the 2013 Tennessee legislature had the modest goal of requiring Catholic Charities to keep an accounting of the numbers of refugees it places into programs that carry a cost to the state taxpayer. TennCare, for instance, is about 30 percent funded by the state and most refugees are placed in TennCare upon arrival.

Opposition to the bill was led by none other than the state refugee coordinator, whose motto seems to be “the less the public knows about this, the better.” The bill was deferred for “summer study” where bills often die. In this case, however, it may well come up again.

Hopefully, the 2014 legislature will act to require the contractor to record at least a portion of the costs it is running up on the taxpayers’ tab. A reasonable next step is for Tennessee to reclaim the function of the state refugee coordinator. This office should be representing the taxpayer, not the interests of a private contractor.

Note to citizens elsewhere—-you should at minimum be demanding to know what refugees are costing your state for healthcare, food stamps, Section 8 housing, education and other social services.

Nashville is so significant that we have an entire category (53 previous posts!) devoted to the city and the problems there with refugee resettlement, click here.   Be sure to see some of the recent posts on how Nashville’s open borders advocates  are taking their Nashville game plan to other cities.

Switzerland bans asylum seekers from some public places

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Switzerland has started to house asylum seekers in underground bunkers on remote mountains. Credit: Ray Smith/IPS.

Switzerland has reached refugee overload and Swiss citizens are angry.   Human rights activists call them “racists” (so what else is new!) for wanting to restrict movement of asylum seekers.

From BBC:

Some Swiss towns plan to keep asylum-seekers away from public places such as swimming pools, playing fields and libraries, in a move human rights groups say is racist.

The curbs are aimed at preventing tensions with residents, officials say.

Asylum-seekers are to be housed in special centres, mainly former army barracks, and the first one has opened in the town of Bremgarten.

Switzerland’s share of asylum-seekers is well above the European average.

Asylum laws were tightened in June.

The BBC’s Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the controversy reflects growing voter unease at the number of asylum-seekers in Switzerland – per head of population, among the highest in Europe.

Currently about 48,000 people are seeking asylum in Switzerland.

[…..]

Roman Staub, mayor of the town of Menzingen, said asylum-seekers should be banned from “sensitive areas” such as the vicinity of a school. “This is certainly a very difficult area, because here asylum-seekers could meet our schoolchildren – young girls or young boys,” he said.

In Bremgarten, a church will also be off-limits to asylum-seekers.

Human rights groups are outraged, calling the measures racist….

Say good-bye to Europe.  New readers may want to peruse our previous 419 posts on Europe, here.

Photo and caption is from this article back in May.

Third country resettlement likely for Australia’s ‘asylum-seeking’ cast-offs!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Oh no!  This can only mean resettlement to the US and Canada.  Surely Europe, which is being swamped right now with illegal aliens claiming they are there seeking asylum, isn’t going to take Australia’s problems!

PNG official: Asylum-seeking boat people should get to live where they prefer!

Regular readers know that we have been following Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s scheme to send their mostly Muslim illegal migrants to Papua New Guinea (PNG).  Click here and here for a couple of posts on the policy.

Now comes news from officials in PNG that the ‘asylum seekers’ will only be in their rural country for a short time because after all they were looking for cities to live in and they should get to go to a country they “PREFER.“

The you-know-what would hit the fan if the US was taking large numbers of Australia’s aliens, but the average US citizen (or dumb Member of Congress) would not pay attention to “refugees” coming from PNG.

And, since the US State Department has already set a dangerous precedent by taking some of Malta’s illegal alien boat people to your towns and cities, they could hardly say no to PNG (and their minders at the UN!).

From the Herald Sun:

THE PNG government says it will work with the UN refugee agency to resettle asylum seekers to third countries that boat arrivals to Australia would “prefer.”

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s spokesman, Daniel Korimbo, said the country expected very few of the almost-2000 already eligible to be sent to PNG would remain there, despite the government doing an almost half billion dollar aid deal in return for resettlement.

Australia will also help PNG cope with West Papuan asylum seekers illegally entering the country, where there are up to 10,000 currently.

“There is an expectation some of them may eventually become refugees who will eventually reside here,” Mr Korimbo said yesterday.

“They chose to go to Australia and concrete buildings, they didn’t pick this subsistence life.

“PNG and the UNHCR will eventually resettle them or find a country which they would prefer.”

[…..]

According to Coalition figures, 50,032 people have arrived on 798 boats since Labor was elected in November 2007.

[…..]

Mr Abbott (Opposition leader) said proof that Mr Rudd’s PNG solution was not working came in the form of 26 boats with 1950 people arriving since it was announced.

Australian elections are next month!  Rudd needs to prove he can handle Australia’s thorniest problem—illegal immigration.

Yesterday reader Joanne sent me this post from Bare Naked Islam with photos of the poor and destitute Australian ‘asylum-seekers’ and they sure look like commandos for an invading army to me!