Month: August 2013

Mohamed passing through Romania on his way to Iowa

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We knew about this facility in Timisoara, Romania, and probably wrote about it before, but this is just one more piece in understanding the UN pipeline of Muslims to America and the West.  Where are they picking up these “refugees”—some from Yemeni jails!

2009 ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the Timisoara Emergency Transit Center. Eritreans from Libya are among those flowing through the UN facility to the US and other Western countries.

Mohamed is going into the welcoming bosom of Catholic Charities, now (since 2010) the only resettlement agency in Iowa. Will he be resettled in Des Moines where he will add to “Iowa’s cultural tapestry.”

From Reuters:

TIMISOARA, Romania, 15 August (UNHCR) – After almost two years in a harsh desert camp on the Egyptian-Libyan border, Mohamed arrived in Timisoara’s Emergency Transit Centre. Although the ETC is only a temporary stop while Mohamed, a 28-year-old Sudanese, and other refugees await moves to new homes in other countries, it is a welcome santuary.

“I was so happy to get here,” said Mohamed, a former veterinary student forced to leave his family behind in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan. “I felt safe! There is water, food and a peaceful place to sleep.”  [Sure, he was probably coached to say a profession that would soften up Americans—a vet—my foot!—-And, besides as a Muslim aggressor, this Mohamed was part of the reason there is war in Darfur—ed]

Timisoara gives refugees more than life’s necessities. Mohamed now attends UNHCR-funded English classes in preparation for his imminent resettlement to the U.S. state of Iowa.

The ETC is a safe-haven where refugees are assured six-months protection while they complete the procedures necessary for resettlement, including interviews with officials from countries accepting them; providing photographs and fingerprints; undergoing medical checks and psychological counselling; and learning the languages of their new homes.

A former prisoner in Yemen, Ali Osman, is going to Finland:

Ali Osman, a 20-year-old Eritrean, spent two terrifying years in a Yemeni jail with other Eritreans for illegal entry before UNHCR was able to gain their release. “I was in prison with murderers,” Ali said as he headed to a Finnish class to prepare for a new life in the Nordic country.

Photo is from this story in 2009.

Big day in Nashville tomorrow; open-borders cabal furious; beat war drums

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As we reported earlier, tomorrow is the first meeting of a special committee of the Tennessee legislature to begin to address the state’s rights under the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution.  In terms everyone understands, the first order of business is to address the problem of the federal government and its private contractor (Catholic Charities in this case) dumping the cost of taking care of refugees on the backs of the taxpayers of Tennessee.

Avi Poster: Diversity of cultures (Somalis and Kurds) make Tennessee beautiful.

Now the Open Borders activists in the city of Nashville are coming out of the woodwork to try to drum-up opposition and rally their troops to battle for tomorrow’s first meeting of the committee.    Below is Avi Poster, a Chicago transplant and community organizer, with an action alert to his followers.

We first came across Poster in 2009 when RRW went to Nashville for a weekend conference on Islam and Poster’s sidekick, Tom Negri, who managed the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel broke the contract with the organizing group fearing violence, or so Negri said.  A few days after the conference was successfully held in a “welcoming” hotel (with no violence, I might add!), Negri and Poster held a press conference in support of “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” here in the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel.

Avi Poster to his network about tomorrow:

 I hope this message finds you all well. I’ll be brief…

This Wednesday, state representatives will hold a public hearing on refugee resettlement in Tennessee. The hearing was organized by the same handful of anti-immigrant/anti-Muslim/anti-refugee state legislators we so often hear from during the legislative session (Rep. Joe Carr and Re. Judd Matheny to name a few). Their goal is to spread misinformation about the costs of refugee resettlement with the end goal of ending all refugee resettlement in Tennessee. The event is titled “Federal Cost Shifting of Refugee Resettlement.”

Last legislative session, some anti-refugee leaders introduced HB1326/SB1325, which would have required the Tennessee Office of Refugees and any refugee resettlement organization that receives federal funding to reimburse the state for the “cost” of refugees. It was mean-spirited and clearly an attack on refugee communities, and it went nowhere. The bill was sent to “summer study” to die, but has found new life in this public hearing which is lop-sided with anti-refugee advocates.

Helping people get back on their feet after they’ve escaped war or famine is one thing that makes our country, and this state, great. The refugees that have moved to Tennessee, from Kurdistan, Somalia, and elsewhere, are fully contributing members of our community – owning businesses, showing leadership in our neighborhoods, and adding to the diversity of cultures that makes Tennessee beautiful.

We need to fill the room on Wednesday and make our voice heard. Attacking people who are fleeing hard times is pretty low – we need to show these legislators we won’t stand for it. [Community organizers, like Poster, are one-trick ponies!  Demanding financial accountability is code for xenophobia, don’t you know!–ed]

Can you be there?

This Wednesday, August 21st at 9:00am. Room 16 Legislative Plaza. We are meeting outside security at 8:15am.
If you are able to go, email Eben Cathey at eben@tnimmigrant.org or call him at 615-775-1069.

Thanks,
Avi (and Eben)

Wish I could be there as Tennessee takes the lead in demanding accountability from the federal government.  Please let your friends know what Tennessee is doing!

See our category on Nashville, here, with 55 previous posts about the “cultural diversity” Catholic Charities and the US State Department have brought to Tennessee (on your dime!).

Manchester, NH mayor: resettlement contractor breaks promise

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The International Institute of New England (also a Limon family enterprise) says they never intended to slow the flow of refugees to overloaded Manchester beyond one year.  Readers new to Refugee Resettlement should know that resettlement occurs on a fiscal year basis that begins on October 1 and runs to September 30th of the following year.

That means that there will be a big push from now to the end of September to get large numbers of refugees distributed to your towns and, then starting October 1, they will be working to fulfill the President’s determination (his wishlist!) for the number to be resettled in FY 2014.   (Remember when so many of you testified to the State Department back in May, that was to get your input, which will be generally ignored, to the plan for 2014.)

From the Manchester Union Leader (hat tip: Joanne):

International Institute’s Benedict-Drew: No deal for FY2014!

Another 200 refugees will be resettled in Manchester in the coming months, a number that Mayor Ted Gatsas said breaks an agreement he had reached with a refugee resettlement organization.

However, the International Institute of New England said the agreement was only for a 12-month period that lapses next month. And the projection for the coming 12 months — 200 refugees for Manchester — is the same as the current period. An additional 50 will be placed in Nashua.

Carolyn Benedict-Drew, the director of the Boston-based International Institute of New England, said the refugees entering New Hampshire starting in October will most likely be Bhutanese and Iraqis.

They are really brazen about it—-turning refugees into VOTERS and turning red states blue!

Benedict-Drew said Bhutanese started settling in Manchester in 2008, and the first wave are in the pipeline to become citizens, about 300.

“These are going to be voting members of our community who will be building the economic base in New Hampshire,” Benedict-Drew said.

Report from USCRI (Lavinia and Peter Limon) says Manchester has lots of taxpayer supported health-care goodies for refugees including mental health and HIV/AIDs treatment:

A recent report by the International Institute of New Hampshire prepared for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants said that the state’s two largest cities have a favorable economic forecast, medical clinics and facilities to treat refugees with mental health and physical problems, including HIV/AIDs, and access to state funding for English classes.

Mayor Gatsas says he still wants a moratorium and is following what is going on in Springfield, MA.

The abstract report described Gatsas as neutral on the additional 200 refugees.

But Gatsas said that’s not the case, and he continues to favor a moratorium on refugee resettlement. He noted the Democratic mayor of Springfield, Mass., has asked for a moratorium.

Benedict-Drew:  We call the shots, not the duly-elected Mayor

Benedict-Drew said the agreement only covered the current year.

“There was never an agreement for more than one year,” she said. “We honored it for one year.

So why are the contractors so unwilling to give Manchester a break.

First, they are driven by an agenda that includes diminishing the role of states (under the 10th Amendment) and bringing immigrant voters to traditionally conservative cities and states.  But on a practical level, they are paid by the head to resettle refugees and the various contractors are competing against each other to get their share of the clients (aka refugees).   If an agency can’t resettle a certain number of refugees, they will have to close offices and reduce staff.

Once they find a community into which they can pour the poor, they are reluctant to give it up.   Additionally, they are paid by the head to bring family members to join the relatives already in the ‘seed’ community.  Last year’s resettled Burmese, Somalis, etc. want to bring their extended family to join them and the contractors want to oblige them by placing them in the same town.

That’s why, if you don’t have refugees yet, but there is some word you might get some, raise questions in the local media right away.  I call that the squawk factor, if the feds and the contractors get the idea that the squawking (really the questioning) is not going to stop they will move on to a more “welcoming” target city.

Oops!  Update!  One more thing, go here Arrivals by Destination City by Nationality by FY as of July 31, 2013 to see what nationalities and how many refugees Manchester (or your city) has taken since 2001.

Thailand: Rohingya cry, put on act, when press is around

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update August 21:  86 “asylum-seeking” Rohingya break out of Thai detention facility and are on the run, here.

I’ve been ignoring the news lately in Asia about the Rohingya Muslims (so busy reporting on the flood of asylum-seekers in Europe and the US) which have been streaming out of Burma and Bangladesh trying to get to Australia and elsewhere and are ending up in Thailand where they are not “welcome.”

Rohingya boat people (mostly men) arrive on Phuket in January of this year. Photo: (EPA, Yongyot Pruksarak)

This is just a quick update from Phuket Gazette.  Seems they rioted and destroyed their detention facility earlier this month.

PHUKET: Deputy Interior Minister Wisarn Techathirawat says the presence of the media encourages Rohingya refugees to “act-up in front of the camera” in order to get sympathy.

Mr Wisarn was at the Phang Nga Immigration center yesterday to inspect the facility, following a Rohingya riot there earlier this month.

“The media often knows that the Rohingya are arriving even before the police do,” he said.

“And when the media are present, the Rohingya cry and put on a performance designed to get sympathy. When the media are not present, they act normally, and even seem to enjoy their interaction with the officers,” he said.

The “feigned pitifulness” of the Rohingya reported by the press is giving Thailand a bad name, Mr Wisarn said.

He called for special measures to be taken to find the Rohingya places to live, and said that government parties and officials must do more to respond to the needs of Rohingya refugees.

The rebellion at the Phang Nga Immigration center on August 8 occurred at the end of the Muslim fasting month, when refugees asked to be able to pray together and were refused (story here). The men, detained in cramped conditions for months, became enraged and damaged their detention cells as they tried to break out.

The rioting was contained, and subsequently, 261 men were transferred to police stations in Phang Nga; 24 remained at the Phang Nga Immigration center.

Just a reminder and for the benefit of new readers, Rohingya are being resettled in the US, Canada and Europe.  The numbers are small so far but the “humanitarian lobby” is pushing for the West to take more.

We have an entire category going back almost 6 years on the Rohingya, click here to learn more.

Swiss doing DNA tests on “refugees” to determine family relationships

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We, in the US, are supposed to be doing this too—DNA testing Somalis and others from certain countries to see if they are really related to the “family” member they are seeking to join. 

I doubt we are doing it much.

In 2008 the US State Department closed family reunification for years due to the widespread fraud discovered in the program.  It has only recently been reopened supposedly with the protection of some DNA testing.

In a follow-up to the widely read story we posted regarding new get-tough policies in Switzerland, here is news that some cantons in the country are requiring DNA testing to see if “refugees” are lying and claiming kinship where none exists.

From Press TV:

Certain Swiss Cantons are demanding systematic DNA tests on asylum-seekers who seek to be reunited with family members living in Switzerland.

Iris Rivas, head of migration services in the canton of Bern, said that the reason for DNA tests are that official papers from several countries are easily forged, Swiss newspaper Schweiz Am Sonntag reported Sunday.

“Identity papers or birth certificates must be considered as suspect” when presented by people seeking residence under the family reunification program, Rivas said.

The demand is also supported by the canton of Lucerne’s migration chief Alexander Lieb, who said, “Identity control in the case of family reunification is too lax.”

Under current Swiss law, DNA tests are allowed on a case-by-case basis when there is serious doubt that a claimant belongs to the same family.

Meanwhile, Switzerland has recently come under fire for its treatment of asylum seekers, including segregation and poor living conditions.

Police dismantled a protest camp this week at the Solothurn train station in the northwestern part of the country, where a group of ten asylum seekers protested against their living conditions in a subterranean bunker, describing it as “unworthy of a human being.”

The decision to end the rally was taken after police feared the demonstrators would be attacked by local residents who were outraged by the protest.