Day: October 4, 2013

Bulgaria in crisis as Syrians flow in from Turkey, some fear terrorists are among them

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
For the longest time Muslim migrants moved from Turkey to Greece, but Greece has been tough on them, so I suspect they have now discovered the weaker border crossings into Bulgaria.

Update October 6th:  Refugees complain in Sofia.

I’ve been receiving alerts (dozens of them) about the refugee crisis in Bulgaria for weeks now, sorry I didn’t get to the story sooner.

A few days ago a reader sent me this BBC story about the head of Bulgaria’s refugee agency being fired because the problem is getting out of hand.  Bulgaria is the poorest nation in the European Union and has the misfortune of being on the border with Turkey which is apparently letting Syrians just pass through their borders and move on further into western Europe.

In my view, Turkey is simply advancing the Islamic doctrine of immigration (Al Hijra!).

From the BBC:

The head of Bulgaria’s refugee agency has been dismissed as the EU country struggles to cope with increasing numbers fleeing the conflict in Syria.

Nikola Kazakov was fired by Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev for failing to handle the influx.

The UN’s refugee agency last month described Bulgarian centres for displaced Syrians as “dire”.

Mr Kazakov said Bulgarian leaders had ignored his warnings of a refugee crisis even as they asked for EU help.

Bulgaria is the gateway to the European Union for refugees fleeing Syria via Turkey, many crossing the border illegally to seek asylum.

It now receives up to 100 mainly Syrian refugees a day – a sharp increase on the four per month arriving a year ago.

Bulgarian officials said on Wednesday that 2,377 migrants had been detained on its border in September alone.

Kazkov warned superiors in June of the pending crisis!

Mr Yovchev, the interior minister, said Mr Kazakov’s “inadequate organisation” was to blame for the problems at the country’s three refugee centres.

But Mr Kazkov insisted he had warned the government of an impending refugee crisis in June but was ignored, the Sofia News Agency reported.

The article is focused on the UN complaining that the refugees aren’t being well cared-for (what else is new!), and the Bulgarians are asking for help from the European Union (good luck with that!).  I’ve seen many articles in recent weeks about how the citizens of Bulgaria are furious about what is happening to them.

Last month Mr Youchev said more than 4,000 people were seeking asylum in Bulgaria, a number he called a “disproportionate burden” for the EU’s poorest nation.

He appealed for other EU states to host some of its refugees and provide financial assistance.   

Meanwhile a Bulgarian publication warns of the potential for terrorists to be among the refugees.

From the Standart (they need a little better English translator, but you will get the idea):

Some of the Syrian refugees in Bulgaria may be terrorists as Syria currently trains terrorists which it spreads around the world, terrorism expert Col Ivan Boyadzhiev told on Nova TV today citing two Israeli sources.

The expert supported his claim with the fact that some of the Syrain illegal border crossers to Bulgaria carry large amounts of cash and valid IDs.  [pay attention to this business about “refugees” with large amounts of cash—-ed]

According to Boyadzhiev, the Syrian terrorist cells are seeking less protected countries, as they get caught fast in the USA.  [I don’t know what that means, how many are getting into the US across our borders???—ed]

Th ecolonel noted that having a refugee shelter in the Sofia suburb of “Vrazhdebna” just ”meters away” from the Bulgarian capital’s airport was an ”alarming” idea.

Boyadzhiev also alerted that some Iraqis, Jordans and people from across the Middle East are trying to enter Europe through Bulgaria by presenting themselves as Syrian refugees without ID papers.  [We are hearing this all over the world even as far away as Australia!  Everyone is a Syrian now!—-ed]

He was also adamant, that Bulgaria needs European help in dealing with the current refugee situation which is runnining out of control.

It is definitely running out of control!

“Terrorism bars” could be hurdle to overcome for Syrian refugees to get into US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

You can bet the federal refugee contractors are working overtime to get Syrian groups exempted from “terrorism bars” that have helped slow the flow of certain groups of refugees to the US in recent years.

David Garfield of the Garfield Law Group: “For Syrians, I think it’s going to be a major problem.”

It’s ironic that as Obama sends weapons to Syrian ‘rebels,’ he is indeed creating more impediments to refugee resettlement.

Here is the story at Salon:

Authorized by Congress, the CIA has started sending weapons to Syrian rebels. But under a legal definition of terrorism adopted by the U.S. government after the Sept. 11 attacks, those same rebel groups are considered terrorist organizations.

The designation could prevent some of the more than 2 million refugees who have fled Syria from coming to the United States, even if they haven’t actually taken up arms against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Groups that appear on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations have long been banned from entering the U.S. But two antiterrorism laws, the Patriot Act and the Real ID Act, also bar members of armed rebel groups that aren’t specifically designated as terrorist organizations.

The provisions, sometimes known as terrorism bars, apply to all armed rebel groups — even ones the U.S. is actively supporting.

The bars also deny entry to anyone who has given any kind of “material support” — transportation, shelter, money — to such groups.

The U.S. has accepted only 64 Syrian refugees in the last two years, according to a State Department spokeswoman. But it’s unclear how many, if any, Syrians have run afoul of the terrorism bars to date.

US planning to take 2,000 Syrians in FY2014, the trick will be finding 2,000 with no affiliation to the rebel groups!

But the U.N. is preparing to resettle up to 2,000 Syrians in the coming months, said Larry Yungk, senior resettlement officer for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Washington, and the terrorism bars could be a hurdle to resettling them in the U.S.

Washington, DC immigration lawyer:  It is going to be a big problem!  The law does not differentiate terrorists by good terrorists (the ones we like) and bad terrorists (the ones we are opposing)!

David Garfield, a Washington lawyer who has represented immigrants caught up by the terrorism bars, was more blunt.

“For Syrians, I think it’s going to be a major problem,” Garfield said. “The thing about this law that’s so bizarre is that it doesn’t matter who you’re trying to overthrow.”

A U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman, Christopher Bentley, said in a statement to ProPublica that “any Syrians who do apply for refugee or asylum status could be subject” to the bars.

The Citizenship and Immigration website makes clear just how sweeping the laws are: “Significantly, there is no exception under the law for ‘freedom fighters,’ so most rebel groups would be considered to be engaging in terrorist activity even if fighting against an authoritarian regime.” The website also states that refugees can be barred for “providing food, helping to set up tents, distributing literature, or making a small monetary contribution” to rebel groups.

There is a lot more, read it all, including the lengthy discussion about getting exemptions from the “terrorism bars.”  And, note this:

Citizenship and Immigration would not say whether any exemptions for Syrian groups were in the pipeline.

I’ll betcha a buck that they are!

Photo is from Garfield’s immigration law group facebook page, here.