Month: October 2013

St. Louis: International Institute surprisingly truthful about its federal funding

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Senior VP says shutdown will sully our reputation around the world!

Not surprisingly the shutdown of the US government, that will soon be two weeks old, is causing havoc for contractors including those nine big federal refugee resettlement contractors who frankly could not survive without your tax dollars.

LeLaurin: We get most of our funding from the federal government!

Here is a new boo-hoo story, this time from Voice of America.  Previously we heard a similar tale of woe (here) also from St. Louis.

As is the case with most formulaic refugee stories, it begins with a some sad refugees, but part way through we have a spokeswoman from the International Institute of St. Louis (a subcontractor of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants), giving us a frank recitation of their problem.

From VOA (emphasis is mine):

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI — The U.S. government shutdown has temporarily frozen resettlement of refugees in some parts of the United States. Dozens from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East who hoped to arrive in the Midwest state of Missouri in October are in limbo abroad. Family members anxiously awaiting their arrival fear the longer the shutdown goes on, the less likely they will reach their destination.

Read about the unhappy refugees, then here is Suzanne LeLaurin:

“This is not healthy for our country,” said Suzanne LeLaurin, senior vice president at the International Institute, the non-profit group providing the travel funds for Subba’s parents and 34 more refugees – from Iraq, Somalia, Cuba, Burma, and Eritrea. Now, all are in limbo. “It’s not healthy for our reputation around the world, and I think that all of us would wish that Republicans and Democrats alike would sit down and come to an agreement and get the government back in business.”

“We get most of our funding from the federal government, maybe 60 to 70 percent, mostly because of our refugee resettlement services,” said LeLaurin.

She said more is at stake than just resettlement. The support system that helps refugees once they arrive in the U.S. also depends on federal funds. Everything from rent, utilities, and food to staffing the International Institute is at risk as the shutdown continues.

I can’t resist checking these “non-profit” groups’ Form 990s which they file with the IRS.  The most recent one available for the International Institute of St. Louis is here.  When you go to page nine, note that they took in $4.3 million that year (rounded number) and a whopping $3.7 million came from “government grants.”  In fact that is 86% from taxpayers!  It is possible that all of their government grants are not federal; perhaps there is some state and local dollars in the mix which would maybe make LeLaurin’s estimate of 60-70% accurate.

And when she says staffing will be affected if the slowdown continues, you bet it will with over $2 million of their budget going to salaries and benefits!

At what point is an organization no longer a private non-profit and is instead a government agency subject to scrutiny by elected officials and citizens?  That is what I would like to know!

For new readers, you might want to check our St. Louis archive and be ready to be shocked about all the problems there with refugee issues.

Surprise! Bulgaria finds “threat to national security” in refugee influx

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
So is Turkey facilitating the movement of Islamists into Bulgaria?

We told you previously (here) that Bulgaria is having a hell of a problem with mostly Syrian ‘asylum seekers’ flooding into the country from Turkey!

As Bulgarian citizens have suspected, some of the ‘downtrodden’ are likely Islamic terrorists in refugee clothing.

Here is the story at novinite.com (Sofia news agency).  Emphasis below is mine:

There are four persons among the refugees on Bulgarian territory suspected to be a possible threat to national security, says Interior Minister, Tsvetlin Yovchev.

The Minister explained these individuals are accommodated in secured facilities in awaiting the appropriate procedures for their extradition, already undertaken by the authorities.

Yovchev did not specify their native countries, but noted the well-known fact that the majority of the refugees are from Syria.

He explained that in 2013 Bulgaria has improved the pace of extradition of foreign suspects.

[…..]

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

Readers, the other day, here, we were reminded by Britain’s Independence Party leader, Gerard Batten, that legitimate refugees are to seek asylum in the first safe country in which they land (it is not supposed to be a shopping expedition for the country of one’s choice!).  So the question is–-is Turkey letting them waltz right through their safe country and exit out the other side?

I hope readers here are not getting weary of all of our posts on Europe recently, but in my mind the Muslim invasion of Europe holds lessons for all of us concerned with the preservation of Western civilization.

Next!  A post on the US and more on how the refugee program is being slowed by the government shutdown.  Update:  Here it is.

Another boat carrying illegals sank in Mediterranean on Friday

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This one was launched from Egypt.  Note in my previous post, about the other sinking on Friday, that the graphic we found doesn’t even show launches from Egypt.  And, this story, with a death toll of a meager twelve illegal aliens (compared to the two recent sinkings) wouldn’t be post-worthy except for the mention of who the migrants are (or at least the living ones that have been interviewed).

From Reuters at NBC:

Twelve people died when a boat carrying illegal migrants and Syrian refugees sank off Egypt’s northern coast on Friday, security and medical sources said.   [And, if one is Syrian apparently one is not also an illegal migrant—ed]

“The Egyptian coast guards saved 72 Palestinians, 40 Syrians and four Egyptians,” one security source said. The circumstances of the accident and the nationalities of the deceased were not yet known.

Palestinians!

We are accustomed to hearing about the Africans and more recently the Syrians trying to get into Europe, but Palestinians!  Are these asylum seekers or invaders?

More migrants die yesterday trying to get to Europe from North Africa

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Map is a little outdated, but still gives you an idea of where the migrants are coming from in Africa, and roughly how many.

There has been a second fatal boat sinking in the Mediterranean as “asylum seekers” attempt to escape the lawlessness and economic decay of North Africa (and Syria!).

Just 8 days ago, hundreds perished off Lampedusa, here.

Update October 13th:  Another boat sank on Friday carrying mostly Palestinians, here.

It is my observation that the number of boats carrying hundreds of migrants has increased dramatically since the highly touted Arab Spring got underway.  And, one wonders why European and American powers (who cheered-on the Arab Spring and helped overthrow Gaddafi in Libya) can’t get at the source of the problem (the crime!) in Africa.

Most news accounts of the quandary faced by European countries on the receiving-end of the migrant tide, directs the responsibility to find a solution on to European citizens to “welcome” the largely economic migrants instead of getting at the root problem in Africa and stopping the boats from launching there.

It almost makes me wonder if there aren’t ‘powers that be’ in the West who want the immigrant tide to continue.

I have never seen a single word in the press I follow on the Mediterranean boat people crisis that suggests attacking the problem in Africa, except of course that the West must help financially fix Africa.

Here is the latest news.  This boat carrying 250 sank in waters patrolled by Malta.  No nationalities of the deceased have been mentioned yet.

From the Irish Independent:

A boat packed with an estimated 250 refugees and migrants has capsized in the middle of the Mediterranean, just a week after a similar accident off the Italian island of Lampedusa left more than 300 people dead.

At least 200 people were reported to have been thrown into the sea after the boat tipped over yesterday and corpses were reportedly floating in the water.

According to Italian media reports, at least 12 people died in the incident and 50 are still missing, among them children, but up to 200 people have been rescued.

[….]

The capsizing happened around 60 miles south of Lampedusa, in waters where Malta has search and rescue responsibilities.

Malta immediately requested Italian assistance in going to the aid of the migrants.

[….]

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 32,000 have arrived in southern Italy and Malta this year alone, around two thirds of whom have filed requests for asylum.

In a dark mood?  Read the 40-year-old prescient fictional work ‘The Camp of the Saints’ by French author Jean Raspail.  Raspail got one thing wrong—the continent—his third world invaders were coming from the Indian sub-continent so their voyage was longer.

Are your kids playing the UN’s “Against all odds” game?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This morning on my twitter feed the UNHCR was promoting a kid’s game—“Against all odds”—which I had never heard of.  Turns out they have been working on building “empathy” in your children worldwide since 2005 with this game to be used in classrooms.  The goal is for Western children to accept “integration” (note they always shun the word assimilation!).

See how clever this is!  The character here looks strikingly like the internationally popular Japanese animation—Anime!

Here is some of what ‘wikipedia’ says about it (emphasis mine):

Against All Odds is an Adobe Flash video game developed by UNHCR designed to teach players about the plight of refugees. Originally released in Swedish in 2005, the game has been translated into several languages, the English edition of which was released in November 2007.

Initial funding for the project came from a grant of NOK 1 million from Statoil to UNHCR’s Baltic and Nordic regional office, with the aim of developing a project to reach young people and promote integration in the region.

UNHCR decided to proceed the project as a web-based game, a medium which could reach a large number of young people, require no distribution costs and minimal marketing costs. The game was aimed at 12 – 15 year olds, an age where people began to develop ideas regarding refugees and similar issues.

In Against All Odds, the player takes the role of a refugee, and plays through twelve stages – depicting his persecution and flight from his native country, through to eventual integration into a foreign country as an asylum seeker.

In awarding a prize in Austria, a jury said this, according to wikipedia:

The jury praised the game for building understanding, empathy and concern for the plight of refugees in the player

Swedish young teens have had eight years of this indoctrination—-do you think it worked there?  See here and here.