Day: November 12, 2013

Kenyan and Somali governments agree Somali refugees to be repatriated

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, the UN High Commissioner of Refugees is not happy and stresses that it be a “voluntary” return!

UNHCR tents at Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp. Tents should be easy enough to move back across the border into Somalia!

The September slaughter by Somali Islamic terrorists at the Westgate Mall appears to have been the final straw for welcoming Kenya.

Here is the story at Capital News (emphasis mine):

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 11 – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has stressed that the agreement for the repatriation of Somali refugees signed with the Kenyan and Somali governments on Sunday is based on the premise that the exercise will be voluntary.

In a press statement released on Monday, the UNHCR Representative in Kenya Raouf Mazou said, “It’s very important to underline that no one is forcing Somalis to leave Kenya.”

“The government and people of Kenya have tirelessly provided protection and assistance to Somali refugees for two decades. The agreement we signed on Sunday does not mean Kenya is no longer willing to do so,” he underscored.

[….]

Ever since Kenyan Defence Forces captured Kismayu, believed to be the operational centre of the Al Shabaab terrorists in Somalia, the Kenyan government has been pushing the UNHCR on the repatriation of Somali refugees.

The government has made it clear that the continued hosting of Somali refugees now comes at too high a cost given the spike in terror attacks on Kenya.

[….]

Being left without much choice the UNHCR now says it is focused on ensuring the repatriation exercise is carried out, “in safety and dignity.”

The agreement signed on Sunday will see the Kenyan and Somali governments as well as the UNHCR put in place a plan for the repatriation and reintegration of the Somali refugees housed in Kenya, establish how much that will cost and marshall those funds from the international community.

So, of course this means the US shouldn’t take another supposed Somali “refugee.”  Right!  In fact, it would be cheaper for America in the long run to help finance this repatriation then to take in thousands of needy Somalis as we did this past fiscal year.

Just a reminder, 7,608 new Somali refugees were resettled in the US in FY2013, here.

Saudis crack down on foreign laborers; bring out security forces; camels next?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Why the crackdown?  They don’t want the cheap foreign laborers competing with Saudi citizens for jobs, and they are concerned about the amount of remittances ($$$) being sent out of S.A. (take note Gang of Eight!).

So when does the camel crackdown begin?

Longtime readers know that we have often mentioned the fact that Saudi Arabia takes no refugees and immediately deports any who sneak into the country.

In this case, the foreign workers may, at one time, have had visas to work in S.A., but now they are given the boot.

From Reuters via Yahoo.news (emphasis mine):

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabian police clashed with foreign workers in a poor district of Riyadh on Saturday, nearly a week into a visa crackdown in which thousands have been detained and one man killed by police.

Security forces in riot gear fired into the air and used truncheons to disperse large crowds as scores of men ran through the streets, some throwing stones and other objects at cars and police, according to Reuters witnesses.

Two people were killed of which one was a Saudi while the other one was unidentified, the Saudi police said in a statement late on Saturday after it detained 561 people involved in the disturbances in the Manfuhah neighbourhood of southern Riyadh.

The police added that 68 people were injured.

Most of the foreign workers involved in the clashes appeared to be Africans.

In a previous statement, the police did not refer directly to Saturday’s clashes, or say how many had been injured or detained, but said that in light of “what has happened”, the authorities had designated a location for people to surrender voluntarily.

Authorities this year said they would no longer turn a blind eye to foreign workers breaking visa rules by working for companies that had not sponsored their entry into the world’s top oil exporter.

The intention is to end a black market for cheap imported workers, cut the foreign labour force, reduce the flow of remittances to other countries and make more private sector jobs available for Saudi citizens.

And, I bet there is some ethnic nationalism going on here too!

There is more, read it all.

Will the camel crackdown be next?

Meanwhile a Saudi camel has been found to carry the deadly MERS virus.  Imagine the problems ahead if the virus can move back and forth between the camel population and the human one.

From Breitbart:

The Saudi government said Monday that a camel has tested positive for MERS, in the first case of an animal infected with the coronavirus that has killed 64 people worldwide.

A camel owned by a person diagnosed with the disease had “tested positive in preliminary laboratory checks,” the health ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.

The ministry said it was working with the ministry of agriculture and laboratories to “isolate the virus and compare its genetic structure with that of the patient’s”.

Yikes! There might be as many as a million camels in S.A. says this wildlife website.

We have written about the MERS virus here and how it might threaten the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

Catholic group withdraws funding from YMCA over its affiliation with “refugee” group

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It is not often we see something like this from a Catholic group.

Catholic funding was withdrawn from the YMCA because the Y was affiliated with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights which is promoting gay marriage.

Readers should know that the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (like its partners in Tennessee (Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition) and Massachusetts (Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition)), is just basically a hard Left open borders community organizing group which has the word “refugee” in its title to give it cover for agitating on all sorts of Leftist goals.

Here is the story in Opposing Views (emphasis mine):

The YMCA at Illinois University at Urbana-Champaign is paying a hefty price for refusing to cut ties with a group that publicly supports gay marriage.

The Catholic Church gave the YMCA an ultimatum: stop working with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, or lose your $60,000 grant.

The YMCA’s director told WICD-15 that while they take no position on gay marriage, it is important for them to not allow anyone to influence who they work with.

The University Y board met several weeks ago and voted to remain in the coalition.

The University YMCA sponsors programs, organizations and organizations of all kinds. The Y’s director says their partnership with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights allows them to help “hundreds in the community each year.”

The University YMCA plans to launch a campaign to raise money to continue its work with the local immigrant community, according to the News-Gazette. The University Y has received money for immigration work from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development since 2010.

The initial grant was about $4,000 but increased this year to about $60,000. But the Church sent the Y a notice in September: in order to receive the funding, the University Y’s executive director, Mike Doyle, would have to testify that the organization was not involved with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.