Day: October 15, 2014

Rural Dutch province under siege with influx of asylum seekers; single African men a big problem

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is one more in our ‘invasion of Europe’ series….

Yesterday we told you about the English town of Middlesbrough and how residents there are struggling to cope with the flood of asylum seekers (Africans and Middle Easterners) in need of homes and services, today it is a rural region of the Netherlands feeling the strain.

 

Drenthe is a province in Holland known for its scenic beauty and outdoor recreation. http://www.nederlandfietsland.nl/en/cycling-province-of/drenthe

 

From Dutch News (hat tip: Diana).  They were filling up a vacation park.

Fewer asylum seekers will be placed in a holiday park in rural Drenthe than the 1,400 originally planned, officials have decided, after locals complained of being overwhelmed by so many people.

The Pipodorp park is currently home to 400 asylum seekers and the problems are being caused by a group of around 100 single men, many from Eritrea, Nos television said.  [The men all probably got into Europe as ‘boat people’ who then just made their way north.  They are supposed to stay in the first country they reach in Europe, but they don’t care about EU rules!—ed]

Locals have complained that minibuses they use to get around are now full of refugees and shop-keepers have spoken of 40 at a time turning up in the village shop. Oranje itself has a population of around 120.

Local mayor Jan Broertjes has now agreed with the national refugee placement agency COA that only families from Syria will be placed in the park. The men will be relocated later on Wednesday.

Wifi

The Oranje park will now be given security guards and wifi, so that residents no longer have to go into the village to use the internet.

There has been a surge in refugee numbers, particularly from Syria, in recent months. In the first six months of the year, some 12,300 people requested asylum in the Netherlands, double the 2013 figure.

Earlier, school chiefs said they were struggling to cope with the number of refugee children.

We bring you these stories from Europe (about the invasion) for a couple of reasons:  We have many European readers who follow us every day and because Americans need to know how bad it could get.

Rush Limbaugh: US military more worried about climate refugees than ISIS, Ebola and Putin

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

 

I had to laugh when I heard Limbaugh talking about climate refugees—-something we have been reporting on for years here at RRW.  In fact, we are probably your go-to site for climate refugee news from a skeptical perspective.  It’s not that I don’t think people will be on the move around the world due to changing factors in the environment—hasn’t that happened since the beginning of the human race?—it’s just that now it will be used as one more way to bludgeon us into opening our wallets and letting the world move in next door.

See our “climate refugees” category by clicking here (this is our 40th post on the subject):

Here is Rush (emphasis mine):

RUSH: I had this in the Stack two days ago, meaning last Friday, I had it in the Stack yesterday, just touched on it. But let me give you a little thing here just to make a point, keep things in perspective. I mentioned yesterday the Pentagon is now developing strategies as to how to handle climate change, the Pentagon.

On the basis of what? You might say, the Pentagon, the defense department, climate change, what the heck is the connection?

You’ve got to understand who is at the Pentagon now. It’s not your average George C. Scott who wants to bomb the commies anymore. You’ve got extensions of Barack Obama in the Defense Department. So when the Pentagon talks about the fear that global warming is something they have to strategize and have to have ready to go, what it means is global warming is going to cause more pestilence. It’s going to cause more starvation.

It’s going to cause drought and it’s going to cause floods and it’s going to cause cold weather and hot weather, and all of this is going to create refugees like we’ve never seen. And these refugees are going to be marching all over the globe trying to escape the harsh conditions global warming will bring on, and that is what will present the challenge to the US military.

Don’t misunderstand. It’s not that the military is devising weapons to stop climate change. The military, under orders from Obama, is coming up with strategies to deal with the pests. The locusts, for example, and all the destruction that will be caused by global warming which will lead to increased numbers of poverty stricken refugees. And it will basically be a crowd control operation. That’s what the Pentagon’s global climate change military strategy planning is all about. Crowd control. When you get right down to it. And it’s ridiculous.

He goes on, read it all.

Then please visit our ‘climate refugees’ category, here.

Obama sure is working overtime to change the subject!  Could the Ebola news and the ISIS news get any worse?

US State Department halts plans (for now) to send refugees to Athens, GA after mayor objected

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Actually the mayor did what every sensible mayor should be doing—she insisted on a delay so that the International Rescue Committee could  “present a formal refugee integration plan” to local elected officials and others (presumably with public input!).

Athens, Georgia dodges a bullet for now as Democratic Mayor Nancy Denson insists on a formal plan for refugee integration before resettlement begins (what a novel idea!).

Make them have a long range plan for your town!

Such a plan would include research on where the refugees will work, what social services they will need, how many children can the school system accommodate, how much affordable housing is available, is the health department ready to take care of some communicable diseases, how long will the resettlement contractor be involved with refugees it resettles, how many, for how many years—etc.  Make sure there is public input.

And, be sure to make them spell out exactly which refugees from which countries are coming to your city!

And, finally insist on an escape clause so that, if the State Department contractor brings too many, the city can say STOP!

(Remember there are several US cities trying to get them to stop to no avail—Manchester, NH, Springfield, MA and Amarillo, TX come immediately to mind.)

Our previous coverage of the Athens, GA refugee controversy can by found by clicking here, here, and here.

Here is the full story yesterday from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution which sought comment from the US State Department and got none (no surprise there).  Emphasis is mine.

 The U.S. State Department has shelved a plan to resettle 150 refugees in Athens following objections from Mayor Nancy Denson and Gov. Nathan Deal’s administration.

The International Rescue Committee said it got an email last week from the federal agency saying it would consider the proposal “after additional planning and community consultation.”

J.D. McCrary, the IRC’s executive director in Atlanta, said in an email that he was “not entirely sure what is meant by additional planning and community consultation as this was extensively undertaken during the past year.”

“There is always hope in the future and the good news is that senior level officials from the State Department are planning a visit to Athens next month to view the area in person for future consideration,” he wrote. [Boy, would I love to be a fly on the wall!—ed]

“During the visit we will be clarifying with them what additional planning and consultations they are requiring, showing them firsthand why Athens has already become a preferred destination for refugees seeking a new life, and discussing a concrete plan to resubmit a proposal to establish an official resettlement site.”

[….]

The IRC has proposed resettling refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Myanmar and Syria in the region in the coming months.

In a letter sent to the U.S. State Department in August, Georgia Human Services Commissioner Keith Horton said he did not want the refugee resettlement plan to “go forward at this time.”

“The degree of cooperation, communication and consultation is not where I would like for it to be,” Horton wrote. “It is my hope that the community of Athens/Clarke County and the IRC will continue to work together to resolve the issues and concerns that have been raised.”

Horton’s letter followed one Denson sent Deal’s administration two days before. In her letter, the Democratic mayor complained the IRC did not reach out to enough people in her community early enough about its plans. She also raised concerns that the refugees could strain public resources in Athens-Clarke County, which is home to about 120,000 residents. Denson said she wanted the IRC to delay its efforts and to “present a formal refugee integration plan” to local elected officials and others.

LOL!  Seeing a new “pocket of resistance,” I suspect we will see “Welcoming America” moving in to re-educate the mayor and others if they haven’t arrived there already!