I’m posting this news because I have been following (for weeks!) the media’s hyper focus on the Chinese Virus and its potential threat to large refugee camps worldwide. Now it appears the first cases have arrived.
The value of social distancing (or lack of it) is about to be tested.
Over two weeks ago I told you that the carnage watch was on, see here.
In case you don’t think the Rohingya have anything to do with you, think again.
You need to know that Rohingya Muslims (there is no Muslim ban!) are being resettled in the US in large numbers (prior to the COVID shutdown) during the Trump Administration.
Here is one story about Rohingya refugees staging a political protest in Arizona a couple of years ago with a little information for you on the Rohingya back story.
See over 200 additional posts on Rohingya in myRohingya Reportscategory.
Their situation is much more complicated than the superficial media-created meme that depicts them as pure as the driven snow while Burmese Buddhists are their persecutors.
Coronavirus: Two Rohingya test positive in refugee camp
Rohingya camp at Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
Two Rohingya refugees have tested positive for coronavirus in the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh, officials say.
These are the first confirmed cases among refugees in Cox’s Bazar, where around one million Rohingya are encamped, a government doctor said.
Officials told the BBC that those infected were now being treated in isolation.
About 1,900 other refugees are now being isolated for tests.
The Rohingya in the crowded camps of Cox’s Bazar have been living under lockdown since 14 March.
In Greece, which is also home to large numbers of refugees, officials are hoping to relocate around 1,600 vulnerable persons from its camps to other countries as the pandemic eases.
Two migrants who reached Greece’s Lesbos island this week tested positive for Covid-19 and were isolated with no contact with refugee camps on the island.
Go here to read about the big Greek camps. A couple of newly arrived African migrants have tested positive for the Chinese virus, but notice that the big island camps are still largely not impacted.
Tomorrow is the previously stated date for refugees to begin arriving again in large numbers. They have been trickling in, probably a couple of hundred in the last two months since refugee travel was halted by the United Nations, but the US Refugee Program is largely shut down.
Special Immigrant Visas do continue to arrive from Afghanistan by the hundreds, but I’ll leave that discussion for another day.
Meanwhile the only news coming out of the mainstream media about refugees in America are sob stories about how they are struggling, out of work, fearful of being evicted, and trying to cope with COVID (like all of America!).
Some are working in essential services like meatpacking (Yogurt making?), others like those in the hospitality industry are out of work in large numbers.
Hereis one such story from Twin Falls, Idahowhere controversy over refugee resettlement has been muted after years of public protests about how the program was changing Idaho.
‘It’s like we’re living a half life’ — For refugees, COVID-19 impacts depend on where they live
The star of this story, a refugee from the DR Congo, says he is more worried about his brother in a refugee camp in Africa.
However, so far, the Chinese Virus has made no significant impact on refugee camps (although as I have reportedit isn’t for the media’s lack of interest, they expect catastrophe momentarily).
The article mostly discusses how challenging it is for refugees to live here in America these days (especially as many can’t speak English) and how the refugee agencies are short of funding and also cannot help refugees in person. (Why not? Where are their masks?)
They really aren’t short of funding as I pointed out here. The nine major contractors that send money down to subcontractors are getting nearly as much as they did during the Obama years (some are getting more!) when thousands upon thousands arrived every month!
The motherships must be holding on to the cash in order to pay salaries of their top execs. Besides, letting the low level staffers go makes for a better media story anyway!
Here is one little snip from this publication (these Idaho papers are prickly, they once sent me a letter telling me I couldn’t snip their stories).
Director Zeze Rwasama College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center in Twin Falls, Idaho. CSI is a subcontractor of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.
The federal government pushed the date resettlements would restart from May 1 to May 15, but resettlement centers anticipate it will be pushed again.
“For that to happen involves the coordination of many government agencies to allow a refugee to travel,” Rwasama said.
“Many of those agencies are working with limited staff. I don’t see how we can receive refugees during this time.”
Coping with reduced budgets:
Now that refugee resettlement is halted in the wake of COVID-19, federal funding coming to resettlement programs will be drastically reduced…
Then there is an AP storycirculating mostly about Arizona Afghans you can read yourself entitled:
New refugees struggle to find footing in US during pandemic
Coping with reduced budgets! Not!
The College of Southern Idaho Refugee Program is a subcontractorof the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrantswhich is almost 100% funded by taxpayers. Its chief executive officer makes at least a quarter of a million a year in salary (last we checked) that YOU are paying.
Here is how they are doing financially from USA Spending….
The $90 million in the left hand corner is the amount of federal funding they have received in the last 12 months!
The International Rescue Committee, also mentioned in the Twin Falls sob story, has seen little change in its financial position from the Obama years. Its CEO, David Miliband, is pulling down a salary approaching a million dollars annually.
How about if they pony-up some of their federal funding to directly feed and house refugees they have distributed around America for years.
Why should taxpayers first pay for the resettlement and now pay for refugee care during the virus crisis?
$215 Million in the last twelve months!
This is no time to resume admitting more poverty to America!
In a letter to their candidate to defeat Donald Trump in November, 51 of the hardest left groups in the US tell Biden what they want from him if he is elected.
They’re baaack—the Code Pinkers!
The Hill has a story here, but it took me a while to find the letter the stories all reference. I found it at HuffPo, here.
The Hill:
Liberal groups ask Biden to support progressive foreign policy agenda
The liberal groups are now asking Biden to support 10 key measures they say will usher in a new progressive vision for U.S. foreign policy…
[….]
The liberals are asking Biden to admit at least 125,000 refugees in his first year in office, and to increase refugee numbers every year after.
That is nothing new. Somehow 125,000 has become the Open Borders magic number for refugees. What was surprising, when I finally found the letter, is that none of the nine federal refugee contractors signed it.
Here is what the letter says and the list of those who signed it. You will notice that they use the Chinese virus and Climate change as a way to tie their demands together.
This is the wording of the immigration section:
Rejecting discriminatory immigration policies and supporting refugees
We call on you to repeal the Muslim, African, refugee, and asylum bans, restore access to asylum, and support a robust refugee resettlement program. This includes a commitment to admit at least 125,000 refugees in your first year in office, increasing refugee admissions every year, and investing in infrastructure needed to rebuild our refugee resettlement program and restore U.S. leadership on refugee protection given that we are now facing the worst global displacement crisis in history. As we urge other countries to admit and protect refugees, the U.S. must also ensure all asylum seekers have a meaningful opportunity to be heard before a judge and utilize community-based alternatives to immigration detention.
If you are a one issue voter, then this is all you need to know about Joe Biden and those who hope to put him in the White House—refugee resettlement will be on steroids in January 2021.
You may have noticed that I have a category for the 2020 Presidential campaignwhere you can see some of my posts on the topic recently and expect to see more archived there in the coming weeks and months.
Just in case you don’t also read my other blog, this is a crosspost from Frauds and Crooks this morning!
I’m sure you are all familiar with Drudge and the many similar sites that provide timely headlines in areas of the media that appeal to you.
This one appeals to me! Border Hawk!where you can see the latest news on a wide variety of subjects under the overall umbrella of immigration topics. It will surely save you lots of time every day if you are desperate to find more news on illegal immigration/refugees/border issues and more.
“We need to look at the more fundamental issue, which is class, which is racism, which is social status, which is income.”
(Rashid Musa chairman of the Swedish Young Muslims)
Never let a good crisis go to waste!
Invasion of Europe News….
I’ve written extensively (for years) about socialist Sweden’s welcome to migrants from the third world, but even with its arms wide open, Swedes can’t win. (See my Sweden archive.)
Now their welcoming society is responsible for killing off mostly Somali and Iraqi migrants as the government sought to keep its country and economy relatively free of draconian measures as those most countries have employed to (supposedly) stop the virus.
Here is the AP at ABC Newshelping to spread the social justice über alles message. Expect more stories like this one to help fuel division between the rich and poor (even in ‘socialist’ Sweden).
Coronavirus takes a toll in Sweden’s immigrant community
Rich skiers infect poor cabbie….
STOCKHOLM — The flight from Italy was one of the last arrivals that day at the Stockholm airport. A Swedish couple in their 50s walked up and loaded their skis into Razzak Khalaf’s taxi.
It was early March and concerns over the coronavirus were already present, but the couple, both coughing for the entire 45-minute journey, assured Khalaf they were healthy and just suffering from a change in the weather. Four days later, the Iraqi immigrant got seriously ill with COVID-19.
Still not able to return to work, Khalaf is part of the growing evidence that those in immigrant communities in the Nordic nations are being hit harder by the pandemic than the general population.
Sweden took a relatively soft approach to fighting the coronavirus, one that attracted international attention. Large gatherings were banned but restaurants and schools for younger children have stayed open. The government has urged social distancing, and Swedes have largely complied.
The country has paid a heavy price, with 3,175 fatalities from COVID-19. That’s more than 31 deaths per 100,000 population, compared with about 8 per 100,000 in neighboring Denmark, which imposed a strict lockdown early on that is only now being slowly lifted.
Inside Sweden’s immigrant communities, anecdotal evidence emerged early in the outbreak that suggested that some — particularly those from Somalia and Iraq — were hit harder than others.
Last month, data from Sweden’s Public Health Agency confirmed that Somali Swedes made up almost 5 percent of the country’s COVID-19 cases, yet represented less than 1 percent of its 10 million people.
Many in these communities are more likely to live in crowded, multigeneration households and are unable to work remotely. [I seriously doubt that large numbers are out working!—ed]
[….]
Sweden, Norway and Finland recognized early failings in community outreach in minority languages and are seeking to fix this. The town of Jarfalla, outside Stockholm, has had high school students hand out leaflets in Somali, Persian, French and other languages, urging people to wash their hands and stay home if sick.
[….]
But teacher and community activist Rashid Musa says the problem runs much deeper.
“I wish it were that easy — that you needed to just translate a few papers,” he said. “We need to look at the more fundamental issue, which is class, which is racism, which is social status, which is income.”
“The rich have the opportunity to put themselves into quarantine, they can go to their summer houses,” Musa said.
