Category: Africa

UK: Farage does a U-turn, calls for only Syrian Christians to be resettled

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Displaced Syrian Christians.

This story is now a couple of days old, sorry I didn’t get to it yesterday, but Britain’s conservative party leader Nigel Farage has modified his earlier call that the UK should resettle Syrian refugees and says now it should only be the Christians.

And, coincidentally, Syrian Christians are talking to the media and reporting that they are not being resettled.

Members of the general public in the UK and in the US, if they are following this issue at all, are surely saying to themselves:  we watch these Muslim vs. Muslim civil wars in the Middle East and in Africa and then we are expected to resettle Muslims to the West—WTH!

Here is Yahoo.News on Farage’s U-turn (hat tip: Joanne):

Nigel Farage has retreated from his call for the UK government to take Syrian refugees into the UK, saying that only Christians from the country should be allowed in.

The Ukip leader caused a furious backlash from his party members over the weekend after saying that David Cameron had a duty to take in Syrian refugees fleeing for their lives.

The call put him at odds with the coalition government, who are refusing to take any refugees from the country.

However, in a U-turn which will lead to accusations of bigotry, he has now said that only Christians from the country should be admitted.

He told the Jeremy Vine Show that Syrian Muslims could flee to neighbouring countries.

“It’s bad enough for Sunni and Shia. At least there are neighbouring countries that will take them,” he said.

“Where on Earth are the Christians going to go? Christians are now a seriously persecuted minority.”

While Syrian Muslims are breaking into Western countries,* Christians playing by the rules in Jordan say they are not being allowed to apply to go to the West.

From CBN News:

Christian Syrian refugees have found temporary shelter in Jordan, but their immigration requests have been rejected by Western countries.

Some of them have spoken to the Associated Press, but want to remain anonymous for safety reasons.

One Syrian refugee said, “Everyone sold whatever they owned in Syria in order to get here, so that we could apply for visas at an embassy. We were all surprised to be rejected on the basis that there was no reason for us to go to Europe. Their reasons were all false – nothing correct in them.”

Another man said that western countries “were supposed to support us, and they were supposed to facilitate our immigration process as Christians, and I’m very sad that they haven’t.”

Read it all.

* Here is one more case where Turkey facilitated the movement of illegal alien Syrians who went to Turkey.  The “refugees” where allowed to leave Turkey for Morocco, then on to Guinea-Bissau where corrupt officials allowed them to board a plane to Portugal on false passports.  Portugal has now stopped all flights between Guinea-Bissau and their country due to the controversy.

Photo is from this story at PressTV.

Milwaukee attracting more Somali refugees, Catholic Charities helps!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has publish a feel-good story about how successfully Somali Bantus are settling in to Wisconsin.  You can read the opening yourself about one boy who becomes the first Somali in Wisconsin to go to college.  We are told that he changed his last name from Mursal to Mohamad.

The article follows with some nuggets of information on the program with a reference to Catholic Charities role in the resettlement.

According to the state’s Department of Children and Families, the first wave of Somali refugees began arriving in 1995. Since then the federal government has resettled approximately 700 Somali in Wisconsin, primarily in Brown, Barron, Dane and Milwaukee counties.

The largest population — about 400 people —lives in Milwaukee, said Joe Scialfa, communications director for DCF.

But Ussuf Mursal, Mohamad’s brother, who works at Catholic Social Services refugee program, thinks the actual number is considerably larger. He estimates as many as 1,300 Somalis are now living here.

There are about 250 families, he said, and most families have five or more children. For example, he said, he now has six children and his ex-wife has 11 children, including two of his. [I’m wondering if the ex-wife is an ex so that she can receive welfare benefits as a single mother?—ed]

With such large families, providing the necessary support is a strain, he said. And because so many Somali Bantu did not go to school, passing the U.S. citizenship test presents a problem. Still, many are getting established, buying homes and starting businesses.

Another Somali is quoted:

“We came here for security, education and a better life,” he said. He has 13 children, some grown, some who attend Riverside High School or Milwaukee Area Technical College.

And, he supports them all at his newly acquired halal grocery store.

Go here for more on Catholic Charities and refugees in Milwaukee.  Lutheran Social Services is their main competitor for contracts with the US State Department to bring refugees to this part of Wisconsin.

Graphic is from the Journal-Sentinel story.

University of Wisconsin hosts conference on discrimination against Muslim Rohingya

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Nigerian woman carried from church which had been attacked by Muslims

And, they claim the Rohingya of Burma are the “most persecuted people in our time.” 

I suspect the Christians of the Middle East (Syria, Iraq) and Africa (Egypt, Nigeria, Central African Republic) might beg to differ.

Here is the story at Eurasia Review:

The first international conference in the USA on the plight of the Rohingya people of Myanmar – “Stop Genocide and Restore Rohingya’s Citizenship Rights in Myanmar” – was held in the campus of University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee on December 14, 2013. It was jointly hosted by the Burmese Rohingya American Friendship Association (BRAFA) and the Rohingya Concern International (RCI). The conference opened with a welcome speech from BRAFA’s chairman – Mr. Shaukhat Kyaw Soe Aung (MSK Jilani) and Dr. Chia Vang of the Ethnic Studies program at the university. The program was conducted by Mr. Mohiuddin Yosuf, President of the RCI and Chief Coordinator of the conference organizing committee. I was invited as a speaker. Amongst others, the speakers included – Professor Greg Stanton of the Genocide Watch (George Mason University), Mr. Nurul Islam of ARNO (UK), Sheikh Ziad Hamdan of Islamic Society of Milwaukee….

[….]

The Rohingya people, who mostly live in the western Rakhine state of Myanmar, are the most persecuted people in our time.

The conference called upon the government of Burma (aka Myanmar) to do the following:

 The Government of Myanmar to stop persecution, discrimination and dehumanizing of Muslims, including repealing laws and policies that enact or contribute to the persecution of Muslims and other targeted groups within Myanmar.

The Government of Myanmar to crack down on anti-Muslim violence against Rohingya and other Muslims.

I sure hope the University’s ethnic studies department will soon host a program on Muslim violence toward Christians on several continents!

For new readers who might ask why do we follow the Rohingya issue so closely?   We have been following the drum beat (the PR campaign!) for over five years now as we have watched the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and other of the federal resettlement contractors pushing to resettle Rohingya in your towns and cities.  So far the number is small, and we only know from news accounts that Muslim Burmese are mixed in with the thousands of other religious groups from Burma.   The US State Department does not release to the public the religious breakdown of refugees resettled in the US, although they do track those statistics.

See our extensive Rohingya Reports category, here.

Photo is posted at ACT for America Houston, some other photos are more gruesome.

More diversity is beautiful in Lewiston, ME

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Sudanese refugee Deng Mirac attempted to kill his wife with a kitchen knife, and remains behind bars until trial. Photo Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Here is another gift to Maine, most likely thanks to Catholic Charities which is still, I believe, the top resettlement contractor in that state (they say on their website that they are the only federal contractor in Maine).

From the Lewiston/Auburn Sun-Journal:

AUBURN — A judge sided with prosecutors Thursday in an attempted murder case, saying DNA evidence collected from the defendant shortly after his arrest was legal even though police hadn’t executed a search warrant.

Sudanese refugee Deng Mirac, 42, of 158 Blake St. in Lewiston was in Androscoggin County Superior Court for a hearing on his motion to suppress evidence. He was assisted by an interpreter.

He is accused of stabbing his estranged wife, Adut Adong, 34, in the face and abdomen with a kitchen knife in the driveway of her Blake Street apartment in Lewiston in April.

Mirac’s attorney, Nicholas Worden, argued that police should have secured a search warrant before collecting samples of a reddish-brown substance that appeared to be blood on Mirac’s hands and the black leather jacket he was wearing. He said there was no risk of his client destroying or hiding evidence because he was in police custody in an interview room at the police station in Lewiston with his hands cuffed behind his back.

Worden said those circumstances gave police enough time to seek a warrant before taking swabs of DNA from Mirac’s hands and jacket. His Fourth Amendment rights were violated, Worden said.

Justice MaryGay Kennedy disagreed with Worden and denied his motion.

For our many many posts on “welcoming” Lewiston, click here.  One of our most popular posts of all time is this 2009 post about Catholic Charities and Maine as the welfare magnet.

Israel: Africans march, demand “rights,” turn violent, many imprisoned

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
On the road to Beersheva before the violence broke out.

Israel built a new detention center for mostly African migrants who are claiming they are legitimate asylum seekers (as opposed to economic migrants looking for work).  The facility (we told you about it here) is open for the inhabitants to leave during the day, but they must return at night.  It doesn’t look like it’s working out for hundreds who got into violent clashes with police and now are imprisoned 24-7.

From LiveLeak:

More than 100 African migrants/refugees left the newly instated open detention center in S.Israel and begun making their way to Beersheva in protest of the jailing of fellow refugees as well as governmental reluctance to respond to their asylum request.

The 130-strong march left the Holot detention facility for Beersheba Thursday, accompanied by police cars. The march eventually deteriorated and violent clashes with the police, as well as more then a dozen arrests, were reported.

According to the refugees, the protest was intended to demand the release of two of their compatriots who were arrested in a Jerusalem protest some two days ago. They further called from their asylum requests be reviewed individually.

Abdul, a Sudanese refugee, said “we are marching for our friends, for our freedom and for our rights. We request that the Israeli government examine our request individually, and treat us as refugees, not criminals.”

The two men whose arrest sparked Thursday’s demonstration are currently being held in the Saharonim Prison, a jail built to house asylum seekers held under directives which the High Court deemed unconstitutional.

The demonstration’s starting point – the Holot detention facility – was established as a response to the ruling and thus was built as an ‘open jail,’ from which asylum seekers can come and go during day time.

The demonstrators involved in clashes have now been sent to the real prison.

The cost of the Holot facility was roughly a million shekel and in light of the court’s ruling and recent events, it seems the State is adamant in its intent to deport African refugees who find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

Photo is from this account of events at Jews for Justice.

For new readers, this is our 136th post in our category entitled ‘Israel and refugees.’