Kenyan and Somali governments agree Somali refugees to be repatriated

11/12/2013 ~ 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?

11/12/2013 ~ 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!).

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.

Kentucky: Somalis file discrimination complaints (again) over prayer in the workplace…

11/08/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….with the help of CAIR of course.

Mohamed Maow
Photo: Liz Dufour, The Cincinnati Enquirer

Frankly, I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the employer—DHL Global Mail—since they were apparently unaware of the Somali penchant for setting up such claims against employers once enough of them were hired to make an impact on the workplace. Don’t DHL head-honchos read RRW?

From USA Today:

CINCINNATI — For more than three years, Mohamed Maow worked at DHL Global Mail in Hebron, Ky. He said he earned $11.57 an hour to sort mail and was paid time-and-a-half for overtime.

Maow, 27, a refugee from Somalia who came to the U.S. in 2007, said he never received any negative comments about his performance.

Yet on Oct. 9, after he said DHL supervisors reversed a policy of flexible break times that allowed Maow and fellow Somalis time to pray, he was among two dozen Muslims fired for stopping to say five-minute evening prayers required by their religious beliefs.

What a surprise! CAIR Ohio comes to the rescue!

Maow’s is one of 11 complaints filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission – of an expected 24 total – that allege DHL Global Mail fired a group of Somali Muslims for exercising their legally protected religious rights.

The Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has filed the EEOC complaints on behalf of the fired workers.

“We are requesting all available remedies allowed under Title VII (of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964) and the Kentucky Civil Rights Act, including but not limited to: damages, reinstatement where appropriate and policy changes to ensure that all worker’s civil rights are respected,” said Booker Washington, CAIR staff attorney. [Washington’s bio is here—ed]

There is more, read it all.

The article goes on to say that about 400 Somalis have moved into Erlanger (the friendship city!) and Florence, Kentucky.

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

For your further reading, we archived the majority of our posts about Somalis protesting in the workplace in our Greeley/Swift/Somali controversy category. You might also wish to view our Stealth Jihad category as well because that is what this is all about.

Lewiston, ME: Somali on Somali crime

11/08/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Diversity is strength alert! Lewiston man indicted on assault charges (ho hum). Maybe just a little clan conflict gone awry. Hat tip: Michael.

Mahad Hassan of Lewiston.
Photo: Daryn Slover

From the Lewiston-Auburn Sun Journal (emphasis is mine):

LEWISTON — A local man was indicted on assault charges Wednesday, accused in a September stabbing he claims was self-defense.

Mahad Hassan, 25, of 214 Blake St., was indicted by an Androscoggin County grand jury on charges of aggravated assault and elevated aggravated assault.

Hassan is accused of using a broken bottle to stab 33-year-old Abdi Bihi in the face, neck, arms and back on the evening of Sept. 3 inside Hassan’s apartment.

Bihi survived his injuries. At a later court appearance, Hassan claimed he was forced to stab Bihi when the man came at him in a threatening manner.

Hassan has remained jailed since his arrrest.

See our lengthy archive on Lewiston, here. And be sure to read one of our most widely read posts of all time (8,826 views)—Somali migration to Maine.

Somali wins Minneapolis city council seat

11/07/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

From PostBulletin.com:

MINNEAPOLIS — Voters in Minneapolis have sent a Somali-American to their city council for the first time, a sign of the immigrant community’s growing strength in the city.

Rep. Keith Ellison (right) backed Abdi Warsame for the Minneapolis city council. No surprise there!

Abdi Warsame took 64 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s election, well ahead of incumbent Robert Lilligren.

Both the Star Tribune and Minnesota Public Radio reported that Warsame will become the highest-ranking elected Somali-American in the U.S. when he takes office.

Warsame, 35, left Somalia as a child and spent much of his life in England. He moved to Minneapolis in 2006 and heads a tenant association in a Minneapolis high-rise that is home to some 4,000 East Africans, Minnesota Public Radio reported.

It is very difficult to immigrate to the US from the UK (ask any white Englishman), so I wonder how he got here, through what legal immigration channel? Is he now a US citizen?

We’ve written about Warsame’s campaign previously here and here.

Photo is from this story.