Category: Africa

Somalis killed in (another) van rollover, this time in Texas

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Friends of Refugees has the whole story.  Blogger Christopher Coen has been keeping track of the unsafe 15-passenger vans that refugees use to get often long distances to work at such places as meatpacking plants.

We are told that Catholic Family Services (the head hunter for big business in the Amarillo area—YES! the headhunter) is bringing more workers/refugees to Amarillo this year.

In 2010 we told you about how much the demographics of Amarillo are changing, thanks in part to the good folks at Catholic Charities.   And, LOL! “welcoming” Amarillo.

For new readers:  We have resettled over 100,000 Somalis in the US with the greatest numbers after 9/11.  Visit this post for all the numbers.   Also, note that in FY2011 (here) that ended on Sept. 30th 2011, we admitted another 3,161 Somalis through the program.

Minneapolis Somalis protest bank decision to stop money transfers to Somalia

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We reported earlier, here, that a bank that had been helping Somalis in the “diaspora” send money “home” (some of it going no doubt to terrorist activity) is stopping the practice.  But, in the good old fashioned American immigrant tradition, the Somalis have taken to the streets in protest.

Here is the story from the AP posted at The National:

MINNEAPOLIS // Hundreds from the largest Somali population in the United States demonstrated over a bank’s decision to stop handling money transfers that they say relatives in their famine-struck homeland need to survive.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991 and has no banking system, and Somalis use money-transfer businesses called hawalas to send earnings home. But many big banks have stopped handling the transfers, saying US requirements to crack down on terror financing are too complex and not worth the risk.

Friday’s rally came a day after 15 hawalas in Minnesota stopped accepting wire transfers because the bank that handles the majority of the transactions, Sunrise Community Banks, planned to close their accounts, citing similar concerns.

The article follows with a couple of sob stories before it tells us there is proof that Somali refugees are sending money to Al-shabaab.

Sunrise’s decision came weeks after two Minnesota women were convicted of conspiracy to provide support to Al Shabab, a group at the centre of violence in Somalia and one that the US says is tied to Al Qaeda. Evidence showed the women used the hawala’s to send money to the terror group.

Maybe the next refugee who returns to Africa for terror training could just take money in his underwear.

Then it’s good to see that the Obama/Holder US Justice Department is sticking by its guns on the terror financing issue.  It’s a wonder they have time between defending guns walking south and persecuting US Sheriffs.

Sunrise Community Banks said it would consider extending the service if it was given a way to minimise its risk. But US Attorney B Todd Jones said a waiver is not possible.

“The Department of Justice doesn’t give anyone a free pass right up front for possible future criminal activity,” Mr Jones said.

Wait for it!  Someone will cave-in and the practice will be continued.

Sudanese refugee murdered in Denver on Christmas

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Recently I reported on the Sudanese gangland violence in Omaha, Nebraska.  On Christmas, a Sudanese father of five was shot outside his home in Denver.  As of this writing the police have no motive or suspect in the shooting.

This is one more story about refugees escaping violence somewhere in the world and dying by violence in the US.

From the Huff Post Denver:

Youn Malual, a 43-year-old immigrant, was found shot to death late Christmas night in front of his home in Arapahoe County, Colorado.

Malual immigrated to the United States six years ago from Sudan to escape the civil war that threatened his family’s survival. “It’s a very tragic death,” said Gatwec Dengpathot, a Sudanese community organizer and friend, to the Denver Post. “He did not have any enemies. He was a family guy.”

Investigators are unsure of a motive and have no suspects, but do have several leads. Malual held two jobs to support his wife and five children, writes the Associated Press.  [Who will support the wife and children now?—ed]

“Over here, [it’s] supposed to be a safe haven for all the victim of wars, victim of everything across the world and then instead somebody coming to kill you in your own parking lot,” Dengpathot told 9News. “As someone that escaped all these atrocities trying to come to the U.S., the best country in the whole world, and then seeing some things like this happening to my fellow South Sudanese, it is bizarre.”

Read it all.  There is more information and links to follow.

When I just went back to check old posts on Denver, I see that there has been lots of violence against refugees in Denver, some of it coming from American blacks.  Here and here are previous posts about crimes against refugees in Denver.

Will Nigerians be next?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Will they be the next batch of needy people needing to get to the US through the Refugee Resettlement Program.  You watch there will soon be a drumbeat—maybe its already begun!   Here is a Nigerian writer, writing in the wake of the Muslim church bombings, to suggest a “refugee crisis” is looming.

And, by the way, we have plenty of Nigerians in the US through other legal programs (some probably have stayed beyond their visas too and are now illegal), but we haven’t taken any great number of Nigerians in the refugee program yet.

Check out WRAPS

Reader ‘Mowplsu’ sent us this link to the Worldwide Refugee Admissions Processing Center where the US State Department tracks refugee movements and arrivals.  I keep forgetting about this site, so thanks to ‘Mowplsu’ for bringing it to our attention.   The average American citizen can’t see all the statistics kept at WRAPS so I have tended to forget about it.

Where to find information is a category we long-ago created here at RRW.  You might want to check it out from time to time, there are all sorts of links to agencies, reports etc. that you might find useful.

As Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood becomes more powerful, look for more Coptic Christian refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Now who could have seen this coming?  JUST ABOUT ANYONE FOLLOWING THE RISE OF ISLAM IN AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST, THAT’S WHO!

Even the Leftist Los Angeles Times gets it now:

Muslims and Christians in Egypt made common cause in agitating for the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, but the alliance is fraying. A report by The Times’ Jeffrey Fleishman about the country’s Coptic Christians — 10% of the population — suggests that they are developing painful second thoughts about the “Arab Spring” now that Islamist parties are in the ascendance.

[….]

Clearly Egypt will have to resolve the tension that is already evident between electoral democracy and pluralism. Its international credibility will depend to some extent on the degree to which it abides by international norms of religious freedom. But it is also in Egypt’s domestic interest to protect Christians. Although many Egyptian Christians are impoverished, others — former United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali is an example — are highly educated and affluent and have played leading roles in Egypt’s political and commercial life. Egypt would be poorer without them.

Laws that further institutionalized Islam also would speed the departure from Egypt of those Copts who have the means to relocate. The exodus of Christians from the Middle East, the cradle of their religion, is a sadly familiar story. From the West Bank to Lebanon to Iraq, they have left because of political instability, violence or discrimination. Sometimes they are refugees within their own countries. In 2008 more than 1,300 Iraqi Christians fled the city of Mosul after 14 were killed. Even when Christians stay — as the vast majority of Copts most likely would — their influence and well-being can suffer under an intolerant regime. That shouldn’t happen in post-revolutionary Egypt.  [And, why would Egypt be any different then other countries in the region as Islamic supremacism takes root?—ed]

Readers you may not hear the drumbeat about saving the Copts as loudly as you might another group, because the Left (the drum-beaters on resettlement) are invested in the myth that the Arab Spring was a good thing.  They won’t be so eager to trumpet the totalitarianism of strict Islamic rule being demonstrated already against the Coptic Christians.