Category: Africa

Malta Update: NGOs campaign to close detention centers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I wonder if there is some sort of international strategy going on by the Open Borders non-governmental organizations (NGO) movement to get rid of detention centers.  We just saw the Obama Administration put in place new, less restrictive, requirements on detention that go into effect in January for “asylum seekers” coming across our borders.  Now I see that in Malta the NGOs (probably mostly funded through some government program) are staging protests against detention of the mostly Africans who arrive there by the thousands each year.

From Malta Today:

Moviment Graffitti spokesperson Andre Callus yesterday said detention centres in Malta were “useless and unjust” and a “waste of financial and human resources”.

Representatives of Moviment Graffitti, Migrants’ Solidarity Movement, Jesuit Refugee Service, Third World Group, Moviment Azzjoni Xellug (MAX), Kopin, Alternattiva Demokratika Zghazagh and Zminijietna last night slept in a tent fenced by wire at City Gate, in solidarity with migrants imprisoned at the detention centres in Safi and Ta’ Kandja.

The shabby tent, intended to symbolise the appalling state of Malta’s closed detention centres, was already set up by yesterday morning, creating an unusual attraction for passers-by on their way to Republic Street for Christmas shopping.

Information leaflets were distributed to onlookers, who – according to the organisers – “have not been very negative about the idea of doing away with detention centres.” Callus however stressed the need for the public to become more familiar with the issue: to “know the difference between open centres and detention centres”, and to be more informed about the inhumane conditions in which the persons inhabiting the latter are currently living in.

“The detention system in Malta is creating unnecessary suffering,” Callus said. “People’s liberty is arbitrarily being taken away when they are locked up for a maximum of 18 months in small spaces with lack of hygiene, limited access to medical care, lack of fresh air and complete uncertainty about their situation and their future.”

Not a a first choice???   We just learned here that it was and the pull factor is the US State Department policy that is bringing hundreds of Malta’s illegal aliens to the US as refugees.

Callus explained that Malta is rarely the first choice for the vast majority of migrants, as many are brought to the island after encountering difficulties on their way to Italy. Therefore, he said, it is a misconception that detention centres act as a deterrent for people to come to Malta.

You know if the State Department had said no to former US Ambassador to Malta, ‘Tea Party Molly,’ who promoted the idea of transforming some of these Africans to refugees and helped send them to a town near you, there might be a significantly smaller pull factor for beleagured Malta.

For new readers, use the key word ‘Malta’  in our search box for the many posts we have written on the subject.

Somali Bantu becomes US citizen, but…

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This story is titled, “Somali refugee celebrates long road to citizenship,” and like so many mainstream media reports it’s all so upbeat until one reads further down the article. 

You are too old for school, said Catholic Charities in Pittsburgh (yes, must be the same one the Burmese are protesting here):

Mr. Muya was 20 when he came to Pittsburgh, and was told he was too old to go to school. Officials at Catholic Charities, which helped resettle the Somali Bantu families here, told him he needed to find a job.

Government refugee polices focus on the goal of self-sufficiency above all else, which “isn’t easy,” said Claire Kushma, director of marketing and public relations at Catholic Charities.

Because only limited resources are available to the refugees upon their arrival, “they must obtain a job quickly to provide for basic needs like food, shelter and clothing,” she said, noting that Catholic Charities will be launching an expanded program in 2010 to provide work force and English language skills to refugee who have found jobs. [Edit:  that should be a small number since so few refugees are finding work.]

No one is keeping track of the refugees!   Where have we heard this before!

And while his new citizenship may symbolize how far this group has come, an estimated dozen families living in Lawrenceville are still enduring tough challenges, said Ms. Tsapis, a grant-writer and strategic planner for Magee Womencare International, a humanitarian outreach arm of Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC.

While the children, who make up most of the 250-plus community of Somali Bantus, have picked up English easily, they still encounter hostility during the schools days. All are Muslim and they’re teased for the turbans and heavy robed clothing that many wear, their accents and their customs, she said.

The biggest problems? The language and cultural barriers, and “safe affordable housing with decent landlords,” Ms. Tsapis answered, noting that the families have experienced vandalism and assaults in their homes and on the streets.

“Most don’t feel safe in their homes, have uncooperative landlords or housing that just isn’t affordable.”

While praising the good intentions of resettlement programs, she said no one organization keeps track of this group or other resettled refugees or of the services that are being provided.

“Nobody’s talking to anyone else,” she said.

The refugee resettlement program of the US government is kept from scrutiny and ultimately reform by this presumption of good intentions!

More Somali Bantu on the way?

Here is a Somali Bantu website, Somali Bantu Community Association of Boise, I came across a few weeks ago and have had in my queue.  It’s dated December 4th, so maybe they know something we don’t know—14,000 more Somali Bantu are on the way?!

How many Somali Bantus are coming to America?

About 14000 , mostly families with young children. now there are 12,000 Bantu in United States.

For a backgrounder on the Somali Bantu see the article by Don Barnett at the Center for Immigration Studies.  Thanks to reader, JLM (here), for pointing it out to us.

Yemen detains and deports refugees other than Somalis

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Since I was on the subject of Yemen (and Obama ordering a missile strike there), I thought this story from UN Radio was interesting.

The number of people making the perilous journey across the Gulf of Aden into Yemen has risen by 50 per cent.

United Nations refugee agency UNHCR says more than 74,000 Africans have reached the shores of Yemen this year up from 50,000 recorded in 2008. Patrick Maigua reports from Geneva.

UNHCR says the refugees and migrants, most of them fleeing desperate situations of civil war, political instability, poverty, famine and drought in the Horn of Africa make the dangerous journey on smuggler’s boats across the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea under harrowing conditions. In some cases they are beaten, raped, killed or thrown overboard into the shark infested waters.

More Ethiopians  than Somalis have arrived in Yemen this year.

“Unlike in previous years, Somalis are no longer the majority of arrivals. With nearly 32,000 Somali arrivals this year their number remains steady in comparison to 2008. However, the number of Ethiopians reaching Yemeni shores more than doubled this year – totaling over 42,000 people.

I don’t know why Yemen would discriminate and not grant asylum to Ethiopians unless these are non-Muslim Ethiopians.   I wish the UN would stop being so politically correct and tell us why there is a  double standard.

Yemen currently hosts over 150,000 Somali refugees. UNHCR says it does not have access to Ethiopian nationals arriving in Yemen, but has raised its serious concern over the continued detention and deportation of Ethiopians without granting them access to asylum procedures.

Charges dismissed for one of four Liberian boys charged with rape

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A Phoenix  judge has dropped the charges against one of the youngest refugee boys initially charged with the gang rape of an 8 year old girl, also a refugee, here.  The oldest of the four boys is being charged as an adult.

PHOENIX — Sexual assault charges against a 9-year-old Liberian boy accused in the gang-rape of an 8-year-old girl were dismissed on Wednesday by a juvenile court judge in Phoenix.

The ruling issued by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Dawn Bergin came after she spent weeks considering if the boy could be made to understand the charges against him. In the seven-page decision, she ruled that the boy could not and is incompetent to stand trial. The charges, sexual assault and sexual contact with a minor, can’t be refiled.

Bergin noted in her ruling that because the offense was “serious” the boy is considered a dependent child under Arizona law and programs are available to rehabilitate him and protect the public. He was held in juvenile detention for a month after his arrest and then placed in a Child Protective Services’ foster home, where he remains.

If you are a new reader and don’t know this story, start at this recent post and follow links to our earlier posts.

Toronto Five: Somali Muslim youths missing in Canada

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is a lengthy article from The Star about five Somali youths (just like our former refugees turned jihadists) who Canadian security services believe have gone to Jihad training with Al Shabaab in Somalia.  We mentioned the story earlier here as well.

They hung out at a Somali restaurant in “Little Mogadishu” [cute, they have a Little Mogadishu just like we do!]  in the northwest corner of the city, played basketball together, and worshipped at a North York mosque.

The five friends, in their early to mid-20s, grew up and attended schools in Toronto. They spoke English and Somali. At least two of them were university students.

That is, until all five disappeared.

[….]

The overwhelming fear is that – like at least 20 young Somali-American men in Minneapolis who have disappeared in the past two years, and others from Australia, Sweden and Britain – the young men are en route to Somalia to fight alongside al Shabaab, an Islamist youth militia aligned with Al Qaeda.

Basically the story follows the same pattern as our Somali missing youths (five or six of ours are dead and accomplices have been indicted).   There is one bit of news in here I didn’t know.  We caught four trying to slip out of Chicago just two weeks ago.

But it hasn’t stopped other young Somali-Americans from trying to join the Shabaab. About two weeks ago, four young men, two under the age of 16, were stopped while trying to fly to Kenya through Chicago.

Just like in Minneapolis, the Toronto mosque is under suspicion.

In Toronto, the North York mosque where the five Toronto men worshipped has come under scrutiny since they disappeared.

Then there is the usual ‘crisis of belonging’ excuse that we hear all the time.  Or, that the young men live in poverty and have no future.    But, let me ask readers, what do all these young men have in common whether they are going to Pakistan (as in the DC Five) or to Somalia?  The call of Islam, the Jihad and Islamic supremacism!   And, to a man they are not poor, but well-educated with bright futures!

There are stories of how mothers have hidden their grown-up sons’ passports while other family members keep an eye on them. Some mothers are even trying to monitor their sons’ Internet activities.

It sounds over-the-top but Jibril said, “It’s an extraordinary situation.” There’s a fear there may be an exodus of more young men from Toronto as happened in Minneapolis, he said. Toronto is now home to almost 50,000 Somali-Canadians, he points out.

In Little Mogadishu, an area bounded by highrises along Dixon Rd. and between Kipling and Islington Aves., families run thriving restaurants and grocery stores. Yet Somalis remain one of the GTA’s most disadvantaged, scoring near the bottom in household income, employment and education.

Mohamed Gilao, executive director of Dejinta Beesha, a settlement agency, said young people find it difficult to integrate; some drop out of school and fall prey to crime, drugs and gangs. And now, it seems, radicals, too.

But the five missing men were raised in middle-class families and none had a run-in with police, say community leaders.

Warsame, the youth leader, talks of the crisis of “belonging” that plagues all young people from war-torn countries, especially if they still have relatives there.

That reminds me.  I wanted to mention a few lines in a Ken Timmerman Newsmax article, here, to demonstrate how hopeless our war on terror is when this notion that poverty and not belonging begets radicalization—-that it has nothing to do with Islam.

Also addressing the conference was Clinton-era official Daniel Benjamin, the Obama administration’s counterterrorism czar.

Newsmax asked Benjamin how the Obama administration could wage war against global Islamic jihad if it didn’t mention the word “Islam.”

Benjamin said the administration felt it was “counterproductive” to look at global terrorism as primarily a Muslim phenomenon.

“Al-Qaida has appropriated texts of Islam, but there is nothing to be gained by describing this as an Islamic problem. That is not going to get us where we want to go,” he said.

He said the goal of administration policy was to “undermine the al-Qaida narrative” and to attack the sources of “real or perceived deprivation” by focusing on the “underlying conditions” that lead to extremism. “When children have no hope of education, and young people have no hope for a job, this pushes people to radicalization,” he said.

You gotta laugh!  I just went back to see if the word “Islam” or “Muslim” appeared at all in the Toronto article.  Only the word “Islamist” appears in describing Al Shabaab.