Category: Africa

Australia apologizes for breaching Indonesian waters to push back migrants, but….

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….we are going to continue to turn boats away from our shores, said Immigration Minister Morrison!

I wasn’t planning on writing a second post on Australia today (see first one here), but when I saw this photo, I wanted you to see it!

What the heck is this—a strategy session with a white ‘community organizer’ where Somali men, at a hotel in Indonesia, plan their next attempt to break into Australia!

If they want asylum, ask for it in Indonesia, a safe Muslim country!  International law requires legitimate asylum seekers to ask for asylum in the first safe country they reach!

This is the caption published with the photo: “Somali immigrants gather at a hotel where Indonesian authorities have billeted asylum seekers hoping to reach Australia. (AFP/JEMS)”

Here is the story that accompanies the photo, from Reuters:

SYDNEY — Australia’s government on Friday acknowledged its navy breached Indonesian territorial sovereignty several times as part of its controversial operations to stop boats carrying would-be asylum seekers from entering Australian waters.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said he had been informed earlier this week about the “inadvertent breaches” and immediately informed the Indonesian navy.

Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, the officer in charge of “Operation Sovereign Borders,” said the breaches occurred on multiple days but declined to provide further details.

“We deeply regret these events and have offered an apology,” Morrison told reporters. “However the Australian government remains committed to continuing to implement the policies to stop the boats.”

Most of those they are pushing back are from:  Afghanistan, Darfur, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria.

There is more.

Waiting for the UNHCR to blast Saudi Arabia as they did Israel yesterday

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
African migrants protest at US embassy in Tel Aviv on Sunday. We want the “right” to walk free and stay in Israel.

Sure enough the UN High Commissioner for Refugees blasted Israel for its “warehousing” of Africans claiming to be asylum seekers (see our story yesterday).  Israel has long maintained that most of the migrants are “economic migrants” and not legitimate refugees.  Economic migrants are NOT refugees, but the world-over they have figured out how to use the refugee lingo.

From Haaretz:

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has criticized Israel’s policy on African migrants, and in particular the new amendments to the country’s anti-infiltration law.

Following Sunday’s mass protest of tens of thousands of migrants and their supporters in Tel Aviv, the representative for UNHCR in Israel published a rare press release, calling on Israel to consider alternatives to its current “warehousing” of migrants.

The release was titled “Israel’s new laws and policies do not live up to the Spirit of the 1951 Refugee Convention.”

UNHCR has previously criticized the amendments to the anti-infiltration law, and even brought its position before the High Court of Justice, but, until now, has refrained from making public statements. In the press release published Sunday, the agency said that in principle it supports establishing a residence facility for asylum seekers, but not in its current incarnation at Holot.

Meanwhile I searched around to see if the UNHCR was also blasting one of the newest members of the UN Human Rights Council, Saudi Arabia, for deporting (not just warehousing but actually deporting!) thousands of Somalis on a regular basis.  I see in 2010 the UN did call out S.A., but am not seeing anything since and obviously the Saudis didn’t listen to the UNHCR nearly 4 years ago.

Waiting!  Waiting!

Photo is from this story about Africans protesting at US embassy in Tel Aviv.  Wouldn’t those get-ups just make the average Israeli say, sure you will fit right in here!  Maybe such protests would work its magic on the Saudis too!

20,000 African ‘asylum seekers’ marched in Tel Aviv over the weekend, demand their “rights”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update:  UNHCR blasts Israel’s treatment of would-be “refugees” (here).  So where is the blast at Saudi Arabia?

Those paragons of Muslim charity in Saudi Arabia can deport Africans by the thousands with no public outcry, yet, Israel is called evil for not giving asylum to tens of thousands of Africans who would soon turn Tel Aviv into Marseille!  The double standard is outrageous, and heck S.A. actually has the land to accommodate their fellow Muslims.

From 972Mag:

Over 20,000 asylum seekers, mostly from Eritrea, assembled in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square Sunday morning to demand recognition as refugees. Across Israel, asylum seekers went on a three-day strike, and more protests were planned.

In recent weeks, the government stepped up the arrest and imprisonment of African asylum seekers who entered the state without permits. Several months ago, Israel’s High Court of Justice struck down a law authorizing the state to lock up for three years any person who entered the country illegally, and in some cases, indefinitely. But last month the Knesset passed a new law, authorizing the state to hold asylum seekers in “closed” prisons for a year. A new “open” holding facility named “Holot” began operating in the desert, where asylum seekers can be held indefinitely until their eventual deportation.

The government has stepped up enforcement measures against Israeli businesses that employ asylum seekers in recent weeks and months and municipalities have been shutting down shops and restaurants owned by Africans, adding to a feeling of despair in the asylum seeker community.

The general strike is the latest step in the African protest campaign against the recent measures.

There is more, go to 972Mag for the story and especially the photos.

Aljazeera puts the number of protesters at 30,000, here, called the largest “migrant rally” in Israel’s history.

See our category Israel and refugees for more on the issue.

Saudi Arabia deports 200 more Somalis who were only seeking a better life

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update January 6:  Reader Petzix sent us the website ‘UN Watch’ with a story on the ten worst things the UN did in 2013, check it out here.  Ha! Ha! Ha! Saudi Arabia elected to the UN Human Rights Council!

They just ship them back and drop ’em off in Mogadishu.    Meanwhile the UN bullies Bulgaria to be more welcoming to Syrian Muslims and berates Burma for being unwelcoming to Rohingya Muslims, not a critical peep though about Muslim Saudi Arabia being unwelcoming to fellow Muslims.  The double standard is stunning!  No ‘diversity is beautiful’ for the Saudis!

Bye! Bye!

Every time I see one of these stories I’m reminded of the UNHCR saying in 2009 that the tradition of welcoming refugees comes out of the Islamic faith! From Mareeg:

Mareeg.com-More than 200 Somalis deported from Saudi Arabia have reached Mogadishu’s Aden Abdulle Airport on Friday. The people deported mostly young men and women were members of Somali immigrants who have travelled to the Kingdom of Saudi Srabia to seek better life and work following the civil wars in their homeland.

Some of those deported back to Mogadishu have said they were tortured and mistreated by the Saudi police while some of the people were detained for more than one month.

The country’s civil aviation authoroties said that more than two thousands Somalis were deported back to the country since September.

Just imagine for a moment the worldwide wailing and crying if the US deported 2,000 Somalis in three months! Photo is from this story—we will give Somalia money, but we don’t want your people!  (the article doesn’t say that, I do).

Minneapolis Somali apartment explosion: a blogger unravels some of the reports

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Readers, if you have been following the coverage of the deadly explosion and fire that ripped through a Somali apartment building and grocery store on New Year’s Day, you are not alone.  A Minnesota follower of RRW has alerted us to a blog that has gone one step further and contacted some of those quoted or misquoted by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

For new readers looking for background, our most recent post is here with links to previous posts.

Now, check out the blog Lee Stranahan (Untangling the facts….) which begins with this:

I’ve been covering the story of the explosion and fire that took place in the Cedar-Riveraide neighborhood on Minneapolis, Minnesota on New Year’s Day. There’s been a fair but [bit] of misinformation and confusion. This post is designed to clear up some of that with unfiltered facts from spokespeople for the gas company CenterPoint and the Minneapolis Police Department.

Read it all!

Come back tomorrow because surely there will be another installment of this puzzling case.