Category: Asylum seekers

Bulgaria: Work on border fence with Turkey begun

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Bulgaria cannot handle invasion, builds a fence.

More news on the invasion of Europe

I thought construction had begun awhile ago, but here is a report from the Turkish Press that tells us work just started on the barbed wire barrier last Wednesday along the border with Turkey.

As we have reported in many posts in recent months, Bulgaria is being over-run by Muslim migrants, the largest group has traveled across Turkey from Syria.

Turkish Press:

SOFIA, Bulgaria – Bulgaria began on Wednesday building a fence on its border with Turkey to end illegal border crossings into the country.

The idea of building of a 30-kilometer (18 mile) wire fence has gained traction since late last year due to the government’s concerns over the Syrian refugee influx.

A recent activity report released by Bulgaria’s Defense Ministry said 87 military personnel began to put the wire fence on parts of the 30 km long route that was cleared and prepared for the building work.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party government in late 2013 ordered works for the fence in the mountainous region of Elhovo on the Turkish border, one of the areas that are the most prone to illegal crossings.

[….]

The project has caused controversy in the country and tension between Bulgaria’s Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry over the government budget allocated for it.

UN chastises Bulgaria for trying to protect itself!

The project has also drawn criticism from the European Union and the United Nations in that it would be considered a measure for limiting the access of refugees to Bulgaria, which violates international law on refugees.

“Introducing barriers, like fences or other deterrents, may lead people to undertake more dangerous crossings and further place refugees at the mercy of smugglers,” said Adrian Edwards, spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in November.

See our entire Bulgaria archive by clicking here.

***Update***  NGOs nagging Czech government to take some of Bulgaria’s Syrian “refugees,” here.

UN tells US to take care of “refugee” children, aka illegal aliens

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Cute kid! They surely wouldn’t put some tough teens on the cover! http://www.unhcr.org/53206a3d9.html

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees told the US that we better darn well take care of the tens of thousands of Mexican and Central American kids coming across the border without Mom or Dad, that these “refugees” are our responsibility.

Regular readers know this is the latest push by the one-worlders to force open our borders—send in the “kids.”

In the Wall Street Journal piece last week, note how the word “refugee” is applied to the mostly teen invaders who are really illegal aliens.  The definition of ‘refugee’ does not include running from gang violence where the alien’s own country simply can’t enforce the law.

Real refugees or asylum seekers must prove that they are escaping persecution for their religious or political beliefs.  This is about changing the rules by changing the language.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has called on the U.S. and other governments in the Americas “to keep children safe from human rights abuses, violence and crime” in what the agency says is a surge of undocumented minors trafficked into the U.S. by criminal smuggling networks.

The report, “Children on the Run,” was released in Washington, D.C., Wednesday by the U.N. refugee agency. It said such trafficking involved 21,537 children last year, up from 4,059 in 2011.

It is the latest call for action in response to a rising tide of child refugees emerging from Mexico and the Central American countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

[….]

The program, run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, cost the federal government $376 million in fiscal year 2013, and this year has a budget of $868 million.

A large portion of the millions being spent on the “kids” is going to a couple of the contractors:  US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services.  Here!

What happens when the “kids” turn 18?  They are released into America as “dreamers.”

US lectures Thailand on treatment of Muslim Uighurs seeking asylum

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Hmmm!  This is interesting.  Note in this story that Malaysia recently returned Uighurs to China.   Any connection to the missing plane?

From the Global Post (emphasis mine):

The United States on Friday urged Thailand to protect some 200 asylum seekers who are reportedly from China’s Uighur minority, after police said they discovered them at a secret camp.

Thai police said Thursday that they discovered the families in a raid in the kingdom’s deep south and that the asylum seekers, who appeared to be preparing to head elsewhere, said they were Turkish.

The Uighurs come from Xinjiang province. The March 1 terror attack occurred in Kunming.

US broadcaster Radio Free Asia, quoting relatives, said that the asylum seekers were actually Uighurs — a Turkic-speaking, predominantly Muslim group from China’s northwestern Xinjiang region.

“We are urging the Thai government to provide full protection to the victims (and) to ensure that their humanitarian needs are met,” State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters.

The annual US Human Rights Reports said that China carries out “severe official repression” of Uighurs in Xinjiang, including over their freedom of speech and religion.

March 1 mass stabbing at train station:

Xinjiang is periodically hit by violent clashes and Chinese officials blamed Uighur separatists for a March 1 mass stabbing at a train station in the southwestern city of Kunming that killed 29 people and injured 143 others.

Malaysia among countries forcibly returning Uighurs to China.

Under Beijing’s pressure, Cambodia, Malaysia and Pakistan have all in recent years forcibly returned Uighurs to China.

The UN refugee agency criticized Malaysia for its deportation of six Uighurs to China in December, saying that they were sent back to a country where they were at risk even though the group had registered asylum claims.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that it is providing assistance to the 200 asylum seekers in Thailand but has not confirmed their identifies.

Graphic is from the Wall Street Journal report on the terrorist attack.

My favorite refugees, German homeschoolers, get asylum

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike and their children left their native Germany in 2008, fleeing persecution by the government because they wanted to homeschool their children.   Lynda Altman reports in the Examiner

The family applied for asylum based on religious persecution. Asylum was granted. However, the Obama administration overturned that decision and the Romeike family faced deportation.

HSLDA stepped in and fought the deportation. They lost the battle at every turn. Even when Glenn Beck stepped in with a sizable donation, the family still could not catch a break in court. Then, a petition was filed with thousands of signatures requesting that the U.S. Government answer a final request. On that, the family won.

The Romeike family. Six and counting.

The U.S. Supreme Court was supposed to hear the case on Monday, March 3, 2014. Instead of hearing the case, the court decided against it. That left the Romeike family with no more options. They were out of time and legal recourse. It looked like deportation was inevitable.

After public outcry, the Department of Homeland Security gave the Romeike family permission to remain in the United States. This happened on Tuesday, March 4, 2014.

Blogger Ben Swann has these further details (as well as some details about what happened to them in Germany):

The Romeike’s received help from the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). The HSLDA requested a rehearing with the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The request was denied. The case caught the attention of the homeschooling community, as well as a number of Christian groups. An online petition asking President Obama to grant the family asylum was signed by more than 127,000 people. Eventually the Romeike’s and the HSLDA decided to request a hearing with the Supreme Court.

Michael Farris, founder of the HSLDA, commented, “The Attorney General and Sixth Circuit are ignoring critical evidence and are trying to send back this family who is trying to stay in our country legally. We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will go the other way and see what the original immigration judge saw: that this family and other religious homeschoolers in Germany are being persecuted for what they believe is the right way to raise their children.”

Both writers give the petition and public outcry credit for the outcome.  I wonder; I’ve never heard of a petition to the federal government having any effect.  It’s great if that’s true.  I do remember that more than 20 years ago Rep. George Miller of California introduced a bill in Congress that homeschoolers interpreted as threatening to their right to educate their children.  (I should say “we homeschoolers” as I was one at the time.)  They jammed the Capitol switchboard — it was reported to be the most calls ever — and the bill was withdrawn.  Today there are many more homeschoolers.

I posted on the case here in 2010 and Ann posted here in 2013 when the Romeikes were denied asylum.  Note that they were initially granted asylum and then that was overturned at the federal level.  We can imagine how much the Obama administration would love a Christian family educating its children outside the state’s control. (Not!)  I’d love to know the inside story of the judicial and government actions in this case.

As Ann commented in her post when the Romeikes lost their asylum case: We will take Chechens, Somalis and Rohingya Muslims, but not persecuted Christians from Germany who pose no threat to America.  Go figure!

Addendum: Here a great piece by Michael Farris, Dangerous Policy Lurks behind Romeike Triumph.  I don’t have time to write about it, but if you are interested in homeschooling, parental rights, religious freedom, or oppressive government, there’s a lot here for you.