Category: Asylum seekers

UK: Farage does a U-turn, calls for only Syrian Christians to be resettled

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Displaced Syrian Christians.

This story is now a couple of days old, sorry I didn’t get to it yesterday, but Britain’s conservative party leader Nigel Farage has modified his earlier call that the UK should resettle Syrian refugees and says now it should only be the Christians.

And, coincidentally, Syrian Christians are talking to the media and reporting that they are not being resettled.

Members of the general public in the UK and in the US, if they are following this issue at all, are surely saying to themselves:  we watch these Muslim vs. Muslim civil wars in the Middle East and in Africa and then we are expected to resettle Muslims to the West—WTH!

Here is Yahoo.News on Farage’s U-turn (hat tip: Joanne):

Nigel Farage has retreated from his call for the UK government to take Syrian refugees into the UK, saying that only Christians from the country should be allowed in.

The Ukip leader caused a furious backlash from his party members over the weekend after saying that David Cameron had a duty to take in Syrian refugees fleeing for their lives.

The call put him at odds with the coalition government, who are refusing to take any refugees from the country.

However, in a U-turn which will lead to accusations of bigotry, he has now said that only Christians from the country should be admitted.

He told the Jeremy Vine Show that Syrian Muslims could flee to neighbouring countries.

“It’s bad enough for Sunni and Shia. At least there are neighbouring countries that will take them,” he said.

“Where on Earth are the Christians going to go? Christians are now a seriously persecuted minority.”

While Syrian Muslims are breaking into Western countries,* Christians playing by the rules in Jordan say they are not being allowed to apply to go to the West.

From CBN News:

Christian Syrian refugees have found temporary shelter in Jordan, but their immigration requests have been rejected by Western countries.

Some of them have spoken to the Associated Press, but want to remain anonymous for safety reasons.

One Syrian refugee said, “Everyone sold whatever they owned in Syria in order to get here, so that we could apply for visas at an embassy. We were all surprised to be rejected on the basis that there was no reason for us to go to Europe. Their reasons were all false – nothing correct in them.”

Another man said that western countries “were supposed to support us, and they were supposed to facilitate our immigration process as Christians, and I’m very sad that they haven’t.”

Read it all.

* Here is one more case where Turkey facilitated the movement of illegal alien Syrians who went to Turkey.  The “refugees” where allowed to leave Turkey for Morocco, then on to Guinea-Bissau where corrupt officials allowed them to board a plane to Portugal on false passports.  Portugal has now stopped all flights between Guinea-Bissau and their country due to the controversy.

Photo is from this story at PressTV.

Villanova law students help one of the first gay Russians receive asylum, more on the way

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This story published last week in the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette gives us some insight into the asylum process in the US especially as it relates to illegal aliens coming across our Mexican border and declaring themselves gay and persecuted.    We see how legal clinics, NGOs and refugee contractors work to get as many granted asylum as they can.

Villanova law professor Michele Pistone has helped 125 aliens receive asylum since 2000.

Also, the article answers one of my questions—-where are all these detainees being housed?  Turns out that some police departments rent bed space to the feds.

I still have one big question plaguing me—how do we know someone isn’t pretending to be gay just to get into the US?

Pittsburgh-Post Gazette (emphasis mine):

A gay man last month became one of the first Russian citizens granted asylum in the United States since their home country adopted a ban against gay “propaganda.”

The man was granted asylum Nov. 20 by a U.S. Immigration Court judge in York, Pa., thanks to the efforts of a team of students working with Villanova University School of Law’s Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services, or CARES.

He took a “vacation” to Cuba then made his way to the Mexican border! If he was so persecuted, why didn’t he ask for asylum in Cuba.  It looks like the Cuban government is in on the scheme though because they clearly let him leave for Mexico (and did not send him back to Russia).

The Russian, whose name was redacted from court documents, took advantage of the visa reciprocity between Russia and Cuba, taking a “vacation” to Cuba. From there he made it to Mexico and then used the compass on his phone to cross the Rio Grande into the United States, where he was picked up by border patrol in June. He immediately sought asylum.

The man ended up in the York County detention facility and the case was referred to CARES, which is directed by law professor Michele Pistone.

Since the mid-1990s, the York County jail has rented out space to the United States to house immigrant detainees. Early on, it became clear the detainees were too far from legal assistance, Ms. Pistone said. So the Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center was set up right down the road. PIRC offers detainees seminars on their rights and the Russian refugee attended one such seminar and was connected with CARES, Ms. Pistone said.

Being in “jail” can actually speed up the asylum process:

While it may have been a traumatic experience for the Russian refugee, Ms. Pistone said being in jail may have sped up the asylum process. Ms. Pistone said the backlog for a hearing in immigration courts for those not in jail can be two years.

Ms. Pistone’s client, meanwhile, had his hearing less than six months from when he entered the country.

50 more such cases!  All gay Russian cases pending in courts?

Ms. Majkut (a law student) worked with Immigration Equality and the Heartland Alliance National Immigrant Justice Center for research on this case. She said those organizations have seen an influx of gay Russians calling with questions about asylum as well as the number of Russians defensively seeking asylum, meaning they are already detained and are facing adversarial proceedings.

Ms. Majkut said those organizations have upwards of 50 cases similar to her client’s that are pending in immigration court.

Now that the Russian gay man has received asylum, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (a federal refugee contractor) has stepped in to get him his “benefits” (welfare goodies)!  Coincidentally, when I went to the refugee pow-wow in Lancaster, PA last June I sat in on one session involving HIAS’s leading work with gay “refugees.”

The client has been working with the immigration-focused public interest firm HIAS Pennsylvania to get benefits the government pays to refugees. He has since found an apartment and is looking for work, Ms. Pistone said.

Photo is here along with Ms Pistone’s bio.  Oh geez, I see she went to Malta in 2006.  I wonder if she was ‘helpful’ in making Malta a gateway for African refugees to the US because it began about that time?  See our entire ‘Malta’ archive by clicking here.

UK Independence Party turnabout: Bring in the Syrians!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update:  Farage drops call for all Syrian refugees, says Christians only.  Hat tip: Joanne

Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, has riled his followers by declaring it’s time to bring in the Syrian refugees.  Yesterday we reported how the Syrian flow into Turkey was destabilizing that government, now the UK political party whose followers joined largely because it had declared that England was “full-up” has been shaken to its core by Farage’s declaration.

Nigel Farage has angered his followers, wants the UK to admit Syrian refugees.

Here is a bit of the Daily Mail on the story that fills my Syrian alerts today:

Nigel Farage faced a backlash from his own supporters last night after calling for Britain to admit refugees from the civil war in Syria.

Supporters of the UK Independence Party denounced their leader after Mr Farage used an interview with the BBC yesterday to call for Britain to allow those fleeing Syria to come to the UK.

He said refugees fleeing from conflicts were ‘a very different thing’ from economic migrants.

But he was attacked online by UKIP supporters – who said the country was already ‘full up’ and warned they would no longer vote for UKIP unless he changes his mind.

Mr Farage’s policy goes further than the Coalition, which has limited its help to financial support for countries taking in refugees.

The Daily Mail has a list of on-line critics of Farage and what they said about this new position.

And, here we go again, a “conservative,” knees knocking, fearing being labeled a racist:

He did not put a figure on how many of the nine million Syrians displaced by war who should be allowed into the UK, but Labour has said Britain should accept up to 500.

Mr Farage’s intervention appeared to be an attempt to show voters that UKIP is not opposed to all immigration following months of accusations from political rivals that the party is racist.

[….]

Former shadow minister David Davis said: ‘It’s about Mr Farage trying to reposition his party so that the anti-immigration argument, which is so important to them, is not seen as a barbaric argument, so from that point of view there is a bit of political positioning going on.

“The solution is not taking a few hundred people to make us feel happier.”

My sentiments exactly!  And, if the US takes 2,000 Syrians it will be for the same reason!

The Daily Mail wraps up with this:

Fellow Conservative Andrew Brigden branded Mr Farage’s comments ‘political tokenism’.

‘These are Syrian people who want to live in Syria. The solution is not taking a few hundred people to make us feel happier,’ he said. ‘What we need is a politically-negotiated solution to this problem.’

Hear! Hear!

As predicted by ORR, the number of illegal alien “kids” skyrocketed this year

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Note: Apprehensions data are from United State Border Patrol, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and represent the number of children apprehended in the United States. Referrals data are from Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and represent the number of apprehended children referred to ORR for detention.

Back in June we attended a refugee pow-wow in Lancaster, PA where an official representing the Office of Refugee Resettlement predicted the number of “unaccompanied minors” would reach 20,000 this year.  Sure looks like he had a crystal ball, or knew this latest world-wide trick of separating children/teens from parents and sending them across borders to seek asylum was being pushed hard by open borders activists.

Here is Fox News on how Obama’s policies toward “Dreamers” is acting like a magnet for the children.

Mentioned here is the fact that many of the asylum-seeking kids (abused by Mom and Dad?) are given over to the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.  Not mentioned is that ORR in  turn pays the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services to care for them until they are 18 and released into America.

The number of children caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has surged over the last two years, raising questions about whether the Obama administration’s changing immigration policies are creating a magnet.

Statistics released late last week show 24,668 “unaccompanied alien children” were placed last year in the care of the federal agency that, by law, is responsible for them. That’s nearly double the number from 2012, and nearly quadruple the number in years past.

As is often the case with immigration statistics, it’s unclear what is driving the increase. The surge could be driven in part by better enforcement, and immigration officers doing a better job catching border crossers.

But critics point to other factors. A federal judge in Texas claimed earlier this month that the Department of Homeland Security has been delivering children smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border to their illegal immigrant parents. In June 2012, the administration decided to give a reprieve to young illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.

Though the latter would not apply to people who just arrived, critics say these policies send a clear message south of the border: The rewards of trying to cross into the U.S. outweigh the risks.

[….]

According to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, most of the minors come from Central America — largely Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

The stats show a big spike over the past two years. The office recorded an “unprecedented increase” in 2012, with the number jumping from an average of 6,775 to 13,625.

You are paying for their housing through grants to the Lutherans and Catholics:

Most of the children are housed through a network of federally funded care centers. But as the traffic increases, those are becoming over-burdened.

Now, can you imagine what a racket it will become if every kid in the world who is “abused” by his or her parents is eligible for asylum or legal status in some other country!

Some of the children who cross illegally into the U.S. can petition for legal status. According to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, those seeking asylum or who can demonstrate they were abused or abandoned by their parents in their native country can be eligible.

The truth is that very few (none most likely!) are returned to their home country.  At 18 (or sooner to “relatives”) they are simply released into America and make up the “Dreamer” population where some legal clinic takes up their case (so you can pay for their college educations too!).

There is more in the Fox News story, it is worth reading the whole thing.

By typing ‘unaccompanied minors’ into our search function, you will find all of our previous coverage of the subject.

The graph is from The Migrationist website.  It is not clear to me exactly where are all the thousands of kids who are “apprehended” but not in the care of ORR go—are they all just released to relatives?

Belgium, Germany, Greece: the invasion of Europe continues….

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….making the natives restless!

Afghans shout slogans as they demand refugee status in Belgium.

In Belgium, Afghans demanded asylum!

From Russia Today (hat tip: pungentpeppers):

Up to 350 Afghan asylum-seekers and their supporters set up a camp in Belgium’s western town of Mons, urging local authorities to arrange a meeting with Belgian Prime Minister to demand residency papers.

The Prime Minister was not at home, and the asylum demanders were offered, but turned down a warm room.

While the Prime Minister has at least promised to study their cases, his Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration and for Social Integration, Maggie De Block, informed that the Afghans’ requests would be processed as for any other illegal immigrants.

The numbers are growing.

In 2012, there were 332 000 asylum applicants registered in the EU27, the European Union of 27 Member States. Afghanistan, with 8 percent of the total number of applicants, remained the first main country of citizenship of these applicants, according to Eurostat.

Germany, France, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Belgium register 70 percent of all applicants. In 2012, the highest number of applicants was registered in Germany (77 500 applicants, or 23 percent of total applicants), followed by France (18 percent), Sweden (13 percent), the United Kingdom (8 percent) and Belgium (8 percent).

In Germany the far-right is growing!

From Fox News:

BERLIN –  Germany has seen a spike in far-right protests against refugees this year as the number of people seeking asylum in the country rose by two thirds.

Government figures show 18 “noteworthy” extremist gatherings outside buildings housing refugees this year, compared with three in 2012.

Nearly 100,000 people applied for asylum in Germany between January and November, up from 60,000 in 2012.

[….]

Almost half the protests this year were organized by the far-right National Democratic Party, or NPD.

Germany’s 16 states have asked the country’s highest court to ban the party.

Ha!  Germany, banning opposition parties?  Isn’t that what happened once before in history?  No lessons learned about fascism and silencing speech?

Police chief says they must make life tough for illegal migrants entering Greece.

From the Christian Science Monitor:

As Syria’s refugee crisis mounts, host countries in Europe and the Middle East have grown uneasy over new arrivals. But even by these standards, candid comments by Greece’s top police official reveal a particularly hostile welcome for thousands of refugees on Europe’s southern border.

Oopsy!

Last week, the Chief of the Greek Police suggested that irregular immigrants’ lives should “be made unbearable,” according to a leaked audio recording from a meeting of police officials publicized by the Greek magazine, Hot Doc.

“If (authorities) told me I could go to a country… and would be detained for three months and then would be free to steal and rob, to do whatever you want… that is great,” a man identified as the police chief says on the tape. Describing the police response, he continued: “We aimed for increased periods of detention… we increased it to 18 months… for what purpose? We must make their lives unbearable.”

Here is one thing I don’t get about this—these illegal migrants (would-be asylum seekers) are traveling through Turkey to get to Europe.  Turkey is a “safe country,” why aren’t they asking for asylum there and why isn’t the UNHCR demanding that they apply in Turkey, even if it means more UN camps in Turkey.  It makes one wonder if the UN and Turkey are in cahoots to help speed up the invasion of Europe.