Category: Asylum seekers

Are your kids playing the UN’s “Against all odds” game?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This morning on my twitter feed the UNHCR was promoting a kid’s game—“Against all odds”—which I had never heard of.  Turns out they have been working on building “empathy” in your children worldwide since 2005 with this game to be used in classrooms.  The goal is for Western children to accept “integration” (note they always shun the word assimilation!).

See how clever this is!  The character here looks strikingly like the internationally popular Japanese animation—Anime!

Here is some of what ‘wikipedia’ says about it (emphasis mine):

Against All Odds is an Adobe Flash video game developed by UNHCR designed to teach players about the plight of refugees. Originally released in Swedish in 2005, the game has been translated into several languages, the English edition of which was released in November 2007.

Initial funding for the project came from a grant of NOK 1 million from Statoil to UNHCR’s Baltic and Nordic regional office, with the aim of developing a project to reach young people and promote integration in the region.

UNHCR decided to proceed the project as a web-based game, a medium which could reach a large number of young people, require no distribution costs and minimal marketing costs. The game was aimed at 12 – 15 year olds, an age where people began to develop ideas regarding refugees and similar issues.

In Against All Odds, the player takes the role of a refugee, and plays through twelve stages – depicting his persecution and flight from his native country, through to eventual integration into a foreign country as an asylum seeker.

In awarding a prize in Austria, a jury said this, according to wikipedia:

The jury praised the game for building understanding, empathy and concern for the plight of refugees in the player

Swedish young teens have had eight years of this indoctrination—-do you think it worked there?  See here and here.

Lampedusa: Refugees breed ill will

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Lampedusa is closer to Africa than it is to Italy

Life is harsh for Italians on Lampedusa and it has been made even more challenging with the arrival (or the sinking) of each new boat filled with African and Middle Eastern migrants that ends up on its shores.

See the latest news that has European immigration officials in distress.

Here is an article (from AFP), spawned by the mass drowning, well worth reading (hat tip: pungentpeppers) about the resentment the local residents have to refugees who, in life or in death, get more government benefits than they do.  Lampedusa’s lament….

Lampedusa — Islanders on Europe’s southern edge have become used to tragedy and trauma, they see it every day in the thousands of asylum seekers who land on their shores — and they say they have had enough.

The locals of the remote fishing community on Lampedusa island rush to help every time but their patience is wearing thin as they see government funds allocated to migrants and not to them.

“Here it’s the dead that keep the economy going,” said Silvana Martelli, a waitress, as divers fished out bodies after a shipwreck in which over 300 African refugees are feared to have died.

“It doesn’t feel like our island anymore. There’s money to take care of the immigrants while the schools fall apart and rubbish piles up,” she said.

As European ministers discuss the refugee crisis at talks in Luxembourg on Tuesday, this type of local resentment is a concern for governments that see the problem before them but do not want to risk being seen as a soft touch on immigration.

With a resident population of just a few thousand people, Lampedusans are sometimes outnumbered by the new arrivals before they are transferred to asylum centres on the Italian mainland.

In a corner of the harbour, the blue and red fishing boats daubed in Arabic script that are used for the landings lie discarded —

Read on about problems such as burying this many people on a tiny island, here.

Calais Syrian stalemate continues as French and Brits trade barbs

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It seems a French Member of the European Parliament said she believes that since the Syrians occupying the port of Calais want to go to the UK, they should be let in!   MEP Gerard Batten (Independence Party member) shot back with the truth one rarely hears regarding political asylum and why the Syrians want to be allowed into the UK.  For new readers, our original post is here.

UK Independence party representative Gerard Batten: Don’t offload your problem on us!

From the story at the UK Daily Mail (emphasis mine):

French politicians have been accused of trying to ‘offload’ Syrian refugees on Britain in a growing row over who should give them asylum.

Scores of Syrians have occupied the Calais ferry terminal including a dozen who are on hunger strike and two threatening to kill themselves if they are not given safe passage to Britain.

But a French MEP has come under fire after urging the European Parliament to back their call to be allowed into Britain.

If you have been wondering why the Syrians aren’t satisfied with France, here is the long and short of it:

Unlike Britain, France does not pay benefits to asylum seekers while their claims are being processed. About 40 Syrians have refused to move from a passenger gangway.

Batten to the rescue with several major points!

Mr Batten, the UK Independence Party’s spokesman on security and defence, said later: ‘The suggestion that Syrian refugees in Calais should be sent post-haste to England is absolutely outrageous.

‘These people have made their way across Europe with the intention of landing up in the UK. This is contrary to the UN Convention on Refugees that says they should seek refuge in the first safe country they come to.  [Important point #1 and it is rarely mentioned by anyone!—ed]

‘They want to come to Britain because of our reputation as a soft touch. [Important point #2—ed] They may indeed be refugees, but they are attracted to Britain because of the generous housing, benefits, and social services systems made available to foreigners.

‘If the French have not prevented their entry into France, as they were entitled to do under the Convention [Important point #3, the French let them into France—ed], then the French should offer them asylum, not try to offload the problem onto the UK.’

Germany’s Friedrich and now Britain’s Gerard Batten, could we be seeing the beginning of a trend?

German conservatives: solution to Lampedusa tragedy is not to accept more migrants

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, of course the Leftists and Socialists in the majority in Europe are proposing just that—allow more to enter the EU.  It seems to me to be intuitive that when you “put sugar on the table” (not my phrase), more will come.  Readers not familiar with what happened off Lampedusa, go here.

Interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich: African migrants “economically” motivated, most not truly in need of political asylum.

From World Bulletin (emphasis mine):

Lampedusa asylum tragedy sparks calls for reform in EU’s strict immigration rules. But Germany’s conservatives, who almost secured a new term in September elections, oppose proposed steps.

Germany’s conservative interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich has dismissed calls for softening the rules of immigration in Europe and urged for more strict measures against illegal immigration.

“The refugee tragedy in Lampedusa has shaken all of us. We should do everything to ensure that such a tragedy would not happen again,” Friedrich told German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, ahead of the Tuesday’s EU interior ministers meeting in Luxembourg. But Friedrich strongly opposed to the recent suggestions made by German opposition parties to the government for relaxing the strict immigration rules and accepting more refugees to Germany.

Interior minister Friedrich argued that most of the migrants coming from African countries were “economically” motivated, rather than being refugees in need of political asylum. German minister stressed that Europe should make stronger efforts in cooperation with the African states to support development efforts in these countries.

Readers, often the open borders gang is happy to blur the lines on the definition of refugees, but know that those looking for a better life economically are not “refugees” or “asylum seekers.”

Immigrants are shopping for the best social welfare deal they can get in Europe!

Germany’s conservative interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich on Tuesday has also called for stronger measures within the EU against what he described as economically motivated immigration that exploits Germany’s social security system.

Friedrich expressed Germany’s discomfort at growing number of immigrants who are coming to Germany from other European countries thanks to the EU’s freedom of movement principle, but not studying or working and paying their taxes. These are increasingly becoming a burden and problem for German cities and municipalities he argued and urged for measures. “Freedom of movement does not mean having a freedom to change your home country just to benefit from the higher social service standards of another country,” Friedrich said.

Go here for more on Germany’s immigration problems.

Greece: 19 Somalis found crammed in bus compartment being transported to Italy

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Fox News and others have the AP story:

THESSALONIKI, Greece –  Police in northern Greece say 19 Somali migrants have been found hidden under the roof of a fake tour bus headed to Italy, and 23 Greeks alleged to be posing as tourists were arrested.

The 12 women and seven men were found crammed in the 35 centimeter- (13.7 inch-) high compartment after police stopped and searched the bus Tuesday outside Thessaloniki city.

Giorgos Pantelakos, head of Thessaloniki police’s human trafficking division, said the Somalis each paid 3,000 euros ($4,100) for the trip, while the seated passengers each received 100 euros ($135) to act as vacationers.

So where are the destitute Somalis getting $4,000 a pop to make the trip?