Category: Asylum seekers

Syrians flooding into Lebanon bring instability and job competition, so much for Muslim charity

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is a story from last week that I never got around to mentioning (thanks to a reader for sending it).  Lebanon is being overwhelmed by the arrival of Syrian refugees and anger and resentment is growing among the Lebanese.  What!  I thought Muslims were the most welcoming people in the world (that’s what the UN told us, here).

Before I get to the story, check out this map of Syria and its neighbors.  Do you know who isn’t taking any refugees?  Uber-wealthy Saudi Arabia, as we learned recently, is the fifth most-desired destination for would-be migrants following, the US, the UK, Canada and France, but has closed its door to refugees.  The UN never criticizes Saudi Arabia for wanting to keep their country wealthy and for their own kind of people.  And, I bet all those Muslims (29 million!) who want to live in S.A. believed the myth about Islamic charity too!

Syrians are flowing to Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon, but not wealthy Saudi Arabia

Stories like this one at the Los Angeles Times will be used to soften you up for when the refugee advocates begin clamoring (probably in May!) for you to “welcome” some nice Syrians to your towns and cities.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon — Khaled Naaman doesn’t hide his disdain for the Syrian government, a widely shared sentiment in this northern Lebanese city, where many harbor dark memories of Damascus’ years of military occupation.

His impoverished neighborhood, Bab Tabbaneh, stands as a bastion of support for Syrian rebels seeking to oust President Bashar Assad; their tricolor banner flutters from buildings and is spray-painted on walls. The district has also welcomed multitudes of refugees seeking to escape the Syrian conflict.

But now after almost two years of a steady influx of displaced Syrians, Naaman and other Lebanese citizens in Bab Tabbaneh are growing weary. Many blame the newcomers for shrinking wages and job opportunities and increasing rents and prices for groceries, car repairs and necessities.

“Syrians are everywhere and they are taking jobs,” said Naaman, a grizzled native of Tripoli in his mid-40s who ekes out a living selling vegetables, having retired from his position as a right-hand man for a now-deceased leader of one of this city’s many militias.

The anger vented by Naaman and others is indicative of a growing unease across Lebanon about the steady stream of refugees, who they fear may destabilize Lebanon’s brittle political and social balance.

Each day, as many as 1,000 Syrians enter Lebanon, a nation of 4.5 million people wedged between Syria, Israel and the Mediterranean Sea. Lebanon, about a quarter the size of Switzerland, sits astride some of the Middle East’s most volatile sectarian and ethnic fault lines.

More than 400,000 Syrians have fled to Lebanon since the uprising began two years ago, authorities say, adding to a sizable Syrian population already here.

Unlike in Turkey, Jordan and Iraq, other major destinations for Syrian refugees, there are no formal camps in Lebanon. Lebanese leaders are loath to go that route, recalling how semiautonomous Palestinian enclaves helped detonate the Lebanese civil war, a sectarian bloodletting that lasted from 1975 to 1990 and left about 150,000 dead and much of the country in ruins. The Syrian military entered Lebanon in 1976 and didn’t exit until 2005, after allegations it was involved in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

There is more, read it all.

Go here for our archive on Syrian refugees (so far!).

Senator Leahy, cheered on by the “human rights” industry, introduces bill (again) to get more refugees into US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Senators Levin and Leahy first introducing their bill in 2010.

Before you read latest news about Senator Patrick Leahy’s bill, be sure to check out my previous post, here, about the 138 million migrants worldwide who want to get into the US.

And, I just saw more incredible information from VDARE about how one liberal Brit has figured out that letting the world into the UK was a huge mistake!

Here is Human Rights First gushing over the Refugee Protection Act of 2013  (what about the American worker protection act?).  The Human Rights gang wants this bill focused mostly on making asylum easier to obtain, to get more money for the contractors, and to become part of so-called “comprehensive immigration reform.”

Washington, D.C. – Human Rights First welcomes the introduction of the Refugee Protection Act of 2013, legislation the group notes would repair many of the most severe problems in the U.S. asylum and refugee systems and strengthen the U.S. commitment to providing refuge to victims of religious, political, ethnic and other forms of persecution. The group notes that the bill should be included in the final immigration reform package expected to emerge this year. Notably, like the president’s immigration reform principles, this bill eliminates the asylum filing deadline and makes improvements to our nation’s immigration courts.

Eleanor Acer: We have a badly damaged asylum system.  Millions of vulnerable refugees can’t get into US, and need more social services when they do!

“Immigration reform offers an important opportunity to consider and enact the Refugee Protection Act.  Refugee protection is an essential element of U.S. immigration policy, and  despite this country’s strong tradition of protecting refugees from persecution, a barrage of laws, policies and practices have badly damaged our asylum system over the years,” said Human Rights First’s Eleanor Acer. “These flaws have led the United States to deny its protection to refugees who have fled from serious political, religious and other forms of persecution. The Refugee Protection Act would address many of these concerns and help restore our nation’s commitment to protecting vulnerable refugees.” The bill was also introduced in the 112th and 111th Congresses.

The bill to get more refugees through the screening process and to make it easier for asylum seekers to be granted asylum is sponsored by the following Senators and Members of Congress—the list is no surprise!   Ms. Acer continues:

 The Refugee Protection Act of 2013 is championed in the Senate by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and co-sponsored by Senator Carl Levin (D-MI). Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)  introduced a companion bill in the House that is co-sponsored by Representatives John Conyers (D-MI), Keith Ellison (D-MN), Jared Polis (D-CO), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Eric Swalwell (D-CA), and Peter Welch (D-VT).

Check out the 77-page bill here and note that Section 23 would authorize more $$$ for the contractors.  Yikes!  After a quick scan, I recommend that everyone interested in how the refugee program is being (mis)managed better read this bill.  With Congress’s penchant for creating thousand-page bills which no one reads, this could easily be incorporated into a massive “comprehensive immigration reform” bill.

No surprise! The world wants to come to America….

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….and the Chinese want to have babies!

Steve Sailer writing at VDARE directs us to a recent worldwide Gallup poll that has determined that, of all the countries in the world, most migrants want to get into America!

Here is Sailer:

The Gallup organization just released the results of a poll of 500,000 people worldwide. It turns out that America is the first choice destination for 138 million adult would-be immigrants. (Their children would no doubt add scores of millions more, bringing the total up to around, say, 200,000,000.)

And America Jr. (i.e., Canada) is the first choice of 37 million adults, and America’s nephew Australia is the first choice of 26 million. Most of those would likely go to America instead if they could get in.

138 million want in while the present US population stands at just over 315 million!  

Here is the Gallup Report and the top countries most desired by would-be migrants.

I hate to break it to the 29 million who want to get into Saudi Arabia, but they don’t allow their Muslim brethren in except for limited slave labor.

Then here are the nationalities of those trying to escape to America and the West:

There is more, read Sailer’s whole commentary.

The Chinese are coming!

No wonder the Chinese are the largest group of asylum seekers slipping into the US.  Here Jason Dzubow writing at The Asylumist tells us why.   Babies!  They want to have babies, lots of babies and for that reason we grant them asylum.

Here is Dzubow (emphasis mine):

A new report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (“UNHCR”) shows that asylum claims in industrialized countries have increased 20% from 2010 to 2011.  The United States continued to receive the most asylum seekers among the countries surveyed: approximately 74,000 asylum seekers in 2011.  This compares to approximately 55,500 asylum seekers for 2010, a 33% increase (among all countries, South Africa received the most asylum seekers).

The increase in asylum seekers to the U.S. is due largely to higher numbers from three countries: China (+20%), Mexico (+94%), and India (+241%).

The U.S. receives more asylum seekers from China than from any other country.  In 2010, we received 12,850 asylum seekers from China.  In 2011, we received 15,450 asylum seekers from China, an increase of 2,600 people or about 20%.  The large numbers are probably due to special provisions in the Immigration and Nationality Act that provide for asylum for victims of forced family planning–these provisions were created specifically to assist people from China, and they certainly seem to have encouraged Chinese nationals to seek asylum here.  Indeed, of the 24,400 Chinese asylum seekers worldwide, the U.S. received about 63% of all cases.  This is a very high number, given our physical distance from China.

For new readers:  The Refugee Resettlement Program and our Asylum Program are two sides of the same coin.  The difference is that with refugees certain nationalities are usually targeted for resettlement—right now the top groups we are taking are Iraqis, Bhutanese/Nepali, and Burmese.  They are screened and flown here and placed in your towns by US State Department contractors.

Asylum seekers get here on their own steam (usually helped by traffickers and paying large fees) and then ask for asylum at our borders or other ports of entry.  Immigration lawyers are ready and waiting for their business—to help them prove they are persecuted for an ever-growing list of complaints (including spousal abuse, sexual orientation and because they want to procreate)!

Update:  Asylum seeker numbers rise sharply in Australia, here.  (I have too many potential posts backed up, so am just linking this story here so as not to lose it).

Tel Aviv: Attempted rape of a child by African migrant stirs controversy again

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I wonder if Obama heard about Israel’s illegal alien problems when he landed there today?

We’ve been reporting the on-going controversy in Israel about African refugees, asylum seekers, illegal aliens (whatever!) coming across Israel’s borders especially now that Egypt has become even more unfriendly to the Jewish state.  See our category Israel and Refugees.

Israeli citizens in South Tel Aviv protest the presence of African illegal migrants in May 2012. photo credit: Tomer Neuberg/Flash90

In the past week, things boiled over again when a Sudanese man broke into a home allegedly intending to attack a child.

From Haaretz on March 13th:

A Sudanese man broke into a home in the south Tel Aviv neighborhood of Yad Eliyahu at 5 A.M on Wednesday morning and apparently tried to sexually assault an 8-year old girl.

According to an initial investigation, the man entered the home and headed straight to the child’s bedroom, at which point the mother, 40, heard her daughter crying and rushed into the room. She tried to stop the man, who stabbed her in the stomach with a knife and left her with moderate wounds.

When the father heard, he rushed to the room and managed to overpower the assailant, injuring him seriously.

Magen David Adom rescue services arrived after the family called the police and evacuated the man to hospital in unconscious and in serious condition, with injuries to his head. The mother and daughter were also taken to hospital and the daughter is now being examined.

The next day, March 14th, 100 people took to the streets to demonstrate against the presence of the Africans in their neighborhood:

From Indepth Africa:

Some 100 people burned a trash bin and blocked a major intersection in south Tel Aviv yesterday to protest the presence there of African migrant workers, following the attempted rape of an 8-year-old girl and stabbing of her mother…

By the way this then sends us back to Haaretz where there was an article about the demonstration the other day, but it appears to have been taken down.  I’m wondering if Haaretz downplayed the demonstration story because it coincided with the release of the Human Rights Report critical of the Netanyahu government which also came out on March 14th?

Just one more incendiary incident in South Tel Aviv

Here is a lengthy article at Al-Monitor critical of Israel for trying to deport illegal aliens/asylum seekers back to Africa.  You can read the whole thing yourself, but here is one segment near the end of the story:

Israeli politicians have been at the forefront of a campaign aiming to expel African asylum seekers from Israel. African refugees have been regularly referred to by politicians, and in media reports, as “infiltrators,” and accused of carrying diseases, stealing and raping Israeli women.

In May 2012, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the presence of African refugees in Israel “is very grave and threatens the social fabric of society, our national security and our national identity.”

Recently, this rhetoric has translated into violence.

Molotov cocktails were thrown at a refugee-run day care center last year, and violent riots broke out during right-wing protests against refugees through South Tel Aviv, an area where many African asylum seekers live. Asylum seekers have also been attacked in streets throughout the country.

On the same day as the alleged attempted rape last week, Human Rights Watch released a critical report on the Israeli government’s attempt to send “asylum seekers” back to Africa.

From the Jerusalem Post:

Human Rights Watch and the Hotline for Migrant Workers released a report on Wednesday stating that Israel is threatening detained Eritrean and Sudanese nationals, including asylum-seekers, with prolonged detention to pressure them to leave Israel.

The report said that since December 11, 2012, “Israel’s pressure has convinced several hundred detained Sudanese and one Eritrean to leave Israel, and in February 2013, some 50 detained Eritreans agreed under similar pressure to leave for Uganda.”

According to the report, all 50 of the detained Eritreans remain in detention.

HRW and the Hotline for Migrant Workers said that Sudanese and Eritreans face a real risk of harm if they return to their home countries.

The report said that under Sudanese law, anyone who has visited Israel faces up to 10 years in prison in Sudan and Sudanese officials have said the courts will apply the law.  

Next, the report stated that because of “credible persecution fears relating to punishment for evading indefinite military service in Eritrea, 80 percent of Eritrean asylum seekers worldwide are granted some form of protection.”

“Israel’s prolonged detention of asylum-seekers apparently aims to shatter all hope so they feel they have no real choice but to leave the country,” said Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Read it all.

It is happening everywhere in the world—the third world wants in to the first world plain and simple.  The first world has to say NO! at some point or ultimately risk collapse.   I think we have reached that point.

About the photo:  The photo and its accompanying story can be found here at The Times of Israel published in December 2012.

Guterres goes to Turkey: Syrian refugees should be allowed to seek asylum in West

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been mostly ignoring the clamor about the refugees flowing out of Syria because I know what it means.  Our refugee industry will be going into high gear to bring them to the West, and here Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, hints at that.

I’m beginning to think these Middle East wars are just one big fat excuse to move Muslims into the West!

From Reuters about the new milestone—1 million Syrians are now outside the country and looking for somewhere to go (emphasis below is mine):

This is a Reuters photo from 2011 showing the construction of a Syrian refugee camp in Turkey. The media campaign to pressure the West to take more refugees is well underway.

The number of refugees outside Syria could triple by the end of the year from the 1 million registered now if there is no political solution to the conflict, the head of the United Nations refugee agency said Sunday.

The millionth Syrian refugee was registered in Jordan Wednesday, following a dramatic acceleration in the number of civilians fleeing fighting in their homeland in the first two months of this year.

[….]

“If this escalation goes on … we might have in the end of the year a much larger number of refugees, two or three times the present level,” High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told reporters in Ankara.

[….]

Most refugees have fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt and some to North Africa and Europe. In addition to the refugees, the UNHCR says more than 2 million of Syria’s 22 million people have been internally displaced.

Refugees have “right” to seek asylum!

Turkey, tired of it all, suggested “international safe zones,” camps inside Syria, but Guterres says NO!   He is essentially saying here that UN camps would signal that this is a temporary situation, that they are going home in a short while, and he wants to keep the media pressure on so as not to “undermine the right of refugees to seek asylum in other countries.”

Guterres, who is on a four-day visit to Turkey, also warned of the risk of an “explosion” in the Middle East if there was no political end to the conflict in Syria, which has increasingly spilled beyond its borders. He did not explain his comments further.

Guterres will meet Turkish leaders during his trip as well as visiting a refugee camp near the Syrian border.

Turkey, which has more than 185,000 Syrians registered in camps on its territory, and tens of thousands more living in towns and cities, has long advocated setting up internationally protected zones inside Syria to protect fleeing civilians.

However, the notion has gained little traction in Western countries, who do not want to get further embroiled in the Syrian conflict.

Guterres said his agency was not against such safe zones in general but that they should not undermine the right for refugees to seek asylum in other countries.

The beat goes on!

A year ago this month, Guterres, a former Socialist Prime Minister of Portugal, was cited for mismanaging millions of your dollars as UN High Commissioner for Refugees since 2005.   But, here he is, still in his job! helping decide the fate of Muslim refugees, many of whom will be placed in your towns and cities in the US, Canada, Australia and in Europe.  Say no! We (US) were guilt-tripped (suckered!) into taking 100,000 Somalis and tens of thousands of Afghans and Iraqis as their Muslim countries imploded. Just say no!

Let the UN use its (your) millions to care for them in camps until they can return home!