Category: Asylum seekers

Uighur charged in Sweden with spying for China

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

He is charged with spying on fellow Uighurs.  Here is the story (note the links at this site are slow-opening):

A 61-year-old Uighur living in Sweden as a political refugee since 1997 has been charged with spying for China on Uighur expatriates, a Swedish prosecutor said Wednesday.

The man was identified in court documents as Swedish citizen Babur Maihesuti. He was arrested in Stockholm on June 4, 2009.

He has been charged with aggravated espionage conducted “during the period January 2008 up until June 3, 2009,” prosecutor Tomas Lindstrand told AFP.

“He passed information to a Chinese diplomat and a Chinese journalist who, on assignment from the Chinese intelligence service, carried out operations in Sweden for the Chinese state,” the indictment filed with Stockholm district court on Tuesday claimed.

Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Central Asian people residing in northwest China’s Xinjiang region, have accused Beijing of decades of religious, cultural and political oppression.

Maihesuti spied on Uighurs active in associations in Sweden, Norway, Germany and the United States, Lindtsranbd said.

According to the indictment, he “made it appear as though he sympathised with the ethnic Uighurs, took part in conferences and meetings with them, and kept secret that he was passing information about them to representatives for the Chinese state.”

The information included details about their “political asylum, health conditions, country of residence, travels and telephone numbers.”

The indictment said he was paid and received personal favours for his services.

“The crime is considered aggravated because it was systematic, conducted professionally over a lengthy period, and may have caused or cause future serious harm to a large number of people,” it said.

Lindstrand said the man “denied committing any crime.”

“He says the meetings took place because he was asked by (exiled US-based Uighur leader) Rebiya Kadeer to negotiate with someone who represented the Chinese state, in other words the journalist he met with. That’s his explanation,” he said.

What interested me was to learn that we have a US-based Uighur leader? Is that why the American Uighur community was so eager to get refugee status for Uighurs being held in detention at Guantanamo Bay?   By the way, note the story from Sweden never mentions that the Uighurs are Muslims.

In a companion story, China warned the UN about what they claim are fake refugees, here.

China warned Tuesday that UN refugee programmes “should not be a haven for criminals” and said 22 Uighurs who are seeking asylum in Cambodia were involved in crimes. A foreign ministry spokeswoman said China was investigating the Uighurs, who include three children and who arrived at the UN refugee agency office in Phnom Penh after fleeing ethnic conflict in northwest China in July.

Obama lifts restrictions on detention for asylum seekers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Obama Administration, obviously responding to complaints from groups like Human Rights First and Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, has reduced the time a prospective asylum seeker must spend in detention before being released into the US.  By the way, once released they are supposed to return for legal hearings.  I don’t know what the stats are for the number who do return, but I bet its pretty abysmal.  If the numbers were good AP would have reported that figure.

From AP:

Currently, foreigners who come to the U.S. without valid documents can be immediately removed from the country, without a hearing. Also, requests for release must be made in writing, ICE said.

Brian Hale, ICE spokesman, said the new policy also will apply to people seeking asylum and already in detention.

The advocacy group Human Rights First reported last April that from 2004 to 2007, the rates of temporary release of asylum seekers dropped from 41.3 percent to 4.2 percent.

The Bush administration toughened criteria for asylum seekers to win release from detention in 2007. Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, said those rules were “unduly harsh” and cheered the changes Tuesday.

Immigrant advocates wanted to see more details on the change before commenting.

Steve Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for tougher immigration laws, said detention ensures people show up for hearings.

“The overwhelming amount of people who apply for asylum don’t get it and that’s why they don’t show up. Lack of detention destroys the credibility and meaningfulness of immigration courts,” Camarota said.

It was only last month that we reported on the Africans going to South America and then attempting to get across our Mexican border, here.   So, when some fake asylum seeker, pretending to be escaping persecution, from say Somalia, Bangladesh, Iraq or even Saudi Arabia, slips into Vermont across the Canadian border we know to point a finger at Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont.

For more information and statistics go here.  Note that we granted asylum to 22,930 people who entered the US in 2008 and claimed they were being persecuted.  Chinese asylum seekers topped the list.  10,443 of the total number granted asylum were in the process of removal when a judge then granted them asylum.  I’m wondering how many of the Chinese were Muslim Uighurs (see my next post, here it is).

Successful asylum seekers get all the help from public assistance that refugees receive.

Canada an attractive target for immigrants as many countries close doors

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is an article about Canada that tells readers that Canada has attractive asylum laws and as a result the word is spreading for economic migrants to head to North America.  However, in listing countries closing their doors, the author suggests the US is not so welcoming anymore, but frankly I’ve seen no recent reduction in the number of immigrants the US is welcoming.  In fact, the Obama Administration is shooting for the highest refugee quota in years.

The worst recession in a generation has already played havoc with the job market, housing prices and the banking system. Now it’s doing the same with something else: the worldwide movement of people.

The world’s wealthiest nations, from Japan to Spain to Australia, are cutting immigration targets to protect fragile labour markets and encouraging itinerant workers to leave. Only Canada has refused to adjust immigration levels in response to the downturn.

This outlier status has led to concern among border officials that the country’s sympathetic refugee system and generous social programs will make it a prime target for migrants rejected elsewhere.

A government intelligence document described as sensitive and not for public distribution warns that more migrants from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America could opt to come to Canada rather than Western Europe or the United States. The report refers to both legal applicants and those who try to enter illegally.

[….]

“Individuals who may not be fleeing persecution are drawn to Canada because of our overly generous asylum system,” Mr. Velshi said. Human trafficking rings in Canada and the Czech Republic, for example, were encouraging people to make refugee claims in Canada, he added.

So again the author lists examples of other countries closing doors, but has no figures to make a point that the US is taking in less immigrants.

As jobs disappear, host countries are lowering immigration quotas to trim welfare rolls and quell potential anti-immigrant feeling. They’re also bolstering immigration enforcement. Authorities in Italy and Spain, for example, have redoubled their efforts to expel undocumented workers and prevent boatloads of African migrants from reaching their shores. Japan announced plans to send home 400,000 South Americans of Japanese heritage to ease its labour market strain. Spain has returned 300,000 migrants and paid 6,000 others a special supplement to leave the country. Australia reduced its intake targets by nearly 15 per cent.

The only thing I can assume is that fewer asylum seekers may try to come to the US because we don’t have that wonderful magnet—an extensive welfare system with socialized medicine for all.  That is, we don’t have it yet, but Obama is working on it!

Uyghurs slipping out of China; asking for refugee status

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Uyghurs (sometimes spelled Uighurs) are Chinese Muslims.  We have written about them on many occasions because a bunch have been held at Guantanamo Bay after having been captured in Afghanistan and the Obama Administration has been trying to find new homes for them.  In October we reported on Uyghurs stated intentions to bring “Holy War” to China,  here (Kill the Chinese Communists where you find them!)

Now, here is news that some Uyghurs are slipping across the border into Vietnam and then making their way to Cambodia were they are applying to the UNHCR for refugee status.   See the whole story at Radio Free Asia, here.

Twenty-two Uyghurs—a predominantly Muslim minority concentrated in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR)—have sought protection from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, according to Uyghur sources in Asia, who asked not be to named.

The Uyghurs are currently in the care of international Catholic organization the Jesuit Refugee Service, which declined to comment on the status of the group.

Here is an idea, Catholic Charities could set them up in Pittsburgh, here.

No family Thanksgiving at the White House for Auntie Zeituni

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Associated Press has a story, linked on Drudge, that updates us about President Obama’s Aunt Zeituni Onyango.  She is the Aunt who was living illegally in the US and almost became an election-eve nightmare for candidate Obama.  According to this story, only George Bush saved Onyango and Obama from a major political trainwreck days before the November 2008 election.  

We reported previously, here, here and here, about Auntie’s deportation order and her life in Boston subsidized housing.  Actually we have a bunch more posts on her case, but those three links should give you adequate background.

From time to time Rush Limbaugh will point out how Obama (now rich from his Bill Ayers written book), the defender of the poor and downtrodden, has left his impoverished brother in a tiny hut in Kenya and this story about Obama having nothing to do with Aunt Zeituni further demonstrates the point.   Leftwing leaders talk a good game about helping the poor but don’t do a whole hell of a lot personally.

At this point Aunt Zeituni is not a political liability to Obama because she is not hiding out, she is pursuing remaining legal options.*  Therefore, Obama’s apparent abandonment of her only serves to make Obama look like a chicken and a cheapskate.

How many readers, even those of you who think she was wrong for skirting the law, would object to Obama paying for her housing and food rather than the US and Massachusetts’ taxpayers footing the bill?   And, heck, he should have had her to Thanksgiving dinner!   (Since she says she hasn’t seen Obama since his inauguration we assume she was not among the “extended family” at the White House dinner.)

Here is the AP story:

BOSTON – President Barack Obama’s aunt buried her face in her hands and sobbed as she described her anguish over no longer having contact with him and his family after the revelation she had been living illegally for years in the United States in public housing.

Zeituni Onyango (zay-TUH’-nee awn-YAHN’-goh) told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that she is troubled that her immigration woes have made her a political liability to her nephew.

Onyango, the half sister of Obama’s late father, said she has exiled herself from the family after attending Obama’s inauguration because she didn’t want to become fodder for his foes. Obama and his family have not reached out to her either, she said.

“Before, we were family. But right now, there is a lot of politics, and me, I am not interested in any politics at all,” said Onyango, whose appeal for asylum from her native Kenya is before an immigration judge in Boston.

There is no way Obama didn’t know her immigration status when they were previously so close.

Onyango said she previously had no trouble visiting Obama when he was a state senator in Illinois or after he became a U.S. senator, though she declined to discuss details of how often she had contact with Obama and his family. Her tiny apartment in a modest subsidized public housing complex for seniors and the disabled is adorned with photographs of her with Obama at the Illinois Statehouse, the president’s official portrait, his family, the inauguration, her children and African wildlife.

George Bush is her number one man!

Onyango reserved special words of kindness for former President George W. Bush for a directive he put in place days before the election requiring federal agents get high-level approval to arrest fugitive immigrants, which directly affected Onyango. The directive made clear that U.S. officials worried about possible election implications of arresting Onyango.

She said she wants to thank Bush in person for the order, which gave her a measure of peace but was lifted weeks later.

“I loved President Bush,” Onyango said while moving toward a framed photo of Bush and his wife standing with Barack and Michelle Obama at the White House on inauguration day. “He is my No. 1 man in my life because he helped me when I really needed that help.”

I’ll betcha George Bush would have invited her to his Thanksgiving dinner if she had been his Auntie.

* She will have a hard time convincing a judge she would be persecuted in Kenya where the Obama’s are rock stars!