Category: Asylum seekers

Told you so! Malta is now an illegal immigration magnet

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Ever since the benevolent and brilliant Tea Party Molly (our former Ambassador to Malta) came up with the scheme of turning illegal immigrants arriving on Malta’s shores into legitimate refugees and giving them airline tickets to your town, I’ve warned that the practice would only increase the flow of Somalis and other Africans to the tiny island of Malta.  Sure enough, the EU’s border control agency confirms that today.

Officials from the EU’s border control agency Frontex have warned the Maltese authorities that publicity given to the recent agreements reached with the USA and other countries are being exploited by organised crime in Libya to market Malta as the destination to send asylum seekers and irregular immigrants.

The shocking revelation was reportedly made during a Frontex debriefing meeting held in Caltanisetta in Sicily, where military and governmental officials from EU Member States were given details about the recent Nautilus IV mission held in the Mediterranean during this summer, in a bid to contrast the flow of illegal immigrants.

Senior military sources told MaltaToday that Frontex officials spoke of intelligence that showed how criminals behind the lucrative illegal migration trade were “actually marketing Malta as the right destination to direct migrants,” given that it has now become public that the US is accepting migrants from Malta.

Frontex have reportedly warned the Maltese government that the publicity given to re-settlement agreements for migrants, is being immediately exploited by criminal gangs as the right “marketing tool” just like any travel agent would promote a destination to make more money.

Since the US embassy began its permanent refugee resettlement program in May 2008, over 320 refugees have been resettled to the US. The latest group of refugees were resettled in cities across the United States, including Denver, Atlanta, and Portland.

Just a reminder readers—refugees are supposed to seek asylum in the first country in which they land.  Basically what Molly and our State Department have done is set a precedent with this practice in Malta.  Legitimate refugees don’t get to arrive in a country and expect to be whisked away to the US, until now that is.

We’ve been writing about Malta for a couple of years.  Go here for our archives on the subject.

Australia: Factions riot in Christmas Island detention center

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

You can be sure these days to hear news from Australia about illegal immigrants reaching Australian shores and applying for asylum—five boats arrived this week alone!    While applications for asylum are processed, the boatmen (it is mostly men) are detained on Christmas Island. 

In one more example of how diversity is so beautiful, yesterday, Afghani and Sri Lankan detainees went at each other with whatever weapons they could find.   I found it somewhat amusing to read that pool cues served as weapons, which tells me that Australian taxpayers are providing for the men’s entertainment—pool that is, while detainees had other entertainment in mind.

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

THIRTY-SEVEN Afghan and Sri Lankans have been injured in a massed brawl on Christmas Island involving 150 detainees.

Ten of the detainees were taken to the island’s hospital and three of the more seriously hurt – one with a broken leg, one with a broken jaw and one with a broken nose – were flown to Perth for treatment yesterday.

Some guards suffered minor injuries while breaking up the fight, an Immigration Department spokesman said last night.

The spokesman said the department, Sirco – which runs the centre – and Australian Federal Police based on the island were investigating the brawl.

He said it was too soon to say what triggered the violence.

The trouble began about 6.30pm on Saturday. As the confrontation between the Afghans and more recently arrived Sri Lankans developed, those involved wielded pool cues, broom handles and branches.

Detention centre staff moved in quickly to break it up but it took them 30 minutes to get those fighting under control.

“This was a confrontation between a group of detainees, it was not aimed at staff or the centre itself,” the spokesman said.

What do you say all 150 involved in the riot ought to be immediately deported?  Heck, more are arriving weekly to take their place.

Forty-four boats carrying 2094 passengers, most of them from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Iraq, and 92 crew have arrived in Australian waters so far this year.

The latest was intercepted by the Australian Customs vessel Roebuck Bay south-west of the Ashmore Islands on Friday.

It was carrying 53 passengers and two crew, and they were taken to Christmas Island.

The boat was the fifth to arrive in Australian waters in a week.

A refugee of a different sort, fugitive from US justice

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I just came across this story and although it is off topic from what we usually write about, I thought it might interest readers.   A man accused of killing his wife in Denver in 2002, escaped to Argentina where he has been granted “refugee” status claiming the US was persecuting him.    I sure hope fugitives from justice (murder suspects and so forth) in other countries are not showing up here and asking for asylum.

From the Denver Post:

A man wanted in Denver on suspicion of killing his wife in 2002 has become a celebrity in Argentina for his anti-U.S. conspiracy theories, making it increasingly unlikely that he will ever stand trial here for murder.

Kurt Sonnenfeld’s allegations of persecution by U.S. officials have earned him refugee status and the sympathy of a Nobel Peace Prize winner and have made him a popular news figure in Argentina, where he recently published a book called “El Perseguido,” or the hunted.

There is lots more, read on.  The twist is that this guy is a 9/11 truther.

African asylum seekers reaching South America, hope to get to the US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a Reuters story published in the New York Times yesterday about the increase in numbers of African asylum seekers getting into South American countries.  Some settle into black Muslim communities there, others try to come across land through Mexico to the US.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Stowed away on cargo ships and unsure where their dangerous journeys will take them, increasing numbers of African immigrants are arriving in Latin America as European countries tighten border controls.

Some head to Mexico and Guatemala as a stepping stone to the United States, others land in the ports of Argentina and Brazil. Though many arrive in Latin America by chance, once in the region they find governments that are more welcoming than in Europe.

“One night I went to the seaport. I was thinking I was going to Europe. Later I found out I was in Argentina,” said Sierra Leone immigrant Ibrahim Abdoul Rahman, a former child soldier who said he escaped his country’s civil war by sneaking onto a cargo ship for a 35-day voyage.

In Brazil, Africans are now the largest refugee group, representing 65 percent of all asylum seekers, according to the Brazil’s national committee for refugees.

There are now more than 3,000 African immigrants living in Argentina, up from just a few dozen eight years ago. The number of asylum seekers each year has risen abruptly, to about 1,000 a year, and a third of them are African.

South America is more “welcoming” than Europe now. 

Many eventually settle here, marry, or become Argentine citizens. Some Africans who have arrived legally have managed to work as musicians and a few others play professional soccer for local clubs. The majority earn a living selling jewelry on the streets of Buenos Aires.

Abdoul Rahman met his Argentine wife when he sold her a ring five years ago. He sends money to his mother and seven sisters in Africa and stays close to his Muslim religion at Buenos Aires’ Alberdi mosque.

There Rahman meets dozens of other Africans for Friday prayers. Although some of those interviewed said they faced racism in Argentina, they agreed that it was minor compared to the xenophobia and anti-immigration laws that African migrants face in Europe.

Coming to the US if they can.

More and more immigrants from Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia are also making their way to Mexico and Central America via cargo ships, hoping to eventually reach the United States over land.

The number of Africans passing through the detention center in Tapachula, a city near Mexico’s southern border, was more than 600 last year, three times as many as in 2007.

Here is a post I wrote almost a year ago about Somalis detained at the Mexican border and how American immigration lawyers are jumping to help them get asylum,

Gotta stop those Muslims from trying to get across the border!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

What country has had it with Muslims sneaking across their borders—no not Norway, the UK, or Canada.  Of course not!  It’s Saudi Arabia that is now bombing a buffer zone along its border to stop those riff-raff Shiite Muslims from coming into their superior and wealthy Sunni Muslim nation.   What was it that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said about beautiful and historic Muslim charity?  From the Associated Press via the Chicago Tribune:

SAN’A, Yemen (AP) — Saudi Arabia is trying to set up a buffer zone inside Yemen after its week-long offensive against the Yemeni Shiite insurgents along the border, a rebel spokesman said Wednesday.

Mohammed Abdel Salam said Saudi warplanes and artillery have been shelling deep into border areas to create the zone and drive the rebels away.

“Their goal seems to be establishing a buffer zone or a no man’s land on the border,” he said in a telephone interview from the rebels’ strongholds in Yemen’s northern Saada province. “It is obvious, they are trying to scare us and make us leave the area.”

Saudi Arabia launched an air and ground offensive against the Yemeni rebels last week after skirmishes along the border. Both Saudi Arabia and Yemen have accused Shiite Iran of backing the rebels raising concerns of another proxy war in the Middle East between region’s Shiite and Sunni powers.

[…..]

Fighting has intensified since August, displacing tens of thousands of people and limited their access to humanitarian aid.

According to the U.N.’s refugee agency, some 175,000 people have been displaced since the fighting began.

We will just keep coming because we are in search of a better life.

Abdel Salam, the rebel spokesman, also predicted the buffer zone won’t prevent infiltrators from Yemen — the most impoverished Mideast nation — from crossing into Saudi Arabia. He suggested many of those who cross are destitute Yemenis in search of a better life on the other side of the boundary.

“Poor Yemenis will keep crossing,” Abdel Salam said.

The Saudis have also been building a state-of-art border fence, here.  And, it’s not just Shiites they are persecuting, check out this post from last month where we learned that Rohingya Muslim refugees are languishing in Saudi jails, here.   Where is the world-wide condemnation of Saudi Arabia, heck, where is Obama’s condemnation of them?