Category: Asylum seekers

Asylum applications rise: Iraqis, Afghans, Somalis top list

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The UNHCR has released the latest figures on asylum applications and no surprise the numbers are up.   Asylees are people who have left their home country, enter another country and file for asylum claiming they would be in danger if returned to their homeland.   In the US asylees receive all the benefits that refugees are given and we have hundreds (thousands?) of Immigration lawyers waiting to take their cases.

GENEVA, October 22 (UNHCR) – Asylum applications in industrialized nations rose by 10 percent in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2008, according to the UN refugee agency’s provisional statistics released today. A total of 185,000 asylum claims were filed in the opening six months of this year across 38 European countries, the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and The Republic of Korea.

Iraq remains the top country of origin of the asylum applicants (13,200 claims) for the fourth consecutive year. Afghans (12,000 claims) and Somalis (11,000 claims) are the second and third largest groups as security conditions continue to deteriorate in large parts of their home countries. The other main countries of origin are China, Serbia (including Kosovo), the Russian Federation, Nigeria, Mexico, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

As a region, Europe received 75 percent of all asylum applications although the United States remained the single largest recipient with 13 percent of all applications filed in industrialized nations (23,700, UNHCR estimate). France ranks as the second recipient nation with 10 percent of all claims (19,400), followed by Canada (18,700), the United Kingdom (17,700) and Germany, ranked fifth (12,000).

Only in Massachusetts, Amherst petition would bring two Gitmo detainees to town

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The New England state, home to the Kennedys,  isn’t referred to as the “Peoples Republic of Massachusetts” for nothing.   The Boston Globe is reporting this morning that the town of Amherst will consider officially inviting two Guantanamo Bay prisoners, who fear persecution in their home countries, to live as refugees in their town.  Hat tip:  Mars.

AMHERST – This quaint leafy town in Western Massachusetts is known for its diverse mix of college students and retirees, a former farming community characterized by suburban small talk just as much as cultural institutions. But it is never one to shy from foreign policy, either.

“We like to set our own foreign policy,’’ said Ruth Hooke, a retired University of Massachusetts professor, a Town Meeting member, and participant in Pioneer Valley No More Guantanamos, a local chapter of a national movement calling for the release of detainees imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay.

Hooke and others want to welcome at least two of the detainees to Amherst, population around 30,000 depending on whether classes are in session.

Under a petition Hooke submitted to the town’s Select Board – approved by a 2-1 vote Monday night – the town will call on Congress to rescind its ban on detainees resettling in the United States, and will welcome Ahmed Belbacha, originally from Algeria, and Ravil Mingazov, arrested in Pakistan, to Amherst. The measure will go before a Special Town Meeting on Nov. 2.

Only natural that they would go to Amherst!  And, what is this “open borders” business?

Hooke noted that Amherst has a sizable refugee population. And thus it was only natural that this town, home to UMass and two private colleges, would open its borders once again, possibly making its local government the first in the country to debate the issue.

They want Belbacha and Mingazov:

In Belbacha’s case, according to human rights groups, the Algerian-born man fled death threats in his country to London. While awaiting asylum, he vacationed in Pakistan [ROFLMHO], only to be sold for a capture bounty to the US military. His asylum in London was never granted.

Mingazov, a former Russian soldier who converted to Islam, had moved to Afghanistan to escape persecution. After the US invasion in 2001, he fled to a refugee camp in Pakistan and was arrested in March 2002 on charges of having ties to Al Qaeda.

Will the town also foot their bill for resettlement, or will the federal taxpayer be on the hook for that?

Back to the open borders remark.  Is Ms. Hooke going to assure that with the borders wide open they stay in Amherst and plan no more “vacations” in Pakistan or moves to Afghanistan?

Funny!  Just as I posted this the FBI arrested a Massachusetts terrorist suspect!

Britain deports Iraqi asylum seekers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update October 18th:   More details on this story at the New York Times, here.

Update October 17th:  This is very confusing.  It seems that when the plane landed in Baghdad some of the returned asylum seekers got off the plane and others were told they must return to Great Britain, here.

Just as we in the US are getting ready to resettle possibly tens of thousands of additional Iraqi refugees (more on that in the morning), Britain joins Denmark now in loading them up and sending them back because violence is down.

From Al Jazeera:

Britain has forcibly sent 39 Iraqi asylum seekers back to Baghdad, a refugee group has said.

The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (Ifir) has raised concern over the welfare of the asylum seekers once they arrive in Iraq, which has seen a continuation of deadly suicide bombings in recent months.

The Ifir said 39 people had been deported on a specially chartered Air Italy flight that left London’s Stansted airport early on Thursday.

The group said people on the flight were told it was going to Baghdad, making it the first deportation flight into south or central Iraq from the UK.

And, these 39 are not the first.

According to Britain’s interior ministry, 632 people were deported to northern Iraq between 2005 and 2008.

Why we are white refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That’s the name for a relatively new coalition (new to me anyway!) of South African whites and their friends and supporters who have responded to two of my posts in the last week.  Those posts, here and here, are about two recent cases of white South Africans seeking asylum in Canada and Ireland respectively claiming persecution in the majority black “rainbow nation.”

By the way, I have written on several occasions in the last year or so about the violent crime mostly generated by South African blacks against immigrants of any color.   These folks at Why we support Huntley’s White Refugee Status want me to understand that the persecution is not just against ‘foreigners’ but also against the longstanding white population of South Africa.

I’m linking this blog and encouraging readers to visit it from time to time to understand a phenomenon that we may see on the rise in coming years, maybe even in European countries first (after South Africa), racism by blacks against whites.   I find it incredible (laughable even) to contemplate what will happen if more and more cases of whites seeking asylum come before Leftwing judges in places like the US.   By the way, note this blog tells of a case already (about 5 years ago) of a white South African family being granted asylum in the US.

Imagine how people like Black Marxist Kamau Karl Franklin would respond if whole groups were setting themselves up to battle blacks with claims that blacks were using “racial profiling” against a white minority.

Afghans involved in boat explosion incident will get refugee status in Australia

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is an update to a story we told you about here in April.   Afghanis, with the help of people smugglers, were trying to reach Australia.  When the boat was apprehended an explosian occurred killing five.   The others have now been granted refugee status in Australia.

A group of Afghan asylum seekers who survived an explosion that killed five people in the Timor Sea are to be granted refugee status in Australia. The government, however, has signaled it will deport anyone convicted of causing the explosion, which investigators suspect was sabotage.

In April, a boat carrying 47 Afghan asylum seekers was rocked by an explosion that killed five men and injured almost everyone else on board.

The Australian navy, which found the vessel about 600 kilometers off Australia’s northwest coast, was escorting it when the blast occurred.
Earlier this month, police said that passengers had deliberately started a fire after the boat was intercepted. Despite suspicions of sabotage, senior officers ruled there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone with a crime.

Two Indonesian crewmen, however, have been accused of people smuggling.

Immigration officials have assessed the asylum applications of the surviving passengers and have granted them refugee status.

Anyone found guilty of causing the explosion could still be deported, but the others will now receive the full benefits of refugee status.

Refugee advocates say the men would have faced human rights abuses had they been forced to return to Afghanistan. However, if any are eventually convicted of causing the explosion Australian officials have indicated they would be deported.

Twenty of the men are being held in immigration detention in Brisbane, while the rest are incarcerated in the western Australian city of Perth. They are expected to be released later this week with residency visas and will be re-settled with help from the federal government.

Critics say that Australia’s lenient policies under the Rudd government will just encourage more illegal attempts to reach Australia.

Conservative politicians in Australia accuse Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of being soft on illegal immigration because he ended mandatory detention for asylum seekers who enter the country illegally. He also changed the rules so that those found to be genuine refugees could receive permanent, instead of temporary, visas.

Several people-smuggling boats have been intercepted this year in Australian waters. Authorities predict that unrest in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan will force thousands of people to seek refuge in Western countries, including Australia.

Canberra resettles about 13,000 refugees under official humanitarian programs each year.

The US takes close to 80,000, the lion’s share, of the world’s refugees.