Category: Asylum seekers

Troubles pile up for the “rainbow nation”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I would like to say more about this story but am running out of time tonight, so I’m just going to post it.  The story is from the Associated Press and is just more in the sad saga of a nation sinking under the weight of uncontrolled immigration.  South Africa, the country that was dubbed the “rainbow nation” for its welcoming stance on immigrants (come one and all they said) has seen 60 people killed in “xenophobic” riots in the last few weeks alone. 

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — City authorities vowed Tuesday to challenge a court order to move some 3,500 immigrants living in a camp near a popular tourist destination after they were forced from their homes in a wave of xenophobic violence.

The sprawling camp on a wind-swept beach near the Cape of Good Hope has come to symbolize South Africa’s dilemma about what to do with the tens of thousands displaced by the attacks that erupted a month ago.

Cape Town’s High Court ruled late Monday that the city must open community centers to house the displaced.

But authorities said moving the immigrants would risk exacerbating tensions with native South Africans, many of whom accuse the foreigners of “stealing” scarce jobs and services. The xenophobic attacks left at least 60 people dead.

“We want to reduce tensions, not increase them,” said Robert Macdonald, spokesman for Cape Town.

Civil rights groups have charged that the “safe sites,” such as the camp at a former picnic area at Soetwater, are like internment camps.

“The conditions there are so bad,” said Patrick Chauke, the powerful head of a parliamentary Home Affairs committee. “The tents have been blown by the wind. There are women and children who are dumped there.”

The camp includes nearly 2,000 Somali refugees. They say they are too afraid to return to the communities that chased them out and looted their stores, can’t return to Somalia, and want the U.N. refugee agency to move them to another country such as Australia or the United States.

U.N. representatives over the weekend said they couldn’t be relocated, prompting the Somalis to threaten charity volunteers, trash food and begin a hunger strike. They also threatened to jump into the rough, icy waters and claimed that several had already committed suicide by drowning.

Somali suicide scam: take us to America or we will kill ourselves

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

There is so much happening in South Africa since anti-immigrant riots broke out last month that I can’t possibly keep up with all the news.   This story, however, was an eyecatcher.   Seems that Somalis are migrating to a camp near Cape Town enticed by rumors of possible resettlement by the UN to a first world country.  

Conditions deteriorated and they were told that resettlement was likely not an option so many said they would jump into the sea and kill themselves.

Residents of Soetwater Camp, a shelter on the outskirts of Cape Town, have threatened to commit suicide in an attempt to draw attention to dire conditions in the camp and a growing feeling of neglect and inaction at the hands of authorities and aid agencies.

Soetwater, 30 km south of Cape Town, has become home to over 4,000 foreign nationals displaced by South Africa’s recent wave of xenophobic violence. Local media reported that about 100 people, mainly Somali nationals unhappy with their treatment at Soetwater Camp, had threatened to walk into the sea to drown themselves and said four people were already feared dead.

But according to the South African National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), which had deployed three boats to search the waters on June 8, the rumors proved false.

Turns out they didn’t.   But, here is the rest of the story.    A UN official concludes that the Somalis are just trying to get attention.   No, you don’t say.

In a statement released on June 8 by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a South African activist group, called for the immediate closing of the Soetwater Camp where “a tradgedy was unfolding” because the settlement fell far “below international humanitarian standards.”

“There is enormous dissatisfaction at the camp. The conditions are awful: it is cold and insufficiently sheltered – Both the [Western Cape] province and civil society have condemned these camps,” the statement said.

A meeting with UN officials on June 7 at the camp reportedly fueled the incident. “Displaced refugees had several meetings with a representative of the United Nations at the TAC and AIDS Law Project offices in Cape Town. One of these meetings broke down. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the latest crisis is a consequence of this,” the TAC statement said.

According to Yusuf Hassan Abdi, spokesman for the UN High Commission For Refugees (UNHCR), a “rumor had gone round that the UN would start registering people for resettlement in a third country – like the United States, UK, Australia or Canada.”

This was a “major pull factor,” drawing large numbers of Somali refugees to Soetwater. Abdi estimated that the camp now accommodated some 1,800 Somali’s.

But, Abdi said, given recent events and “the large number of refugees and asylum seekers affected, resettlement can not be a priority at this point in time.” He added: “There was no attempted suicide at all – they [the Somalis] used this to get attention.”

For new readers, we have resettled over 80,000 Somalis in the US in recent years.  Don’t be surprised if the State Department ultimately says, what’s a few more!

Ah, they have some guts in the old sod: immigrants must conform to Irish culture

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been telling you about South Africa and Switzerland and Italy and now Ireland, dear old Ireland.  It is so refreshing to see the Irish have gumption we haven’t seen in Great Britain lately.  Here is a snippet of an article from the Independent, read it all, and enjoy the comments too.   

Labour’s Ruairi Quinn said immigrants who come to Ireland need to conform to the culture of this country.

“If people want to come into a western society that is Christian and secular, they need to conform to the rules and regulations of that country,” the Labour spokesman on education and science told the Irish Independent.

His comments come amid mounting controversy over guidelines on the wearing of the hijab, commonly worn by Muslim girl in state schools.

Mr Quinn said immigrants should live by Irish laws and conform to Irish norms.

“Nobody is formally asking them to come here. In the interests of integration and assimilation, they should embrace our culture,” he said.

He added: “Irish girls don’t wear headscarves. A manifestation of religious beliefs in such a way is unacceptable and draws attention to those involved. I believe in a public school situation they should not wear a headscarf.”

Mr Hayes [Brian Hayes of Fine Gael] said Ireland should not be going down the route of multiculturalism. 

I had been meaning to write about Scotland last week, but time got away from me.  Here is the link to read about Scottish conflicts involving asylum seekers.  I think I spot a trend!

I repeat, KEEP THE HEATHENS OUT!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Are we crazy?   Why on earth does anyone want to bring more Iraqi Muslim men to the United States?  How can you women running the State Department sleep at night? 

Do you know they killed her?   The pigs have killed the brave mother of a girl stomped to death by her husband, the girl’s father.   The daughter’s crime was that she became friendly with a British soldier serving in Iraq and to protect the family’s so-called honor the father STOMPED his 17 year old daughter to death.   See the post I wrote in April for the full story of the honor killing sanctioned by the religion of peace.  Religion of peace, what a joke!

I’m so angry I can’t write, but I don’t need to.  Go to Atlas Shrugs for the whole story of how the mother who dared to leave her husband has been gunned down on the street on the very morning she was leaving for Jordan to seek refuge.

And then go to Frontpage Magazine from two days ago and read “Horror in Hamburg” about the increasing number of honor killings among MUSLIM immigrants to Germany.  

Finally, give some serious thought to author Stephen Brown’s last paragraph to which I would only add one more thing.  Stop all Muslim immigration to the US, period, before it’s too late.

But in the end, it is we Westerners who have to stand up for the life-affirming values we hold dear and change our laws substantially to reflect this. Western legal codes were written when the predatory and barbaric practice of honor murder was unknown due to the absence of these immigrant groups. This must be rectified and the new reality reflected in new laws, since the bottom line is that we cannot have women being killed at sixteen if we are to call ourselves human.

South Africa: Tensions continue as immigrants beg to be resettled

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As perhaps the world’s most highly touted experiment in multiculturalism continues to crumble, immigrants and refugees storm humanitarian offices insisting they be resettled to first world countries.  See our coverage last week of the anti-immigrant riots in South Africa and with them the demise of the “rainbow nation” myth.

Here is the latest news, this story is from Durban:

The spotlight was thrown on the true nature of intimidation, robbery and assault that Durban’s foreign community has had to deal with, as angry yet desperate foreigners pleaded for help at the gates of the Diakonia Centre on Thursday.

Police were called in to control the furious group of foreign nationals and refugees who had barricaded the gates to the centre after demanding intervention from Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) and the Mennonite Central Committee Refugee Project (MCC).

Some women clutched babies swaddled in blankets while men waved hastily written placards in the air outside the gates, but they quickly abandoned their protest action and gathered around journalists to tell their individual stories of oppression in a country they thought they were safe in.

Their protest action was aimed directly at forcing the LHR and MCC, who act as local agents for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), to act in assuring them protection and, in some cases, repatriation.

Tensions rose as some vocal refugees shouted at LHR and MCC staff across locked gates, before police intervened and restored calm.

Incidentally, I think the reporter is misusing the word “repatriation” which means to be returned to one’s native country.  The gist of the article is that the immigrants do not want to go back to the country they were escaping from but want third country resettlement—code for free passage to Europe, America, Canada, Australia or New Zealand.

But LHR attorney Sherylle Dass said the dreams many of the refugees had of being repatriated to other countries, let alone a first world country, were extremely slim.

The intervention of the UNHCR only resulted in about 2 percent of applications for repatriation being successful. It could take up to five years for such applications to be processed.

She said a letter outlining the frustration of Durban’s refugees and foreigners seeking repatriation and help had been sent to the UNHCR fafter the protest action and a subsequent meeting.

“The people were basically seeking protection in various ways. Some want a local refugee camp, but others want to resettle. We have had a steady stream of resettlement applications before the xenophobic attacks, but now there has been a huge influx,” Dass said.

“Some may have security risk, but there are those who are using this as an opportunity to get into a first world country.”