Category: Canada

Pretending to be Rohingya?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a discussion thread  that gives us some more insight on the scams that are occurring in the refugee resettlement program in Canada (and I suspect in the US as well).

They don’t take Bangladeshis?  Then be a Rohingya

Commenter TIslam reports:

I wasn’t aware of people seeking “political asylum” or applying for Canadian immigration under “refugee” status by Bangladeshis, until recently. I came to learn about it because my wife’s cousin’s friend got married to one such hapless character, who is now getting his papers straightened out owing to being married to a Canadian citizen. He was to be deported from Canada as he became illegal. The fellow entered Canada with a student visa but wanted to remain permanently. Apparently he hired an immigration lawyer who advised him to apply under the refugee status. Initially they thought that his application was accepted and the petition granted, however, he was notified that his application has been rejected after a year or so, owing to the backlog of applications. The poor guy met his wife-to-be, in the nick of time, thus saving himself from deportation.

The woman told me that there are many unscrupulous immigration attorneys who dupe many unknowing and helpless people by advising people to seek Canadian immigration under the refugee status or political asylum, when in fact they would not be eligible.

Refugee status for a Bangladeshi is pretty far fetched because by definition, that status is meant for people whose country is at war for which a large number of people have become displaced or for people who belong to a certain segment who are being persecuted like the Rohingyas, or like in Darfur, or those Iraqis who actively assisted the coalition forces, who perceive of being in danger if they continue to live in Iraq. Political asylum is more plausible since it is always possible to show that one was active in politics and that the current regime seeks to persecute him/her, etc.

Samaruf responds:

I have heard of Bangladeshis seeking asylum in Scandinavia and Canada by calling themselves Rohingyas as it is hard to tell the difference.

We have a whole category (94 previous posts!) on Rohingya Muslims.  For the longest time they were not accepted as refugees for resettlement to the US, but all that has changed.  Earlier in the month we reported Rohingya being resettled in Atlanta, here.

Almost 500 Tamil “asylum seekers” land in Canada

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I figured something must be up in Vancouver when I saw all the hits to old posts I’ve written about Tamils arriving by ship in Canada, so I checked and sure enough, here we go again.

The big question of course is, are they really asylum seekers or Tamil Tigers trying to reestablish themselves in the West after being defeated in a civil war in Sri Lanka?

From AP:

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – At sea for three crowded and grueling months, hundreds of Tamil asylum seekers from war-ravaged Sri Lanka sought refuge in Canada on Friday when their rusty, ramshackle cargo ship finally edged just after sunrise into the shelter of a naval port.

Some passengers stood on the deck, shaded by striped lengths of cloth, after the MV Sun Sea pulled in. Paramedics wearing surgical masks tended to them. A few were taken away on stretchers and whisked into ambulances at dockside; all were shielded from view by black umbrellas.

“This is a new beginning,” said Canadian Tamil Congress spokesman Gary Anandasangare, who watched the freighter slide into port.

The arrival of the 490 refugees, however, raised concerns among Canadian officials that the rebel Tamil Tigers, which fought and lost a bloody 25-year war for independence that ended in May 2009, was smuggling people into Canada, home to the largest Tamil community outside Sri Lanka and India.

“Our goal is to ensure that our refugee system is not hijacked by criminals or terrorists,” said Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, whose government labeled the Tamil Tigers a terrorist group in 2006.

Last October, a ship carrying 76 Sri Lankan migrants was intercepted in Canadian waters. All are free while their cases are being processed.

[…..]

Chitranganee Wagiswara, Sri Lanka’s high commissioner to Canada, said now that the civil war is over, the Tigers might be trying to regroup in Canada, a country that has historically been a large source of their fundraising.

[…..]

Wagiswara said Canada should not accept the Tamils’ claims for refugee status and said the ship is part of a Tiger-linked human smuggling operation. She said the ship’s captain, a man named “Vinod,” is a known Tiger and smuggled arms for the group.

“Everyone knows that Canadian refugee and immigration laws are not strong enough. These people are trying to abuse the system,” she said.

Search RRW for all of our previous discussions about Tamils, search “Tamil” or “Tamil Tiger.”   One of the most outrageous stories I’ve written about involves the US taking Australia’s illegal alien Tamil “bachelors” and resettling them as refugees in Oakland, CA, here.

Canadian proposal to fix “broken” system—add more refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Because the system is “broken” Canadian refugee program reformers plan to add more refugees to Canada’s refugee quota.  I don’t know what it is with this word “broken.”    Some public relations firm must have tested the word in the English speaking world and determined it was a good one to get people to move on so-called reforms.  Funny thing is that the PR in the US says our program is “broken” too.

In my mind, the refugee system might be broken in both the US and Canada, but it is something that could be fixed by simply not overloading countries with poor people who will not find work right now.  In addition to ferreting out corruption that is!

This story is from earlier in the week so maybe it’s already happened, but check it out here anyway.

As part of the package of reforms for Canada’s asylum system, known as the Balanced Refugee Reform Act, the Government of Canada proposes to increase the number of refugees resettled from overseas as well as the support we provide to help them settle in Canada. Only by fixing the broken in-Canada system can we effectively increase the generosity of our overseas system.

If the legislation receives Royal Assent, Canada would increase the resettlement target by 2,500. This increase would bring the total number of refugees resettled by Canada to as many as 14,500 a year. This increase will mean Canada would be resettling more refugees per capita than any other country in the world.

Read it all.

Somali smuggler walks!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Virginia man accused of illegally smuggling as many as 270 Somalis into the US is a free man today.  Unbelievable!  This is a story we first reported here.  In addition to the shocking news that he got off with time served, it turns out he had been an agent of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and another unnamed US federal agency in Kenya (FBI?  CIA? they aren’t saying).  Are they protecting us or their agent?

Here is the Canadian Press story today.  The feds couldn’t find any of the Somalis he supposedly brought to the US.  Ho hum, so what else is new!

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — This much is known about Anthony Joseph Tracy: He told government agents he helped 270 Somalians illegally enter the United States through Cuba. He flunked a lie detector test when he denied helping members of the Somali terror group al-Shabaab. He was some sort of informant for the federal government going back at least as far as 2002.

And on Friday, the Winchester, Virginia, man was sentenced to roughly four months in jail, equal to time served, and walked out a free man.

The case against Tracy, who spent significant time in Kenya running an illicit travel agency, is shrouded in secrecy. His sentencing hearing Friday was held in open court, but lawyers and the judge talked around the specifics of what he actually did.

In fact, his guilty plea, apparently entered earlier this year, remains under seal. So the exact nature of Tracy’s misconduct remains unclear. [This is a fishy story–ed]

The few court records that are unsealed indicated that federal agents have been working feverishly for months trying to find the people that Tracy said he helped enter the U.S.

He picked up a Somali trait in his travels I see—a second wife.  [Ha! A New York Times version of the story leaves out the second wife information, here.]

Tracy, who has a wife and five children in Winchester, also married a woman in an Islamic ceremony in Kenya, according to transcripts.

Be sure to read comments by Somalis Khadra and Abdi to this post about Tracy where they allege that illegal Somalis are tricking our authorities every day.

Comment worth noting: Canadian Somali Conference more significant than its billing suggests?

~ Ann Corcoran

Update: Be sure to read the comments to this post because ‘Somali woman’ confirms it was the Rhama Conference and she tells us more about it.

Reader ‘Somali woman’ is back with another warning.  Regular readers may remember we had an interesting exchange with her  here almost two weeks ago.   Last night ‘Somali woman’ was back with more concerning information in response to my post on May 26th about the US terror warning to border states about Somalis illegally entering the US.

This is what she says (emphasis is mine):

This isn’t surprising at all and it is too little too late. The Somalis are unwilling to assimilate, but they are willing to make everything their own: schools, malls, stores, mosques, and even districts. There are two kinds of these Islamists: 1. The one who has brought his ideologies overseas, and 2. The young ones who were brainwashed that live in the U.S.A. When one goes down the drain the other raises up its a continuous cycle.

3 weeks ago I attended (I had to) the First Annual Somali Islamic Conference which brought over 3,000 Somalis across the GTA [Greater Toronto Area] in Canada. Surprisingly the main point of this conference was: to build Islamic schools across Toronto and for Somalis to be able to have control over their children (as they say they don’t like or trust public schools and their children to attend them), to start Somali language and Arabic classes, to merge the biggest Somali mosques in Toronto: Abu Hurairah and Khalid bin Walid into one big mosque, the establishment of the MBA (Muslim Basketball Association, already established, trying to be as high and famous as the NBA), to form the Islamic Somali Imam’s Council of North America, etc.

This shows that the Somalis are coming to the move of where they want to establish a Shariah based laws in the West and its already heading in that direction. The conference was the first of its kind to gather all Somalis living in Canada and might extend to the United States.

All the preachers and Shiekhs of the conference were not surprisingly of either Somali, Arab, and or Pakistani descend. They came from all over the world: Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, USA, Canada, Australia, the UK, etc. for this conference and they had a great impact on the people because I have witnessed people literally in religious hypnosis mode (chanting prayers in Arabic or Somali) and some were even crying in agreement to the Shiekhs. So you see and know where this is heading.

Thanks to a trio of bloggers (Gates of Vienna, Vlad Tepes, and Blazing Cat Fur) who did some quick digging, below is a description of the conference Khadra likely attended in Canada.  The Rhama Conference was held at the International Centre in Toronto on May 22 and 23 and was benignly described as follows:

Islam is a natural perfection of balance, far from any extremes and in total agreement with our fitra. Our Muslim Ummah is in dire need to return to the long lost middle path of wasatiyyah. Only through our return to this path can the Ummah regain its legacies and fulfill our duty rightfully to our creator.

“Thus We have appointed you a middle nation, that ye may be witnesses over mankind, and that the messenger may be a witness over yourselves ..” Quran 2:143

Abu Huraira Centre and Khalid bin walid mosque, two distinguished masjids have joined together to address these issues and many alike. On May 22nd and 23rd at the renown International Centre in Toronto, we are pleased to invite you to a one of a kind convention where two conferences will be occurring simultaneously under one roof!

The Rahma Conference will host one of the largest Somali oriented conferences in North America, hosting some of the most renown Somali Masha’ekh globally. In addition we will also be hosting English speaking Shiekhs most of which are known for their heartfelt approach and motivational speeches. This year Rahma Conference is pleased to announce we will have guest Sheikh Adil Kalbani (Imam Masjid Haram) apart of the program prepared for our attendees.

Do not miss out!

Special Guests
Sheikh Mohamed Ahmed Nur (Garyare)
Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame ( Hadraawi)

List of Somali Speakers:
Sh. Mohamed Dirir (Hargeisa)
Sh. Mustafa Haruun (Oslo)
Sh. Abdirahman Sh. Omar (MN)
Sh. Osman Madad (Vancouver)
Dr. Abdirisaq Takar (UK)
Sh. Mohamed D. Roble (UK)
Sh. Abdulqadir Ali Camba (UK)
Sh. Bashir Shiil (Toronto)
Sh. Said Rageah (Toronto)

List of English speakers:
Sh. Abdulqadir Ali – Camba (UK)
Sh. Abu Taubah
Sh. Kamal El-Mekki
Sh. Navaid Aziz
Sh. Said

We are so naive (as ‘Somali woman’ has reminded us previously).  Was there any Canadian press coverage of a meeting that brought together 3000 Somalis from all over North America?  Does anyone know?  Is anyone paying attention?