Actually it was Tuesday’s episode as reported by West Hawaii Today on Wednesday.
Step-mom Saiban Abdi leaves Santa Clara County family court in San Jose Tuesday, April 29, 2014. http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_25660547/father-flies-hawaii-pick-up-teen-stowaway
The step-mother, described in some accounts as the reason the Somali refugee boy stowed awayon a Hawaii bound jet, was in court to defend charges that she isn’t properly taking care of an elderly uncle (taxpayers are paying her to take care of the relative).
Meanwhile, the boy’s father flew to Hawaii to retrieve his son and according to this account, he wasn’t allowed to take him back to California. Watch for more in upcoming episodes!
SAN JOSE, Calif.—The same day the father of the 15-year-old stowaway was in Hawaii trying to reunite with his runaway son, another family drama involving the teen’s stepmother unfolded Tuesday in a San Jose courtroom.
The stepmother, who had been accused by her cousin of treating her stepson “like trash,” defended herself in court against another accusation by the same man—that she didn’t properly care for an elderly uncle.
“He’s not being truthful,” Sainab Abdi said of the cousin as she stood outside the courtroom Tuesday. “Don’t believe this guy. This is wrong.”
[….]
For the family of Somali refugees, who fled their war-torn country and lived in a refugee camp before moving to America, it’s been a tough 10 days in their adopted home.
Cousin claims she was neglecting elderly Uncle, but the judge dismissed his petition.
The stepmother’s cousin, Mukhtar Guled—a San Jose insurance agent and security guard—told this newspaper last week that Yahya was unhappy at home because his stepmother, Sainab Abdi, treated his six youngest siblings like “king and queens,” but that Yahya and his older sister and younger brother with a different mother were treated poorly.
On Tuesday, Abdi defended herself, saying Guled had an ulterior motive to make her look like a bad person: He was losing his battle to care for his uncle and be in charge of his affairs—a job that Abdi held until last week and came with $600 a month in government assistance.
Teen is in the custody of Hawaiian social service agency.
Meanwhile, it was unclear when Yahya’s father, Abdulahi Abdi Yusuf, would be able to return home with his son. An e-mail sent to the Hawaii Department of Human Services was not returned. The teenager has been in the agency’s custody since shortly after he was found on the Maui tarmac. His father has said he was being treated for breathing difficulties at a Honolulu hospital.
I feel sorry for this kid and I feel sorry for the US taxpayer. As I said previously, the new Somali government is looking for Somalis to return from the diaspora, maybe this family could sort out their domestic problems back home.
Reports are sprouting up everywhere with conflicting stories about the Mom (is she a liar?), the Dad (did he kidnap the kids and bring them to America?), will the State Department permit the Mom to come to the US to reclaim her kids and to (of course) stay? etc. And, now the siblings are in the mix talking to reporters too!
Then here comes CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) to defend the family—they say it is all about bullying that is hard on immigrants trying to adjust to America (America bad!) with no mention of the aggrieved Mom back in Ethiopia. In Islam, Dad has rights to kids, Mom doesn’t.
For background, our first report on the Somali stowaway is here.
CAIR Executive director Zahra Billoo: the boy is struggling to adjust to life in America and needs social services. http://kalwnews.org/audio/2011/02/08/facing-down-islamophobia-interview-zahra-billoo_832857.html
CAIR speaks for the family, from Fox12 Oregon(Hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’ who can’t get enough of this case!):
SAN FRANCISCO (HawaiiNewsNow) – The father of a teenager who stowed away on a flight from San Jose to Kahului plans to fly to Hawaii soon to take his son back to California.
The family of Yahya Abdi, 15, released a statement through a civil rights group called the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). [“Civil rights” group—ha! ha!—ed]
“The family is very relieved about their son’s safety. I think for the last week everyone has had the opportunity to learn about the harrowing circumstances of the trip, the very low likelihood of survival,” said Zahra Billoo, CAIR’s executive director.
The teenager told investigators on Maui that he climbed into the wheel well of a Hawaiian Airlines plane after running away from the California home he shares with his father and stepmother. The boy was trying to reunite with his mother in Africa after just learning that she was alive, according to San Jose authorities.
“The family spent a lot of time displaced in Somalia and as a result of sort of the war-like conditions of that country the son had not had any formal education before arriving in the United States,” explained Billoo.
Abdulahi Yusuf said his son is struggling to adjust to life in the U.S. as a high school student.
“The dad said that he was a really good kid and that he is loved dearly by his family,” Billoo said. “Overall it was a very difficult situation and school was possibly the hardest of all of those pieces.”
Then get this! We need to supply him with social services!
“In this era of bullying and cyberspace and social media, things are already so difficult for youth, further aggravated for recent immigrants at times. I hope that they will get the social services that they need,” said Billoo.
There is more in the continuing soap opera:
Here is a storyabout Mom fretting in Ethiopia (with two more kids she would surely bring to the US, see photo). And, CBS interviewed siblingswho say their birth mother is a liar and is only saying that the kids were taken to America against her wishes so that she too could get in to the US. I suspect hubby had two wives back in Africa at the same time and the State Department made it clear that he could bring only one wife to America.
By the way, this CBS news piece says the kids have been here for 5 years (something that seemed to be in dispute in some previous reports).
As I said before, why not send the whole kit-and-caboodle back to Africa and let the new Somali government sort out their domestic entanglements (involving at least 11 kids!). Why should the US taxpayers be on the hook for the legal wrangling, potentially new resettlements, and for “social services”?
For new readers: We have admitted well over 100,000 Somali refugees to the US. To check out the numbersvisit this post, one of our most widely read posts*** over the last few years. It is a little out of date, but you get the idea.
Also, after being closed for years, the US State Department has resumed the Somali family reunification program that admitted tens of thousands of Somalis fraudulently to the US between 2003 and 2008 before a moratorium halted the program. The frauds were not found and deported!
***I will update that and let you know what the top five posts are now! Here it is!
Don’t you love it, it is always just “a man” when the news media doesn’t want to say “immigrant” or “refugee” and one is left reading the story to try to figure out who the man might be, what brought him to North Dakota, and what his motive might have been for taking a hatchet to a neighbor (or what his mental illness is).
Diversity is strength alert!
This man’s name is Kokouvi Mawuena Afidegnon and his photo is at right. Is he a refugee? Fargo is a resettlement site for Lutheran Social Services of North Dakotaand they would know if he is a refugee or another legal immigrant (TPS? Diversity visa lottery winner? Student visa?). Or, is he an illegal alien? Couldn’t a reporter simply call the Lutheran contractor to find out if he is one of theirs?
WEST FARGO – A West Fargo man was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment after police say he attacked a neighbor with a hatchet late Friday afternoon.
West Fargo police arrested Kokouvi Mawuena Afidegnon after they were called to the scene in the 200 block of Eighth Avenue West around 5:30 p.m.
A woman fled to neighboring residence after the reported attack by the time officers arrived, a police news release said. Afidegnon was taken into custody without incident at his residence.
Police say the woman was walking to her vehicle when she was attacked by Afidegnon. She was able to escape by running to a nearby residence where Afidegnon threw the hatchet through a front window, police said.
The female was transported to Essentia Hospital by F-M Ambulance. The condition of the female is unknown.
Learn more about what is happening in your state with refugees!
As I said in a post about refugee resettlement in New Jersey over the weekend, here is a listof all the state refugee coordinators and it’s a good place to start your research on what is happening in your state with refugee “placement.”
Call or e-mail your state coordinators and politely ask: who (from what country) is being resettled in your state, how many have been resettled in recent years, find out who the resettlement contractors are and ask for the state plan. State coordinators are supposed to submit a plan to the Office of Refugee Resettlement every couple of years (I have my doubts though about whether they do it!).
And, I’ll mention this in most posts for the next few weeks: You have an opportunity to comment to the US State Department which is asking for input on the size and scope of the refugee program for fiscal year 2015.
As for Kokouvi Mawuena Afidegnon, if anyone finds out if he is a refugee or other legal immigrant, let us know!
Editors note: When we receive a comment to a post that we don’t want to lose buried in the comments section, we highlight it as a special post. Here, reader ‘pungentpeppers’ responds to yesterday’s post in our ‘Invasion of Europe’ series about Syrians camping (occupying!) in a Paris park.
From ‘pungentpeppers:’
About that “Syrian Occupy Movement” in France… French news reports give more insight as to what is happening.
The French are no stranger to squatter camps. In the past Roma Gypsy families arriving from Eastern Europe have set up camp for themselves on public and private land. There is just not enough available housing. Where to put these many newcomers has become a major headache for France. This latest group of park squatters in Saint-Ouen, in the Paris suburbs, are Syrian Muslims, and practically all are Sunni (like the Syrian rebels).
Local Muslims living in the area are bringing the Syrians food, raising money for hotel rooms, and allowing them to sleep at a local mosque. One Syrian at the park, Lamia al-Nassan, was interviewed by TV’s France24. She praised the local Muslims: “Fortunately the Muslims are here to feed us – otherwise, we’d be dead!”
Lamia (24) with youngest of her four children: I sold all my jewelry to get to France, to live in a park?
Unrealistic Expectations: Per the L’Express newspaper, these Syrians falsely believed that, as soon as they arrived in France, the “State of Human Rights” (as they call France) would immediately provide each family with suitable lodging and preferably asylum.
A news report by France24 features at the top a photo of Lamia, age 24. Dressed in black Islamic attire, she holds an infant – the youngest of her four children. She does not mince her words in expressing her disappointment with the French: “I thought France would protect us, that we could put the children in school. I sold all my jewelry – spent everything. Now we have nothing and have to stay here.” She laments further, “How could I have imagined that in France, they would leave us to sleep in a park?”
Costly Problem:These families, if allowed to settle, will cost the French taxpayer dearly. Their culture values huge families; their women do not work outside the home. One of the fathers, named “Mohamed” by the newspaper L’Express, looks like he is 60 years old. The father of eight children, he is shown sitting alongside a young girl of preschool age. He will not support himself, let alone a wife and eight kids.
All Those Pregnant Women: Per France24, temporary lodgings were found for the group, and the municipality has locked up the park. However, pregnant Syrian women have returned to sit on the sidewalk alongside the park’s iron fence. One of them, Sonia Ramadan, is six months pregnant and she has not seen a doctor – but she dares not pass through the doors of a French hospital because she does not speak a word of French. Zeyna al-Nasser is two months pregnant. At age 22, this frail-looking young woman already has three other children. One wonders, despite young children and pregnancy, why did these Muslim women travel with their menfolk, across many safe countries to non-Muslim lands where they do not speak the language? Were they merely on a quest for the best, or is it something else that drives them?
Their Motives:Are They Syrian Rebels or Are They Opportunists?The moment these migrants crossed the border from Syria, these migrants had reached safety. However, they kept on traveling. They journeyed through several Sunni Muslim countries to reach Morocco.
In Morocco, they paid smugglers for passage to Spanish Melilla. “Mohammed” told the L’Express reporter that he paid 1200 Euros (about $1,660) to cross the fence separating Melilla from Morocco. Once in Melilla, humanitarian groups gave them plane tickets for Barcelona. From there, they headed for France. Were they, as the L’Express journalist Karim Ben Said, who is Muslim himself, puts it – merely seeking a “normal life” with their wives and their children? Or do they have some other political motive connected to Sunni Islam?
One of the Syrians, “Jamal” told L’Express that he first went to Lebanon, but that the Shia Hezbollah does not want them there. He then moved to Jordan but left, even though most of his family remains there. He then traveled to Algeria, but had to leave because that government supports the Syrian president. Was Jamal a fighter, and therefore could not stay in Jordan or Lebanon or Algeria? (Dare France accept such asylum seekers?) Or, was he merely dissatisfied with life in those particular countries, finding spurious excuses as to why they are unsuitable?
Puzzlingly, Jamal denies that Europe was his goal: “We did not necessarily aim to reach Europe, it is the circumstances that led us here.” The stories of these many Syrians, however, discredit Jamal’s tale of accidental arrival in France. It appears they were in pursuit of their personal goal – life in the rich European country named France.
Contrary to their expectations, these Syrians might not get what they wish for. France has already disappointed them – and the rule of law states that a refugee does not have the automatic right to live in the country of his own choosing. The Syrians might not be able to force the French to settle them. If so, per L’Express, some of them have their eyes set on another target: Sweden!
To see photos and French language reporting about these Syrian better life seekers, see:
Leave it to the UK Daily Mail to get an exclusive interview with the Hawaii-bound Somali boy’s mom. He is still in a hospital in Hawaii, by the way. No brain damage I hope!
My first reaction to hearing the news, uncovered by the Daily Mail (we are so thankful for the British press), is once again we have a case of the UN and the US State Department not doing adequate screening (and believing the lies of Somalis who want a foot in America’s front door).
It has all been swept under the rug now, but longtime readers know that in 2008, the US State Department closed the family reunification program for Somalis (stayed closed for years) because they found (surprise!) widespread fraud (lying!)—tens of thousands had lied to get into the US! None were ever deported.
Now, get this! Mom is on her way here (or thinks she is) and she expects the US government to take care of her kids until she gets here.
Then, of course, who is going to pay for the legal wrangling in court as she attempts to get her kids back from her lying cheat of a husband—we are, the US taxpayer. Why is all of this our problem?
From theUK Daily Mail(hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’ who has been following the case closely):
The stowaway teenager who miraculously survived a five hour flight to Hawaii hidden in the wheel well of a Boeing 767 was falsely told by his own father that his mother was dead – and he discovered the truth two years ago, it was claimed today.
Yahya Abdi – pictured here for the first time – ran away from the home he shares with his father, stepmother and siblings because he wanted to find his mom, who he has not seen since 2006.
His mother Ubah Mohamed Abdullahi, 35, was left heartbroken when she split from her husband Abdulahi Abdi Yusef. [I will bet you a buck that he had both wives at the same time—ed]
He remarried a woman called Sainab Abdi and then left with Ubah’s three children to travel to the United States.
But she is now in the process of immigrating to America and is determined to win her children back, exclusively telling MailOnline, ‘I need my children and they need me’.
[….]
Speaking on the phone through a translator from the Sheed-dheer Refugee camp in Ethiopia, she explained how her ex-husband had told her children, Yahya, Yassir and Najma she was killed in a rocket attack in Mogadishu.
Apparently furious Yahya only found out she was still alive two years ago, through the local Somali community.
The emotional mother said: ‘When they imigrated to the United they told the authorities I was dead.
I don’t know what this sponsor bit (below) is, however, you can be sure some rich American do-gooder isn’t going to “sponsor” her and take care of her and pay her legal bills! Daily Mail continues:
‘I am currently in the process of getting a sponsor to move to the United States. It is a long process, but I will come and I will get full custody of my children.
‘I want the American Government to look after them until I come because I do not believe they are safe with their father and their stepmother. She treats my children badly, she has her own children and she doesn’t care about mine.
The “American Government” is you, dear reader!
Read it all, the Daily Mailhas more including more photos.
Here is a thought, maybe send them all back to the new government in Somalia to sort out their domestic dispute.
For new readers, we have now longsurpassed 100,000 Somalis admittedto the US and just this fiscal year (2014) we have already admitted 3,708 additional Somali “refugees.” At that rate, 2014 will be another banner year for Somali migration to America.
