Category: Europe

Malta says no more!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Malta’s Prime Minister, Lawrence Gonzi, told the European Union that little Malta has done more than its share of giving refuge to those fleeing Africa.

By the way, haven’t we been told that Egypt is free now and Libya soon will be?  So, why are they leaving now?

From the Times of Malta:

Malta has no intention of hosting any of the Eritreans, Somalis and Ethiopians who fled Libya to the borders with Egypt and Tunisia, according to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.

“At this stage, I think we are already carrying a much bigger burden than we can handle in terms of refugees and asylum seekers and so we won’t be making any offers,” he said, reacting to the European Commission’s initiative to ask member states to resettle hundreds of the displaced Africans.

“We need the EU to take some of our refugees and not the other way round,” Dr Gonzi said when asked about Malta’s position on the Commission’s initiative.

Good for you, Dr. Gonzi!

And, ho hum, the Jesuits aren’t happy.

For new readers, I’ve been following the situation in Malta with Africans arriving there illegally for several years because I find it troublesome that two US Ambassadors to Malta (one in the Bush Administration and now one in the Obama Administration) have been magically transforming illegal aliens arriving in Malta into legitimate refugees who are then sent to America.   The policy turned Malta into a magnet for human smuggling—just get to Malta and get a ticket to the US!

Type ‘Malta’ into our search function and see dozens of posts over the years on the precedent set by these two ambassadors.

Europeans freaking out over African exodus

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Bloomberg has titled the story “Biblical Exodus.”   It begins here:

As boats carrying hundreds of Africans set sail for a better life in Europe, they were met on Italy’s Lampedusa island with two words by a 5-foot, 8-inch blonde: go away.

“They cannot be allowed on the shore,” Marine Le Pen, the 42-year-old leader of France’s anti-immigration National Front, said in a March 15 interview in Rome after a three-hour visit the previous day to Lampedusa. “Send boats out to feed them. But they must not set foot on land.”

Camp of Saints anyone?

More on trafficking illegal alien Somalis to Malta

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This would be funny if it weren’t so serious.  The Times of Malta reported yesterday that a Somali has been sentenced to four years in prison for bringing boatloads of illegal aliens from Libya to the island nation of Malta (for a handsome profit of course).  But, here is the hitch and the funny part.  He was turned in by a “client” for cheating the client (the illegal alien) because he didn’t get the illegal alien to the illegal alien’s hoped-for destination.

So did he go to jail for trafficking or lying to his “client?”   And, can the illegal alien “client” now stay in Malta or will authorities and the US Ambassador to Malta move the guy on to a town near you as the Ambassador and the US State Department have done with hundreds of other Somalis who have managed to get to Malta over the last few years!

From The Times of Malta:

A man found guilty of organising boat trips to get illegal immigrants from Libya to Europe was this morning jailed for four years and six months and fined €270.

Mohamed Muhudiin Dhiblaawe had been reported to the police by Somali Omar Hasan Nour in March 2009, who ended in Malta after paying Mr Dhiblaawe $900 for the trip.

Mr Nour reported Mr Dhiblaawe to the police because he felt robbed as he did not intend his destination to be Malta.

Following investigations, the police found that the accused transported people from Libya to Europe because of the massive profits involved. The accused had spoken to Mr Nour and others in Libya and offered to help them travel to Europe for the equivalent of €600 each.

The accused had promised to make all the necessary arrangements and gave the Somalis all the necessary instructions for the escape.

For more of this sort of humor, check out my post on Malta in January to see how one Somali traveler through Malta got sent to the US and is complaining about it!   The post also has some links on our precedent-setting arrangement to scoop up illegal aliens in Malta and transform them into refugees for resettlement in your neighborhood.   This practice has been going on since at least 2007 when I started to follow the issue during the Bush Administration.  Bush started it, and Obama continues it.

Finns backlogged on Somali refugee cases

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It seems Finland is running a backlog of family reunification applications from Somalis.

From YLE.fi:

The Finnish Immigration Service is swamped with family reunification applications from Somalis. About 5,600 such applications are being processed, with the oldest dating from the start of 2009.

[…..]

The Finnish Immigration Service says that the handling of Somalis’ applications for a residence permit on the basis of family ties takes longer than average for such applications.

There are two reasons for the hold-ups, according to the authority. Firstly, the numbers of applications from Somalis have rapidly grown. Secondly, it is usually impossible to obtain documents proving a familial relationship from Somalia, which means that the interested parties have to be interviewed in person.

Most frequently, applicants are interviewed at the Finnish mission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. [Gee, can you tell us if you are related to so-and-so!—ed]

Two words for Finland:   DNA TESTING!

For new readers: In 2008 the US State Department shut down the entire family reunification program for Africa mostly because they found that as many as 80% of the applications were fraudulent.  Back in November of 2010 the State Dept. was about to re-open the program with some DNA testing required.  I frankly don’t know what happened with it, they have probably quietly re-opened Somali family reunification to the US and are operating on a backlog as well.

The Times of Malta editorial tip-toe!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Oh my gosh, faced with the possibility of tens of thousands of fleeing North Africans coming ashore on the Mediterranean Island country of Malta—a big problem before the “democracy” revolutions began—an editorial in the Times of Malta goes on for paragraphs about the humanitarian problems (costs etc.) before it gets to several squishy paragraphs that tip-toe around the real problem.   How do you sort out “deserving” refugees from criminals and terrorists?  You ask them!

“….the nature of certain claims could be very delicate!”

Many of those fleeing Libya are likely to be asylum seekers. But there may also be many other nationalities who are in Libya but do not want to return to their own country fearing persecution. The UNHCR says it registered over 8,000 refugees in Libya, mainly from Palestine, Sudan, Iraq, Eritrea, Somalia and Chad. However, the number might be much higher.

In such circumstances, the Office of the Refugee Commissioner in Malta needs to be sufficiently resourced [gobs of money on hand–ed] and prepared. Not only because it might once again be faced with a huge wave of asylum seekers but also because the nature of certain claims could be very delicate and would require top interviewing, credibility analysis and refugee status determination skills.

“Top interviewing!”   What on earth are you going to ask a bunch of guys in boats from Libya or Tunisia with no papers, escaping countries with no government to speak of, ‘hey, Muslim 20-year-old, any criminal record?’  How many do you think will answer in the affirmative?

Here is a good one, someone is going to have to determine if the would-be asylee or refugee has been “found guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.” Or, how about “crimes against peace?”   Do we really think they will have their criminal or terrorism dossiers on the boat.   Read it, I am not making this up.

Malta’s refugee status determination legislation, which reflects international and EU requirements and practice, lays down that an applicant is excluded from being a refugee where there are serious reasons for considering s/ he has committed a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity, as defined in the international instruments drawn up to make provision in respect of such crimes. Moreover, exclusion could also be considered because of the commission of a serious non-political crime outside the country of refuge prior to one’s admission as a refugee or because of being found guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

So, to Maltese citizens and tourists, are your minds now at rest?   The would-be refugees will be asked if they are peaceful and have only peaceful intentions, and I guess you will have to take their word for it.

It needs to be ensured that international protection is there only for those who really deserve it. This is necessary to put people’s mind at rest, whether locals or tourists.

I’ll bet the US State Department and Ambassador Kmiec (Republican for Obama) are salivating at the prospect of scooping up more illegal aliens from Malta and resettling them in your neighborhood as they have been doing for years now!