Category: Europe

France plans to DNA-test new arrivals

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It happens all over the civilized world: A would-be immigrant falsely claims family ties with someone in a desirable country in order to get a visa. Now France is cracking down by ordering DNA tests for these claimants, the UK’s Daily Mail reports:

France’s hard-line new immigration minister is set to implement legislation that would allow DNA testing of new arrivals.

Eric Besson, who was appointed this month, has said the tests would establish which foreigners were claiming visas by making up fictious family ties with those already settled in the country.

Civil liberties groups have reacted furiously to the controversial scheme, which was approved by the French parliament 15 months ago.

It’s beyond me what this has to do with civil liberties. Following the law is a civil liberties violation? I guess it must be, since civil liberties groups go crazy in the U.S. when we require proof of citizenship for things like getting hired.

A recent report said there was often doubt over the authenticity of papers in family applications for visas.

It claimed that in African countries such as Senegal, Ivory Coast and Togo up to 80 per cent of birth and marriage certificates were forged.

France, and all European countries, have more of a problem with fictitious family ties than we do here, because so many of their immigrants come directly from Africa, where this fraud is most rampant. Many of the Africans who come to the U.S. are refugees, which is why we are concerned with this issue.

The State Department suspended a family-reunification program for Africans when DNA testing showed that the majority of claimants were not related, and that tens of thousands of Somalis and other east Africans are here illegally because of fraud.  It then suspended the program worldwide. See our previous posts on DNA testing here, here, here, here, and here.  We’ve been posting on it since July.

France has a reputation here of being a nation of softies. But they have often been very tough when it comes to defending themselves. They have much stronger anti-terrorist laws, for instance, in which there is a lot less concern for the “rights” of terrorists. (They can’t seem to figure out how to deal with their car-burning Muslim “youths,” though.)

Outgoing immigration minister Brice Hortefeux recently announced that France deported 30,000 illegal migrants in 2008 – a record number. It was a rise of more than 25 per cent on the number expelled the previous year.

I don’t know what our numbers are here, but I doubt we expelled that many.

Hat tip:  Blulitespecial

Europeans getting cold feet about taking Gitmo prisoners

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update Jan. 24th:  Two more former Gitmo inmates return to terrorism, more cold feet expected soon!

European countries did a lot of yakking and complaining about our military prison at Guantanamo Bay Cuba, but now when their wonder boy announces it will be closed in a year they are not eagerly stepping forward to resettle the detainees, most of whom were captured on the battlefield of the War on Terror (which no longer exists we are told as of yesterday).

Check out this Washington Times story which says if they (European countries) take any Gitmo guys they will have to release them immediately into the general population.

“The Europeans have been nagging the United States to close Guantanamo for ages,” said London-based security analyst Bob Ayers. “Now the U.S. is actually thinking about doing it, these same Europeans that have been critical of the U.S. are now very reluctant to take those people into their own countries.”

This is going to be so much fun to watch.   Back in the USA, Glenn Beck was suggesting Alcatraz because of its proximity to Nancy Pelosi’s home.   And, I think I know some Kansans making picket signs already.

But, I was thinking today, maybe the terror suspects could be broken up into groups of two or three and spread around to many maximum security prisons where they could be put into the general prison population and see how tough they really are.

All of our previous posts on Gitmo are here.

No one wants the Iraqi Palestinians, especially other Muslims

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Stuck in camps along the border of Iraq and Syria, no MUSLIM country will take in 700 fellow Muslim Palestinians who fear returning to Iraq because they were given special treatment by Saddam and thus may suffer retaliation by other Muslims.

I have asked this on many previous occasions, where is the much ballyhooed Muslim charity?   And, I am going to just keep on asking that question for however long it takes!

The start of 2009 offers little hope to the residents of Al Tanf, a refugee camp on the Syrian-Iraqi border housing over 700 Palestinians who had fled persecution in Iraq. No country has given any concrete pledge to take any of the refugees for resettlement in 2009, leaving them to battle the cold desert weather this winter with more despair than ever.

[…..] 

Resettlement is the pressing need for the people of Al Tanf. Stuck in tents in No Man’s Land between the border crossings, the refugees are legally unable to go forward into Syria and fear going back to Iraq where they face persecution from Kurd and Shia groups who accuse them of being too close to the Sunni-dominated insurgency or resent the privileges they received under Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Every country has it’s immgration quota says UNRWA representative.

“It’s hard to say why resettlement is so slow,” said Kristian Boysen, project officer at UNRWA, the main UN agency dealing with Palestinian refugees. “Each country has an immigration quota and they choose who they think will fit into the country.”

So Mr. Boysen, tell me, what is the quota for Saudi Arabia, Iran, Jordan, Turkey, or Kuwait?  Have they filled their quota of Arab Muslim Palestinians?  Or is it just western countries that must open their doors?  Or, why can’t they go live in UNRWA administered Palestinian areas and get well-cared-for by the UN (that is, the US taxpayer)?

It is not just Al Tanf refugees who need resettlement. There are about 1,000 Palestinian-Iraqis in Al Waleed camp on the Iraqi side of the border. A further 300 live in Al Hol camp, further to the north on the Syrian side.

There were 306 successful resettlements from Al Tanf in 2008: 116 to Chile, 174 to Sweden and 16 to Switzerland. In addition, Iceland, Norway and Sweden took some refugees from Al Waleed and Al Hol. But for every family that leaves, another arrives – either fleeing from Iraq or having been unable to earn enough money to support themselves in Syria. [so some actually were in Syria, they are then economic migrants?]

I’m wondering if this is just one more public relations campaign to highlight the suffering Palestinians so that the US and Israel can be beaten over the head with the situation.   

 The refugees say they are rejected everywhere, but want to go to Europe.

Europe is the hope for most refugees who point out that each country need only take 10 families each in order to empty out the camps.

How come they aren’t asking to go join their co-religionists in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan, Iran, or Kuwait?  How come those countries aren’t taking them in?  How come the western media never asks that question?  It’s all about the bad Christians and Jews isn’t it? It’s all about flooding western countries with Muslim immigrants, isn’t it?

Movin’ ’em out in Malta: US will take a bunch more illegals

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has set up an office in Malta to help move the illegal aliens, mostly Africans, (we told you about their rioting the other day), that arrive there by the boatload, to countries willing to take them.   This article says they don’t have enough case workers to process the boat people, so  not wanting to slow the process, Malta is seeking to hire more.

Several countries have pledged themselves to resettle a number of people given refugee status in Malta, but this can only be done once their case is fully processed.

They are pinning hopes on the new EU Immigration pact, however…..

The spokesman denied that there were any current bottlenecks in the processing of refugee status, noting that less than 100 places have been pledged within the EU.

It is really O.K. though because we, the United States, will take more and probably give them tea parties too!

On April 2008, however, the United States Embassy pledged its intention to continue its resettlement program, which it said would allow “hundreds more refugees living in Malta to be resettled in the US”.

By the way, Malta Molly, aka Ambassador Tea Party,  is returning to the US soon and cites her work in helping Malta’s illegal aliens get to your neighborhood as one of her accomplishments.

Refugees are still refugees nearly two decades after the breakup of Yugoslavia

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is a story from Reuters (but written by the UNHCR, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) about a family driven from their home in what is now Bosnia and still living as refugees in Serbia.   It made me think of the Gaza situation.

There are no family photos, no paintings, no book collection, no heirlooms – no possessions recalling their former lives in their hometown of Tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“We didn’t take anything with us because we didn’t have time. We had to run for our lives. The only thing that comes to mind in such a situation is to save your children and your own life,” says Miljo. “You don’t think about the photographs, you don’t think about personal documents, clothes, whatever.”

Miljo, his wife Milica, son Milutin and daughter Stanislava are refugees, forced to flee Tuzla in 1992. All they have as proof of their past and their identity is a refugee card. Their belongings were left behind as Miljo and his wife, clutching their then infant children, rushed to escape.

More than half-a-million civilians fled to Serbia from Bosnia and Herzegovina and from Croatia in the 1990s conflicts. Considerable success has been achieved on local integration, with over 200,000 former refugees now holding Serbian citizenship. But some 96,000 refugees remain – the remnants of Europe’s largest protracted refugee situation. Many live in desperate conditions and face a bleak future.

The article never tells us why they fled, but I am guessing they are not Muslims.  Bosnia today is a majority Muslim country and if they were Muslims I don’t know why they would fear going home, but they do.

Miljo and Milica thought about going back to Tuzla, but their old home had been trashed and looted and they did not feel safe. They considered selling the property, but they would never make enough from the sale to build a new place. What’s more, their children had grown used to Serbia. So repatriation is not an option; nor is resettlement.

That leaves local integration. But taking Serbian nationality will not guarantee them employment or a new house, while the cash-strapped government cannot afford to give too much under its social welfare programmes. So they are holding onto their refugee cards, which entitle them to basic medical care and occasional humanitarian assistance from UNHCR and its partners.

This made me think of Gaza and the perpetual refugee status of the Arabs (Palestinians) for generations who never have to fear they will not be taken care of by the international community through another UN agency, UNRWA.

But Miljo and Milica are aware that one day their refugee status will be revoked because they are no longer deemed to be in danger and the root causes of the Balkan refugee problem have almost ceased to exist. That won’t end the problem of finding employment and paying for food, rent and medical bills at a time when they will be near retirement age.

According to this report, the UNHCR, is trying to figure out how to find a solution for the “protracted refugee situations” not only in Europe but throughout the world.

The UN refugee agency has recently put renewed stress on finding solutions to protracted refugee situations, which account for some 6 million people worldwide who have been in exile for at least five years – many of them for decades. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said last month that political will was a main precondition for finding durable solutions.

How about if the UNHCR gets off the dime and tells the UNRWA to do the same!

Endnote:  We brought over 100,000 Bosnian Muslims (the next largest group of Muslims was the Somalis at 80,000)  to the US  in the wake of Bill Clinton’s Bosnian War.  That is what makes me think Miljo and Milica are not Muslims, if they had been they would be here now.