Press conference January 22 in Tel Aviv http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/rights/last-days-freedom-african-migrants-israel
Here is the headline of a story about Israel’s problems with over 50,000 illegal African migrants in the country:
African Migrants In Israel Asked To Leave The Country — Or Report To A Detention Center
I thought, wow, they are getting serious. The headline left me with the impression that they were rounding ’em up by the tens of thousands.
Then this:
This month alone 1,700 African asylum seekers living in Israeli cities were ordered to report to the Holot facility, according to the Jerusalem Post. But very few have done so.
So, how many showed up at the detention center?
Only 26 African migrants arrive at detention facility as 30-day deadline expires
Israel is also offering a payment of $3,500 for any economic migrant willing to leave the country.
Dadaab: Going home to Somalia and to 44 industrialized countries around the world!
I don’t know what to make of this! While we are getting news that the UN is working toward closing the massive Somali refugee camp in Kenya (the Kenyan government doesn’t want them after the horrific mall attack), and “refugees” are returning to Somalia (here), the UN is also admonishing governments around the globe to take more Somali asylum seekers.
Asylum seeking Somali numbers are high! How many arrived in Malmo? Are they fearful, or just looking to be taken care of in the West?
More than 42,000 Somalis sought asylum in neighbouring countries and elsewhere in 2013.
Feeding into their fear, the UNHCR says don’t send them back to Somalia (while the UN scales back rations and sends them out of Kenya?), continued UNHCR at All Africa:
We are appealing to all states to uphold their international obligations with regard to no forced returns, or non-refoulement. Somali nationals should not be forcibly returned to Somalia unless the returning state is convinced that the persons involved would not be at risk of persecution.
[…..]
Between January and November 2013, 21,517 Somalis sought asylum in neighbouring countries. In addition, Somalis filed 20,600 asylum claims in 44 industrialized countries in 2013, compared to 18,701 claims in 2012.While more than 33,000 spontaneous returns were recorded between January and November 2013, many may not have been permanent. As of end 2012, the number of Somali refugees worldwide was 1.136 million.
If they all went back to Somalia (with the help of the UN!), al-Shabaab would not have a prayer of surviving against a million people encouraged and determined to re-build their country. The UN seems to be encouraging them to be fearful and expects “industrialized countries” to take care of them.
The headline of the AP piece from CBS Las Vegas, calls her a “refugee” but it’s not clear if she was actually granted asylum. Hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers.’
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Chinese woman who says she sought asylum in the U.S. after taking part in pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989 was sentenced in Las Vegas to nearly four years in federal prison for her role in a multi-million dollar casino baccarat fraud scheme.
Irene Li’s lawyer, Assistant Federal Public Defender William Carrico, said Thursday he’s virtually certain his 53-year-old client will be deported to China after her 47 months in prison.
Li pleaded guilty in October to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a plea deal that had other charges against her dismissed.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon also ordered Li on Wednesday to repay $2.2 million in damages to five Las Vegas casinos.
Officials say Li’s husband remains a fugitive in the case.
Chinese make up the largest percentage of asylum seekers granted permission to stay in the US
Go to Table 6, page 6 of the Department of Homeland Securities 2012 Annual Flow Report. Here are the stats for Chinese given refugee status (after arriving in the US on their own either illegally or as visa overstays).
2010: 6,693 Chinese granted asylum (31% of the total)
2011: 8,585 (34%)
2012: 10,151 (34%)
Astounding!
By the way, a large number of Chinese men are being granted asylum because they tell immigration judges they want to have more than one child and that is grounds for admission! Once asylum is granted, the asylee can access all of the welfare programs open to refugees. See ourfact sheet.
Last week we reported this storyabout a Somali woman in Minnesota who claims the US government is holding up a visa for her husband to enter the US. The original article was from the Star Tribune but was reprinted in several other on-line publications. Here is one of those reprints at Somalilandsun where a commenter ‘Alia’ caused quite a bit of back and forth with this comment (below). Thanks to ‘Pungentpeppers’ for spotting this because I didn’t see it!
I have had several people experienced with refugee resettlement tell me this is how it is done, but you’ll never see this in any mainstream media investigative report. Islam permits a man to have up to four wives.
Somali Bantus arriving in San Diego in 2004. I was interested to see that the women were all dressed alike. Why? http://www.wardheernews.com/Articles_2010/October/Hassan_Abukar/11_glimpses_of_Somali_diaspora.html
Alia (reprinted without editing, emphasis is mine):
This is all bogus. Through experience as a refugee case manager for over 10 years in the U.S with a refugee resettlement agency I have seen all kinds of fraud perpetrated by Southern Somalis in order to get to the u.s.
I have seen a Southern Bantu Somali who brought in four wife’s at the same time, he started one was his wife, one as a daughter, one was processed as his sons wife and the last one came in as a single mom who as she claimed her husband died in Somalia.
When they all arrived they were resettled in four different apartments courtesy of the the tax payers plus food clothing’s and cash allowances which all ended up in the husbands pockets.
This dude is still enjoying the welfare to this day 8 years since he come here and he does’t want to work.every year the wife’s are pregnant and a 3 dozen kids since he arrived apart from the kids he brought with him.Unfortunately most of the kid have no proper education.
Once he was asked is if what he was doing was not xaram and his answer was qaal Ayaan dacas.
Now does Islam condone this kind of behavior? Imagine this guys case to just a tip of the iceberg.
Regarding this woman I believe she lied on her application and the embassy found out the lie. If you are a genuine refugee and your paper are real no forgeries involved you will be granted refugee status when the visas are available.
During the war in the north northerners came to this country on their own ways no refugee status was granted to any northerner at the time and who ever came immediately went to work and school to improve their situations right away. They never became parasites as this refugees who came on flight 13. That’s why you we’ll educated and prosperous northerner in New England as compared to the refugees in Minnesota and San Diego. [We have been taking Somali “refugees” since the early 1980’s (just over 4,000 between ’83 and ’93). I am not sure what she means about some who came early-on were not refugees, did they come illegally? Overstay visas? Also, there are many Bantus in New England.—ed]
I hope the U.S. Government tstops granting this leeches refugee status and instead grant other people who deserve it and will benefit their country. [Keep in mind that the regular Somalisdon’t always get along withthe Bantusthey believe are inferior to them.—ed]
This problem of polygamy among some Somalis is rarely mentioned, I believe, because our political correctness seems to be driven these days by the concept of cultural relativism—that we shouldn’t be critical of cultural differences! Heaven forbid we should be judgmental about even female genital mutilation another ‘cultural’ practice coming to America from Africa.
A school district in Minneapolis is trying to figure out how to bring new Somali kids up to speed educationally, how to “jump-start” them.
Somali students in the lunchroom. http://daughternumberthree.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html
The story at the Star Tribune this past week mentions that there are many more kids arriving from Somalia than in recent years, but no mention of why that is. Somali family reunification from Africa is now up and running again after about a four year hiatus that ended in 2013. It had been closed for years due to the widespread fraud uncovered by the US State Department in 2008.
Going to the DHS’s Annual flow report, see that in 2010 we resettled 4,884 Somalis, 2011—3,161 and 2012—4,911.
Shuttling between classrooms at Anne Sullivan school in Minneapolis, teacher James Kindle noticed that classroom teachers were stretched mightily to serve the wide range of abilities in a school with many immigrants.
A teacher might be showing one group of students how to measure the angles in a triangle, while other students in the same class were just learning that “triangle” is the word for a three-sided polygon.
Kindle did some research, talked to other teachers and together they went to school district officials. The result is a pair of “newcomer classrooms” and a concentrated effort to jump-start the adjustment of Somali students in American schools.
The timing is good for Sullivan and other schools receiving a surge of Somali refugees.
“This is a heroic effort on Sullivan’s part,” said Lynn Harper, a district K-8 multicultural specialist.
The newcomer program is aimed at Somalis, but the concept could be adapted to any immigrant group, she said.
Students new to the country are steered into a classroom with other newcomers, so they can learn things like “triangle” before heading into classes with other students.
The district is ramping up the effort even before knowing results. The school board last month approved an expansion from Sullivan’s two classrooms to eight newcomer classrooms, split between Sullivan and Andersen United school. Together the two schools account for one of every six K-8 students in the district from a Somali-speaking family. The expanded program starts next fall.
The Sullivan experiment comes as the school district sees an influx of students from Somalia. At the start of this year’s classes, 336 refugee students had registered recently enough that they could have been eligible for newcomer classes. That’s a marked increase over previous years.
The influx won’t be ending anytime soon for “welcoming” cities like Minneapolis.
For the numbers of Somalis arriving in the last three decades, visit one of our most-read postshere at RRW. In three years of the Bush Administration the numbers topped ten thousand per year!
***While you are checking those stats for Somalia at WRAPSnet, note that Somalis make up the fourth largest number of refugees resettled in fiscal year 2014. The top three in the first three months of this fiscal year are:
