Category: Rohingya Reports

“Statelessness” the new buzzword? Rohingya the poster children

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I guess the word “refugee” was getting a bit overused, so now its “statelessness.”

We heard in July that Schwartz was leaving his post, getting out of the Obama Administration while the getting is good?

Here at the Huffington Post Eric Schwartz (Asst. Secretary for Population, Refugees, and Migration in the US State Department) gives us the guilt-trip spiel about the “stateless” problem for which we (US taxpayers) give the UN $700 million a year to try to solve.

Among the most egregious stories are those of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority from Burma’s Northern Rakhine State * who have lived in Burma for centuries, but were excluded from the country’s 1982 citizenship law and continue to suffer persecution, including forced labor, confiscation of property, rape, and other forms of violence. While approximately 750,000 Rohingya remain in Burma, an estimated three million Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Saudi Arabia, and other countries in the region. Although some have been recognized as refugees, many others lack documentation and are at risk of arbitrary arrest and detention, deportation back to Burma, human trafficking, and other abuses. The Obama Administration is working with other donor governments, international and non-governmental organizations, and affected countries in the region to provide assistance to the Rohingya and identify durable [eg. resettlement], humane, and comprehensive solutions for their plight.

Globally, the U.S. government is concerned about statelessness as a human rights and humanitarian issue that impacts prospects for democratization, economic development, and regional stability. U.S. diplomats around the world are working to persuade other governments to amend nationality laws that discriminate against women and minorities and cause statelessness, provide documentation to stateless persons, protect them from abuse, and ensure they have access to basic services. And we are the single largest donor to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the agency mandated to protect stateless people, contributing over $700 million last year.

Happily, the laws of the United States do not contribute to the problem of statelessness; we grant citizenship through birth in the United States, birth abroad to a U.S. parent if statutory requirements are met, and through naturalization.

* For years we resisted resettling the Rohingya to the US because of some connections to Islamic terror groups, but we see they are the poster children for “statelessness” and our gates are open to them now.  This is our 100th post (over four years) on the subject of the Rohingya, go here to our Rohingya Reports category for everything you ever want to know on the subject.

It’s kind of a classic case in how Americans are kept in the dark and how the country changes—the mainstream media rarely uses the word Rohingya (how many of you who are not regular readers here have ever heard it?)  The public, if they know anything at all knows that we bring in “Burmese” refugees, many of whom are Christians, but mixed in are the Rohingya.  And where they are resettled together tensions have been reported (but never in any publications of any note).   The Left (including Soros prodigy Eric Schwartz, see here, here, and here ) is gradually building an ever-expanding Muslim population, for what?  And, the average American citizen won’t notice it’s going on until……

Rohingya refugees being resettled in New Hampshire

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I was interested in this story—Nashua, NH fretting about whether it would get more refugees if Manchester gets a moratorium—anyway.  But, then I note that we are quietly resettling Rohingya refugees in New Hampshire.

For years I followed the story of Rohingya Muslim refugees leaving Burma and it interested me because for years the US State Department resisted the pressure from NGOs to resettle them here. (The Rohingya are also among the illegal aliens trying to get into Thailand and Australia).   But, at some point in 2010 we started resettling Rohingya in American towns and cities and so I gave up posting much on them—it was kind of hopeless.

BTW, here is one of 98 posts I’ve written on Rohingya in a special category entitled Rohingya Reports.  It is a post from April 2010 about how the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) was pushing hard to add Rohingya to their collection of ethnic groups to add diversity to your town!  If anyone in New Hampshire wants to know more about Rohingya, just read through those 98 posts going back to 2007.

USCRI is the federal contractor that subcontracts the International Institute of New Hampshire. operating in Manchester.   Incidentally, another USCRI subcontractor was closed by the US State Department in Waterbury, CT after a real (honest to goodness) investigative reporter found the refugees living in squalor and dared to write a series of articles about it.

Lutheran Social Services is a competing contractor.  If Manchester gets a moratorium, presumably Lutheran Social Services will get the job (and the per head payment!) since they must control the Nashua turf.

So that is some of the background, now here is the story from the Nashua Telegraph from last week:

As Manchester city officials attempt to put a halt on new refugees being placed in the city, it’s unknown what the impact would be on Nashua if the moratorium were granted.

Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas submitted a letter to the U.S. Department of State requesting a two-year moratorium on new refugees being resettled in the city.

The state’s largest city has been the primary resettlement location for refugees in New Hampshire. Between 2002 and 2009, Manchester received 1,807 of the state’s 2,966 new refugees, or roughly 60 percent.

By comparison, Nashua, the state’s second-largest city, received only 70 refugees during that same period, much fewer than Concord and Laconia, which received 778 and 260, respectively.

The most recent group of refugees to come to Nashua were roughly a dozen Rohingya people, seeking refuge from the Burmese government. More are expect to be resettled in Nashua in the coming year.

[….]

Amy Marchildon, who oversees refugee resettlement in New Hampshire for Lutheran Social Services, said Nashua is in line to receive another 50 to 70 Rohingya refugees over the next year, but there’s no way to know for sure whether those numbers will pan out.

I wonder why the states cower so and don’t just tell the US State Department NO!  Or, at least do what Tennessee has done and start to take more local government control of refugee resettlement.

OIC to continue pushing Rohingya refugee rights

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has reiterated support for the unification of Rohingya people (Burmese Muslims).

From Burma News International:

The Secretary General clarified that an agreement was reached during the first meeting on 9 June 2010 which established an organizational and coordination structure known as the Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) with the aim of uniting Rohingya peoples’ efforts. He stated that today’s meeting seeks the same purpose.

The Secretary General underlined that the meeting stresses the importance of coordinating the work of Rohingya Muslim organizations and uniting their ranks under a united coordination council, and calls on OIC to continue these efforts to reclaim Rohingya Muslims’ rights.

[….]

The Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) reiterated the OIC’s solidarity with the Rohingya people and reassured them of the continued support of the organisation.

The Secretary General also reaffirmed that the OIC supports the return of the refugees and the restoration of their rights and privileges which were taken from them by the Burmese authorities.

There is nothing particularly newsworthy to Western readers, but I wanted to continue to build our Rohingya Reports category (which I’ve let languish for months) as we learned that US federal refugee contractors like the US Conference of Catholic Bishops are stepping up their call for more Rohingya to be resettled here.

Waves of Rohingya Muslims still arriving in Thailand…

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….and likely will be resettled in the West.

I haven’t written much about Rohingya (a Muslim minority group from Burma) lately (we have 96 posts on them here in a special category).  My interest had been about whether the US State Department was going to resettle them to the US, and once we quietly began doing that and dropping them into the middle of Christian Burmese communities, I got too disgusted to write about it.  Centuries of animosity are not going to be erased just because some Leftists in the State Department and in the contractor community say it will be so.  The American melting pot does not work when Islamic supremacism is involved.

From CNN:

Authorities in Thailand were trying Tuesday to deal with a new group of 67 members of an ethnic Muslim minority that arrived in a boat claiming that they were the victims of persecution.

The new group adds to a recent wave of Rohingya who have recently arrived in southern Thailand, claiming that they have been persecuted in Myanmar.

Their arrival could test Bangkok’s international pledges to treat the Rohingya humanely, two years after Thailand faced international condemnation over secret policies of towing Rohingya back out to sea in unpowered boats with little food and water.

The article goes on to report that there are one thousand Rohingya detained in Thailand at the moment with the Thai government trying to figure out what to do with them.

There must be more Rohingya going to Europe, and particularly Ireland, these days because I see this older post about Rohingya being resettled in Ireland visited a lot recently.

By the way, legitimate asylum seekers are to seek asylum in the first country in which they land, however, our State Department broke that rule (and set a precedent) when they very flagrantly began resettling as refugees economic migrants from Africa who landed on Malta, here.   The practice was set in motion by the Bush Administration and is, no surprise, being continued by the Obama Administration.

Lining up in Malaysia—got money? move to the head of the line

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Although it’s impossible to sort this out, I expect there is an element of truth in the charge that various UN affiliated organizations are selling refugee registrations.  Sounds like the UN has created a recipe for corruption. 

From a blog called ‘Prisoner in own Homeland:’

KUALA LUMPUR—Several Burmese organizations in Malaysia, which are affiliated with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), are selling resettlement registrations for profit to refugees, according to victims of the scheme and witnesses in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

The groups in question include the Chin Refugee Committee (CRC), the National League for Democracy (Liberated Area) Malaysia (NLDLA), the Burma Refugee Organization (BRO) and the Arakan Refugees Relief Committee (ARRC). But sources say other affiliated groups, including several ethnic representatives, are also involved.

Earlier this year, the UNHCR began delegating the authority for issuing resettlement registration documents to Burmese groups based in Malaysia. Refugees who are recommended for resettlement by the agencies are then interviewed by the UNHCR. The exception is the CRC, which was first authorized to register its people for resettlement in 2001.

90,000 more registered already to come to a town near you!  I hear Ft. Wayne is lovely (just kidding!).

According to the Malaysia UNHCR website at the end of August, there are some 90,300 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with their office; of which about 83,000, or 90 percent, are from Burma. Of that number, about 38,500 are Chins, 19,700 are Rohingyas (Muslims), 7,400 are Burmese Muslims, 3,900 are Mon, and 3,500 are Kachins or from other smaller ethnic minorities.