Human rights activists, of course, condemn such action!
Invasion of Europe News…
Remember this story from 2006 as you read about how those mean Danes want to send Syrians home!
In 2006, Syrians in Damascus torched the Danish embassy over those Mohammed cartoons. And, yet now Danes are expected to welcome and pay for the upkeep of Syrian Muslim refugees!
Thousands of angry Syrian demonstrators storm the Danish Embassy in Damascus, Syria, on Saturday and set fire to the Embassy building in protest of offensive caricatures of Islam’s prophet. . (AP Photo Bassem Tellawi).
Denmark may return Syria refugees as Damascus area deemed ‘safe’
(Should have blocked their entry in the first place!)
Denmark is considering sending Syrian refugees home as it deems areas under the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad in Damascus safe, Sputnik reported.
The Danish government is fast-tracking a review of residence permits for some 900 Syrian refugees from Damascus, claiming that Damascus is safe, leaving there no reason for them to warrant Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
In the announcement, Danish Integration Minister Mattias Tesfaye said that any refugees forced to return would be given travel money.
“Last year, there were almost 100,000 refugees returning to Syria from the surrounding areas. I think it is fair that the people who live here in Europe also return home if they don’t need protection,” Tesfaye added.
The announcement has come under severe criticism from human rights campaigners who point out that no area of Syria is currently safe to return to.
Some Syrian experts condemned the decision emphasising that anyone who returns is at risk, and that Denmark is setting a dangerous precedent for the treatment of Syrians by EU countries.
Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees stressed that there was no prospect for a peaceful solution to the long-standing conflict in Syria.
Elisabeth Arnsdorf Haslund
“Unless the situation in Syria is significantly improved in terms of ensuring protection for the population, UNHCR calls on states that have received Syrian refugees – including Denmark – to continue their protection,” UNHCR spokeswoman Elisabeth Arnsdorf Haslund said.
Since 2019, the Danish government has been considering that Damascus and its region are safe places and says the refugees must return there.
Last December, Denmark became the first country to deny a Syrian asylum seeker on the basis that the country is safe,despite continued killings of civilians due to air strikes.
In a puff-piece story from Idaho about how the state celebrated World Refugee Day, a refugee from the DR Congo trumpets his support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Every corner we look, they are there,” Wangoi said, referring to “people with racism and hatred in their hearts.”
You know this is insane! Are we importing more angry Africans?
According to the Refugee Processing Center, the US State Department and its contractors have ‘welcomed’ 61,000 refugees (as of yesterday!) from the DR Congo since President Obama said we were admitting 50,000 over 5 years.
The UN has sent 61,000 as of yesterday and that is only the Africans from the DR Congo.
Screenshot of RPC data: 61,000 potentially angry Congolese admitted to the US in last seven years!
The DR Congolese are still coming in in large numbers during the Trump Administration. The only states that did not receive DR Congolese are West Virginia and Wyoming.
Here is the story from Idaho that has me steamed this morning!
Idaho refugees celebrate virtual World Refugee Day
This year, the World Refugee Day celebration was held virtually on Saturday, in an effort to protect the Treasure Valley community from the spread of COVID-19. The change was to protect the community and also the refugees who work in health care, on the front lines battling the pandemic’s spread in the valley.
The refugee speakers and performers were asked to submit videos of themselves to celebration organizers, who then compiled them into one presentation.
[….]
Georgette Siqueiros, community engagement coordinator for IRC Boise, said the World Refugee Day committee had been planning for how to organize the virtual celebration for several weeks ahead of the event.
Georgette Siqueiros works for “moneybags Miliband” of the International Rescue Committee
The video featured seven community speakers and several performances from refugee performance groups.
Siqueiros said the goal of the event was to celebrate the refugee community and the refugees who are in the health care industry and to acknowledge the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Patrick Wangoi, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, spoke in the virtual celebration about the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement and his experience with racism in Boise.
Did Wangoi report the incident to the police—white guys, confederate flag, pick up truck. Hmmmm?
“Every corner we look, they are there,” Wangoi said, referring to “people with racism and hatred in their hearts.”
“Their message is, ‘You are not wanted,’” he said. “They wish every black person would disappear.”
Wangoi recalled an incident when he was followed by a group of white teenagers carrying confederate flags in their pickup truck.
He said the group stood outside his house for more than an hour.
“I wonder, if those young boys had a gun, where would I be today?” Wangoi said.
Wangoi ended his video with a call to action for people to be anti-racist.
If you are interested, look around on the internet and you will see that Wangoi is a refugee star in Boise and has done very well for a supposedly discriminated-against black man.
You may remember that in mid-March the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its partner the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the entity that processes refugee travel, announced that due to the Chinese Virus crisis refugees would not be traveling to a new country. This was to protect the refugees from picking up the virus.
Joint Statement: UN refugee chief Grandi and IOM’s Vitorino announce resumption of resettlement travel for refugees
The temporary hold on resettlement travel, which was necessitated by disruptions and restrictions to international air travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, delayed the departures of some 10,000 refugees to resettlement countries. Throughout this period, UNHCR, IOM and partners continued to process and counsel refugees and resettled scores of emergency and urgent cases.
If you see a bag like this at your local airport, know that a new refugee is arriving (that is, assuming you are traveling at all!).
In addition, numerous resettlement countries established or expanded their capacities to apply flexible processing modalities, to adapt and ensure the continuity of their resettlement programs in unpredictable circumstances.
Although many travel restrictions still remain in place, as these begin to lift in many resettlement countries more refugee departures can be anticipated. UNHCR and IOM will continue to work with our government partners and other stakeholders around the world to move towards a return to normal operations as swiftly as the situation allows in each country.”
There was no moratorium!
During the supposed halt in refugee travel, the US admitted 523 (emergency) refugees that were distributed to 33 states.
Using data from the Refugee Processing Center, here is where the 523 who came in during the height of the virus crisis in the US, from March 17th, when the spigot was supposedly closed, to today.
Top ten states ‘welcoming’ refugees are: Texas (always number one!), Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, California, Georgia, Idaho/Utah (tied for tenth place).
The primary sending countries were the DR Congo (as usual), Burma, Pakistan, El Salvador, Iran and Syria.
I was very surprised to see that 194 of the 523 emergency refugees we admitted are Muslims (37%) of some stripe, included are 13 Somalis. 45 of 65 from Burma are Rohingya Muslims. No Christians from Syria out of 23 arrivals were among them, and only 4 of 17 from Iraq are Christians. So much for saving the Christians of Syria and Iraq!
I will be watching and let you know when I see the floodgates fully open!
Large swaths of the refugee/immigrant labor force that came to America (or who were brought here by the federal government) to provide a ready supply of cheap labor for giant global corporations are still sick or are afraid to return to work in the meatpacking industry.
The Chinese virus has exposed a great vulnerability not just for the companies, but for the future of the country. Any intelligent company will now begin to see the need to move faster toward automationand then what happens to the literally millions of immigrant workers with no skills and no English to learn new skills.
Reutersthis week canvassed some of the BIG MEAT companies and reports that meat production is still not returning to its former capacity. Workers are sick or scared to return to work.
Notice how they even have to put Trump into this story headline, as if Trump’s order had anything to do with the continued problems of an industry that was not forward thinking.
Meatpacking workers often absent after Trump order to reopen
[Chinese owned] Smithfield Foods Inc [SFII.UL] is missing about a third of its employees at a South Dakota pork plant because they are quarantined or afraid to return to work after a severe coronavirus outbreak, according to the workers’ union.
Tyson Foods Inc (TSN.N) was forced to briefly close its Storm Lake, Iowa plant – a month after U.S. President Donald Trump’s April 28 order telling meatpackers to stay open – as worker absences hobbled its slaughter operations.
Nationwide, 30% to 50% of meatpacking employees were absent last week, said Mark Lauritsen, a vice president at the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW).
[….]
Infections have risen steadily in rural counties that are home to large meatpacking plants since Trump ordered them to stay open. At least 15 meatpacking counties now report a higher infection rate, on a per capita basis, than New York City, the virus’s epicenter – though that is likely a reflection of the extensive testing of workers and local residents along with elevated infection rates.
More than a dozen meatpacking workers, union leaders and advocates told Reutersthat many employees still fear getting sick after losing confidence in management during coronavirus outbreaks in April and May. Absenteeism varies by plant, and exact data is not available, but some workers’ unwillingness to return poses a challenge to an industry still struggling to restore normal meat output.
In a report about refugees working in food processing in Abilene, Texas we see the same story.
If you have been wondering why Texas is still the number one destination of new refugees being admitted to the US (even as politicians there SAY they want it stopped), it is because of companies like this one that employs large numbers of immigrant/refugee laborers while changing the social and cultural makeup of American cities.
The article atFood & Environment Reporting Networkbegins with the usual refugee sob story. They must teach that in Journalism 101—soften up readers to the plight of the poor____ (fill in the blank)!
The story is long. It explains in detail the problems with a work force that is uneducated and living in close proximity to each other.
The pandemic is just the latest threat faced by refugee food workers in Texas
Lawi’s dilemma is one that many workers around the world are facing. But former refugees like Lawi can be particularly vulnerable in this pandemic.
Mfaume Lawi (with family) was brought to Texas from the DR Congo by the International Rescue Committee to work for the food processing company.
Many former refugees are from rural parts of their home countries and had limited access to education. They might not read or write in their home languages, which makes it even harder to try to learn to read and write in English; they might only speak their own dialects, and their work experience is often constrained by the opportunities in overcrowded refugee camps where the average wait time to leave is close to 30 years.
A lack of education, work experience, and English language skills have made it especially hard for many former refugees to understand the scope of the pandemic and follow advice on social distancing.
Building ethnic enclaves is part of the problem….
Even without a pandemic, resettlement can present what feel like insurmountable obstacles. But agencies work to keep families and people of similar diaspora together because of their shared language and past, so they can quickly feel like extended family. Still, the fact that the community is often together—living in apartments near each other, spending time in each other’s homes outside of work—can be deadly in a pandemic.
Former refugees make up about 20 percent of the workforce at the AbiMar Foods plant. Because of that high number, the company’s outbreak was also a refugee-community issue. The close-knit nature of the community meant that those early days were especially crucial to stop the spread.
Bottomline, any smart company will be moving to mechanization and America will be left dealing with hundreds of thousands of refugees admitted in recent years who have no skills and little opportunity to gain any.
The Obama Administration told the UN in 2014 that we would be ‘welcoming’ 50,000 from the DR Congo over the subsequent five years.
We have now surpassed that number by at least 10,000. See here in late 2019 we were at 58,999!
As World Refugee Day approaches on June 20th, expect to see more stories like this one about the plight of a growing number of refugees (they are always growing, so nothing new there!) whose movement is blocked not by racist border restrictions, but by the Chinese Virus that has closed borders since late March.
On March 22nd the United Nations, with its branch called the International Organization for Migration that facilitates refugee travel, shut down almost all refugee movement.
Indeed it had to because 150 countries have closed their borders completely or have strict requirements for movement across them.
I had been wondering if the UN is restarting the flow, but apparently not.
The story atStuffis mostly about New Zealand that had just begun in earnest to ‘welcome’ the third world when COVID began its deadly spread.
But, here are a couple of bits that interested me besides learning that the UN continues to be responsible for the moratorium, not Donald Trump as I see most days in the US media.
Scores of refugees in limbo as quota system in holding pattern due to Covid-19
As we approach World Refugee Day on June 20 we have the highest number of refugees worldwide than ever before.
According to the latest UNHCR figures, there are 70.8 million forcibly displaced people, including more than 41 million internally displaced people and 25 million refugees.
Only 1 per cent of those 25 million refugees are resettled. That number is now at zero because of Covid-19.
More than 150 countries have closed their borders or put in border restrictions.
The vast majority of them have no exceptions for people claiming asylum.
They have no exceptions for refugees who need to flee their countries because of persecution, human rights abuses or war to be able to bypass border restrictions connected to Covid-19.
Flow of money is stopping too!
Rarely do we hear about the amount of money that refugees and migrants send HOME from the country where they have migrated to—money lost to the host country’s economy.
Migrant workers would not able to send money home to support their families and communities in their countries. The economic impact on those migrant workers and the decline in their livelihoods is going to have a massive impact on remittances, he adds.
“Latest figures are that remittances will go down $100 billion globally.”
According to the Refugee Processing Center, the US State Department and its contractors have ‘welcomed’ 61,000 refugees (as of yesterday!) from the DR Congo since
Using data from the Refugee Processing Center, here is where the 523 who came in during the height of the virus crisis in the US, from March 17th, when the spigot was supposedly closed, to today.
