Category: Who is going where

Iraqi Palestinians going to Iceland, among other non-Muslim countries

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update:  Going to Sweden too.

We have written on several occasions about the Palestinians favored by Saddam Hussein who attempted to get out of ‘Dodge’ (Iraq) when the people Saddam had persecuted came to power there.  However, Jordan and Syria, the countries that have taken the largest number of Iraq’s displaced people refused entry to the Palestinians, once again demonstrating that Muslim countries do not help resettle Palestinians.   According to Reuters some are packing up for Iceland.

AL WALEED, Iraq, Aug. 4 (UNHCR) – More than two dozen vulnerable Palestinian refugees stranded for the last two years in a makeshift camp in the desert on the Iraq-Syria border are set to leave the camp in the coming weeks for Iceland.

“The group includes some of the most vulnerable women and children with urgent cases, for whom resettlement is the only option” says Daniel Endres, UNHCR’s Representative in Iraq.

Iceland takes 25 to 30 refugees for resettlement every year and in recent years has focused on resettling single women and single mothers with their children.

In addition to Iceland, Palestinians are going to Chile and Brazil, demonstrating again that suffering Palestinians are more important to Islamic countries as a political club with which to beat Israel.  So much for Muslims helping Muslims.

UNHCR has repeatedly called for international support for the Palestinians but with few results. Few Palestinians in the border camps have been accepted for resettlement or offered shelter in third countries; only some 300 Palestinians left to non-traditional resettlement country such as Brazil and Chile.

Lutheran Immigration agency dropping the ball in Baltimore

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is an article from Baltimore, MD about an Iraqi translator who lost his legs when an IED exploded near his American convoy.   Now he is in Maryland, a resettled refugee, and none too happy about his treatment.  

Ahmed’s rough landing is hardly unique for Iraqi translators who helped the U.S. From Seattle to Phoenix to Denver, his complaints are echoed by other wounded Iraqi interpreters now trickling into the country as part of a government push to admit thousands of Iraqis.

Miserly federal support and the strain on strapped nonprofit refugee agencies have soured many maimed translators, who say they’re not getting help commensurate with their service to the U.S. in Iraq.

This line of reporting caused some readers to lash out at Ahmed for what they see as a lack of gratitude on his part that he has been given a new life in America (be sure to read the comments).

Clearly the reporter wants you to come away with the idea that the stingy federal government is to blame for all this, so it is the last comment that is the most important.  Oh yeah, the federal government (read, US State Department) is to blame but not in the way you think.   According to Chris Coen of Friends of Refugees there is money flowing to the volags like Lutheran Social Services in this case, but is anyone making sure they fulfill their obligations as government contractors?

Here is what Chris Coen told readers of the Baltimore Sun today:

This article says that American soldiers are buying basic necessities for Saad Ahmed with their own money, e.g. dishes and a lamp. Readers should know that the State Department contract that LSS signs in order to receive government funding actually REQUIRES them to provide basic necessities, including dishes and lamps. Why do the soldiers have to waste their money on these things when they could instead be helping Saad with other needs?

The article says that Saad sleeps on a mattress in the living room. An LSS employee said it is not always possible to find both a frame and a mattress for each refugee. This is an amazing statement. LSS’s government refugee contract, again, REQUIRES them to provide a frame and a mattress for each refugee as a minimum requirement. It’s indicated that the apartment that the Washington-area Lutheran Social Services (LSS) put Saad in is ill-suited for a wheelchair. Again, their government contracts supposedly REQUIRE them to provide disabled refugees with housing that accommodates known disabilities. LSS was said to have made an “offer” of job-seeking assistance. Yet, they are REQUIRED to provide this assistance, not simply make an offer. Saad’s LSS caseworker should have brought him some job applications by now, and/or taken Saad to places of employment to fill out applications and do interviews.

The article also mentions “miserly federal support”. Yet, refugee resettlement agencies do not rely solely on the $425 per refugee they receive from the State Department refugee resettlement program. They can also receive such government grants as refugee micro-loans program, Employment Services (lasts up to 5 years), Employment Assessment Services and On-The-Job Training, English Language Instruction, Vocational Training, Skills Certification, Day Care, Transportation, Case Management Translation/Interpreter Services, Assistance in Obtaining Employment Authorization Documents, professional refresher training and other recertification services, ownership society grants, marriage initiative grants, faith-based organization grants, community-based grants, individual development account grants, etc. By the way, the refugee program is supposed to be a “public/private partnership”. How many dollars does LSS contribute for each public dollar they consume? Refugee resettlement is supposed to be heavily financed by these “charity” organizations, such as LSS, and not rely mainly on government handouts. These handouts can be substantial.

The failure of LSS to provide these minimal household items and services is not at all unique. Our group has found these failures at refugee resettlement agencies all over the country. Until the State Department decides to start enforcing the fairly minimal “minimum requirements” of its contracts, these problems will continue.

Christopher Coen
Friends of Refugees
FORefugees@hotmail.com

We are very grateful to Chris Coen for his enormous knowledge about the inner workings of this complex federal contracting program.    As we have said on previous occasions, we can debate all day about how many refugees come to the US and from where, but when they get here and want to assimilate and become Americans then those paid to care for them better darn well do their jobs.

Renewed interest in Tyson’s (failed) Somali experiment in Emporia, KS

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In the wake of the news from Shelbyville, TN last week about Tyson’s Food scrapping the Labor Day holiday in favor of a Muslim holiday, we have had a flood of visitors to RRW and many are interested in what happened in Emporia, KS.  

Reader Robert sent us this post from a blog called “Maggie’s Notebook” which begins: 

Tyson Foods’ blatant disregard for the institutions of America is worse than we thought – and it stretches outside just the Shelbyville, TN plant.

Here’s how the Topeka Capital-Journal under the heading “Somalis arrive in Emporia with tuberculosis” describes the “exotic, new arrivals:”

Yes, Maggie, it was definitely a critical point in the controversy in that city.  Here is our post on the TB death at Tyson’s.

For the ambitious reader we have referred to Emporia, KS in 34 posts and you can review those here.  At one point the citizens were so upset by the influx of Somalis that a public meeting was called to air grievances (that was in November).  The bottomline is that Tyson’s closed (well, nearly closed) it’s Emporia meat packing plant in January of this year and moved the Somalis out.

I’ve been hearing suggestions that Shelbyville is due for a public meeting.  We had one in Hagerstown, near where we live, last September (see VDARE on our meeting here).  I’m all for putting all the information out to the public and letting the citizens of a community hear all the facts and have some say in the sort of community they want.   The federal government working with businesses like Tyson’s Food shouldn’t be able to dictate the character of a city or town.

Refugee news from around the globe

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

There is so much happening and so little time to comment, so to be sure you aren’t missing refugee and immigrant news from around the world, here are a few nuggets:

Italy declared emergency over illegal immigrants arriving in boats and a few days later 800 more came ashore from Africa.

Some 800 immigrants arrived in Southern Italy on Thursday (31 July), just a few days after the country declared a national state of emergency over what it describes as the “exceptional and persistent influx” of irregular immigrants.

Rohingya Muslim refugees go to New Zealand.  To see why this could be a problem for New Zealand, see our category Rohingya Reports here.

New Zealand has already welcomed the Rohingya Refugees from Bangladesh. The first batch of 23 Refugee were resettled on 28th June 2008 that included the members of the Rohingya Youth Development Forum (RYDF), Arakan-Burma.

Japan may soon take refugees.   Heretofore Japan has avoided taking refugees but now is working with the UN to start opening its doors.

Critics say Japan is a generous supporter of refugee programs overseas but shuts the door when people seek asylum in its own shores.

North Korean refugee coming to US from Russia.

He is the first North Korean defector to find asylum in the U.S. from Russia, which has refused to recognize North Korean defectors as refugees and approve their seeking of asylum to the U.S. for fear of harming diplomatic ties with the North.

South Africa, the rainbow nation, has a large and growing group of impoverished people—white people!   Will South African whites be considered for refugee resettlement some day?

It is not politically correct to talk about white, poor people,” said Dirk Hermann, a senior Solidarity official. “They are the nation’s forgotten people. Zuma’s been surprised by the level of poverty among the white population which is not talked about. They have been poorly served by the government.

Somalis on the march to Postville, Iowa

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update:   I only posted this a few minutes ago and already the story is changing.  See the Des Moines Register and note that the bloom is already off the rose at Agriprocessors.   Teach me to read all my e-mail from Blulitespecial before I write!

I have a pair of Somali stories for you this morning, both thanks to Blulitespecial, this is the first one.

Do you all recognize the town of Postville?  It is where the Kosher meat packing plant is, Agriprocessors, the one raided by the feds in May where 389 Hispanic illegal immigrants were found working.

Word of the raid reached Minneapolis, home of the largest Somali population in the US, and Somali men are now flocking to Postville to fill the jobs vacated by the illegal workers, some of whom were apparently underaged according to a story in the New York Times two days ago.  (Sorry, you will have to google that story, the link is screwy).

Here is what the Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting:

POSTVILLE, Iowa – Scores of Somali immigrants are taking jobs at the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant, replacing Hispanic workers arrested in a huge immigration raid and forcing a remote Iowa town to make another cultural shift.

Before the May 12 raid at Agriprocessors, hundreds of Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants maintained a vibrant community in little Postville, a largely white community of 2,200 people in far northeast Iowa.

Now the stoops and haunts once occupied by Hispanics are being filled by about 150 Somali men.

The $13 an hour offered by Agriprocessors is drawing workers away from Tyson’s Food which has been the primary employer (Swifts too) herding Somalis from city to city and causing disruptions in places like Shelbyville, TN and Emporia, KS.

Regardless of previous claims, Somali workers such as Hassam Jilmale said he left work at a Tyson plant in Nebraska because he heard he could make more money with better conditions at Agriprocessors.

If the New York Times allegations are true, one of you volag do-gooders should be warning Hassam.

Then there is this comment by a Somali from Minneapolis involved in legal aid for Somalis.  Mark my words there will soon be special arrangements for Muslim prayer at the Jewish meatpacking plant:

“They go to these places and they’re not well equipped …” he said. “They do not speak the language. They do not know their legal rights and they live in fear of losing their jobs. They need someone who can bridge the two levels and balance the interests but they are not there.”

Then finally toward the end of the article is some mention of the town and its people.

The new Somali residents seem fine, but he [town resident] fears there is only so much upheaval the town can take.

“We’re just always adjusting and it’s scary, it’s hard,” he said. “We get all these new people and we don’t know who they are.”

Dear residents of Postville, to know what you are in for, read our archived stories on Shelbyville, TN here.  And, our category on the Somali controversy that swirled in Emporia, KS here.