Editor: I’m taking a break as I am sure some of you have noticed, and I am trying to decide if I really want to continue to “feed the dragon.” That is a phrase someone shared with me decades ago about writing daily (or nearly daily) commentary on the news when there are so many other interesting things to do!
And, I think maybe it is time for the next generation to fight for the future!
In the meantime, I’ll continue to report on a few refugee issues even as I don’t have the time or the will to respond to comments, often snarky ones, from those who think I don’t post the things they want to see posted. My message to them is to write their own blog!
There are nearly 10,000 posts here at RRW, so please use the search window to look for information on refugee resettlement and related issues.
Checking the limited data at the Refugee Processing Centerfor this fiscal year which began on October 1, 2020 (ends on September 30th), I see that Biden will likely end the year with the smallest annual number of refugees admitted since the Refugee Act of 1980 (Kennedy, Biden and Jimmy Carter) became law.
As of July 31st, 6,246 have been admitted with two months until the fiscal year ends. Go here to see how many your state received:
As for the Special Immigrant Visaholders from Afghanistan, those numbers and the states where they were placed are here. The total for the present fiscal year (to the end of July) is 4,181.
For any of you who have followed or even remember the Australia “dumb deal” as Trump called it before honoring it, here is an update.
Australia had passed a law about a decade ago which said if anyone tried to break into the country by boat they would be put in offshore detention and not permitted to ask for asylum in Australia, so they ended up with thousands in detention.
Just as Obama was leaving office in late 2016 he promised to take those rejects off their hands, and so here we are now still doing it, although Biden is slow off the dime while Trump admitted 900.
Many Trump left behind are from Muslim countries on the so-called Muslim ban list. We did, however, admit many Rohingya Muslims Australia was rejecting.
They aren’t “refugees!” They are illegal aliens. It would be like us asking Australia to take a bunch of those aliens jumping our US border right now.
Almost 1000 refugees still in limbo as US deal approaches completion
The Morrison government is yet to find permanent homes for more than 900 refugees still in limbo after going through Australia’s offshore processing regimes in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, some of whom are entering their ninth year in detention.
The 2016 deal to resettle refugees in the United States, struck at the time by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and US President Barack Obama, has filled three quarters of its 1250-person cap.
There are hopes the US could expand the agreement – which Donald Trump honoured – after President Joe Biden increased the US’s annual refugee intake to 62,500 earlier this month.
[….]
To date, 940 refugees have been resettled in the US under the deal, including 34 this year. The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said another 258 refugees had been provisionally approved for resettlement but were still waiting to travel.
So says an advocate working to raise money for their needs.
Regular readers may remember that in 2016 Barack Obama (as he was wrapping up his 8 years as President) cut a deal with the then Australian Prime Minister to allow more than a thousand of Australia’s illegal aliens, who tried to break into the country by boat, to be brought to the US as legitimate refugees.
One group of the mostly single men are pictured en route to an American city.
Donald Trump knew instinctively that it was a dumb ‘deal,’ but went along with it anyway. You could hardly call it a deal because a deal implies we get something in exchange. News reports are mysteriously silent about what we got for taking the mostly Muslim men into our country.
If you want to catch up on the details, see my extensive file Australia Dumb Deal.
Here is an update of their arrivals in the US written by a journalist/advocate who leads a non-profit group to help take care of their needs through private charity—admirable if it is all private money.*** However, they are clearly advocates for more US taxpayer spending for so-called refugees that have nothing to do with Americans.
He fingers US refugee resettlement contractors for not doing their jobs!
As you read his story, remember that these ‘refugees’ tried to break into Australia by boat, were caught and detained under Australian law. Theychose to try to illegally enter Australia. They should not have been our problem!
It’s hard to imagine how the US-Australia refugee deal could have been handled worse
Four years ago then Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull struck a deal with then US president Barack Obama to transfer up to 1,250 of Australia’s unwanted refugees to the United States.
As we enter 2021 – despite US president Donald Trump’s condemnation of “this dumb deal” and a pandemic which has crippled the US resettlement system – the transfers continue. About 870 have arrived so far with more slated shortly.
After more than seven years in limbo, refugees will arrive with barely more than the clothes on their backs and they will be plunged into a collapsed economy, a rampant pandemic and a threadbare support system.
After touching down in Los Angeles, refugees are separated from each other and shuttled on to flights to cities from Phoenix to Philadelphia, San Antonio to Salt Lake City. Each will be handed a debt notice for their transfer flights – an absurdity that can total more than $11,000 for families with children.
US refugee policy does require the repayment of airfare ‘loans,’ but large amounts are never repaid. The State Department does not want to publicly reveal how bad the repayment rate is.
Winsor continues:
The new arrivals are offered just 90 days of accommodation and basic support. Then they’re on their own.
Abandoned by refugee resettlement contractors!
In theory, resettlement agencies are supposed to help with job applications, work authorisation and medical assistance in this period. But in reality, many refugees tell us they’re all but abandoned.
[….]
All of it is forced on refugees by the Australian government’s seven-year failure to resolve a crisis of its own making.
Almost all these refugees arrived in the days and months after the government’s sudden 2013 announcement that refugees arriving by boat would be barred from resettling in Australia – a deterrent which appears to have succeeded but has left thousands in limbo.
More than 40% of refugees tell Ads-Up they need assistance with medical care; another 40% request help with dental treatment. Inadequate healthcare on the islands means some arrive with easily treatable infections which have been left to fester undiagnosed.
[….]
Despite everything, most arrivals bear no ill will towards Australians.
They recall those who befriended them via Facebook when they were stranded, or who held vigils and protests. They are grateful to America, and even Trump, for giving them the chance to restart their lives.
*** I could not find a Form990 for Ads-Up. They say that Ads-Up (USA) is a recognised not-for-profit charity under the umbrella of the Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs network. Hmmmm!
“We reiterate that the only strategy to combat ‘irregular’ migration is to open legal, safe channels, managed at the European level.”
(Paolo Naso)
The Leftist Open Borders Evangelicals do not represent all Evangelicals. I hate it when the media makes it sound like Leftwing political Christians are somehow representative of all Christians. But that has been the game for decades as the cultural Marxists work to bring about the (yes I’m saying it) the new world order.
We pay attention to Europe because what is happening there is a warning to us! See my complete Invasion of Europearchive.
Italian Evangelicals Call for Open Channels of African Migration into Europe
ROME — A prominent Protestant leader in Italy has called for streamlined channels of immigration from Africa into Europe after some 370 migrants arrived on the island of Lampedusa Saturday night.
Paolo Naso, coordinator of Mediterranean Hope, the migrant and refugee program of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy, said Sunday that the current situation on Lampedusa is “undeniably unsustainable” both for migrants and residents, while calling for the immediate activation of “even temporary networks for the immediate reception of the most vulnerable subjects.”
“For our part, we are engaged in assisting the landings to help associations and institutions to manage the first moments of the arrivals of these people,” Mr. Naso said. “As Protestant churches we are ready to collaborate with institutions and other associations to seek solutions related to this emergency.”
“We are facing an emergency that was, however, entirely predictable, given the conditions in Tunisia and Libya,” he added.
Matteo Salvini
Opposing efforts by Matteo Salvini’s Lega party to control immigration by securing ports and borders, Naso insisted that the only real solution is to open regular channels of legal immigration.
“We reiterate that the only strategy to combat ‘irregular’ migration is to open legal, safe channels, managed at the European level,” he said.
Banners of demonstrators included messages such as “Stop Immigrants,” “Close Lampedusa Welcome Center,” and “Criminal Government.”
Matteo Salvini, leader of the populist Lega party, has blamed the leftist coalition government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte for the recent surge in illegal migrants.
Last month, Mr. Salvini noted that “landings have tripled since last year, with illegal immigrants being recovered even near Maltese waters, while Lampedusa is collapsing and hundreds of immigrants flee the reception centers who risk spreading Covid-19.”
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.
Checking the limited data at the Refugee Processing Center for this fiscal year which began on October 1, 2020 (ends on September 30th), I see that Biden will likely end the year with the smallest annual number of refugees admitted since the Refugee Act of 1980 (Kennedy, Biden and Jimmy Carter) became law.
