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.
Nor are there jobs for your college graduate kids!
Just now as I turned off the TV, President Obama was being interviewed about how to create more jobs and yesterday the Republicans were announcing their plan to flood the job market with both uneducated and educated immigrants for their big business donor friends, yet here is a story from Maine boo-hooing about no jobs for educated refugees!
University of Southern Maine audience listens to plight of refugees who can’t find work!
From Maine Public Broadcasting Network. (Hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’) An Iraqi with a college degree from Iraq took part in panel discussion on jobs hosted by Catholic Charities of Maine among others. I guess there are no more struggling job-seekers among the Americans in Maine!
Portland resident Sarah Mahdi came to the U.S. with a college degree, but, like many immigrants, has had trouble getting it recognized in the U.S. It’s not an unusual problem. Maine educators and other service providers are now looking for ways to make it easier for educated immigrants to find suitable jobs or further their educational opportunities.
[…..]
“When I first came to the States I just wanted to study,” said Mahdi, who was among a handful of immigrant students sharing their experiences Wednesday night at a panel discussion in Portland. The panel was organized by the University of Southern Maine’s Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, and Catholic Charities Maine.
New Mainers Resource Center uses tax dollars to help immigrants prove they actually have a legitimate college degree.
One place immigrants can turn to is the newly-established New Mainers Resource Center, one of the several service providers on hand at Wednesday night’s event to offer advice. The center’s program co-ordinator, Sally Sutton, is talking to George Dakonsa, who arrived here from the Democratic Republic of Congo seeking asylum four months ago.
“I have a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance,” he says. “I’d like it if they can help me to evaluate.”
The center was recently opened by Portland Adult Education with the aim of specifically helping college-educated immigrants in their search for suitable employment or further education. Co-ordinator Sutton says with immigrants like Dakonsa come an opportunity to breathe new economic life into the state. [Would someone please explain exactly how they are breathing new economic life into the state!—ed]
That bad ‘ol Maine governor is at it again—-how dare he try to balance the state budget!
The New Mainers Resource Center, however, may end up being a short-lived venture. It’s meant to be a two-year pilot project funded at $75,000 a year.
But the program could be eliminated after its first year – just one small part of the nearly $34 million in spending cuts being recommended in a report commissioned by the LePage administration, looking for ways to balance the two-year budget.
Governor LePage needs to continue working on something else! Maine has become a go-to state for asylum seekers.
Check out this articlefrom The Free Press from earlier this month:
Maine has become known to many central African asylum seekers as a place where they can find community support as well as temporary financial assistance while they have their visas and work permits approved. Often they arrive on tourist or business visas, sometimes with forged documents.While many asylum seekers are well educated and come from financial means, the money doesn’t last long and many end up in homeless shelters while their applications are being processed.
Maine happens to be one of a handful of states that does not require proof of citizenship. All asylum seekers must show is that they are applying for asylum. Unlike official refugees, such as many in the Somali and Sudanese populations who are resettled in Maine by the U.S. State Department [and Catholic Charities—ed], asylum seekers do not qualify for any other state or federal benefits while they are applying for asylum. The whole asylum approval process can take from one to two years and it typically takes at least 150 days for asylum seekers to be eligible to legally work once approved for asylum.
One more thing….so much for the importance of educated refugees!
Reader ‘tomasrose’ sent us this comment to our earlier post about Bhutanese low-skilled laborers and the US State Department (as headhunters) bringing them in for businesses:
I spoke with a refugee from the middle east just last week and he confirmed, of course, refugees are coached in what to say to improve their chances at coming to the U.S.. One of the things he said is they hide any education they might have. If the U.S. thinks you are educated your chances of moving to the U.S. are lower. He cited an M.D. from Baghdad who told refugee officials he was a menial laborer and, presumably, would be happy to work the same jobs in the U.S.. Had he advertised his credentials as a doctor, he would have a better chance at going to one of the Scandinavian countries, but to get the U.S. he had to really dumb his resume down.
It’s not just Australia, Israel, Bulgaria, Italy and the rest of Europe trying desperately to hold back the tide of migrants from the Middle East/Africa and other third world nations, but even in South America there is no peace from largely economic migrants (all calling themselves ‘asylum seekers’) looking for new places to call home.
Homeless “asylum seekers”
From Deutsche Welle (The star of this story is Mohammed from Syria):
Brazil has seen the number of asylum seekers increase nearly tenfold over three years and official agencies are woefully unprepared to deal with the refugees. Few people receive asylum and help for immigrants is sparse.
[….]
In Brazil, political refugees from the Middle East or Africa have been a rare sight over the last few years. The South American country appears far removed from the horrors of war on foreign continents. But that is changing. Between 2010 and 2013, the number of people seeking asylum in Brazil increased nearly tenfold, from 566 to 5,200. Adding to those numbers are thousands of immigrants from Haiti, Senegal, Angola, Liberia, Bolivia, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
“Brazil has to prepare for an increasing crush of immigrants,” said Andres Ramirez, who represents the UN’s refugee agency in Brazil (Acnur). Since 2013, the organization has been operating a small office in Sao Paulo. One of the biggest problems, he told DW, is the lack of emergency shelters. “Many refugees sleep on the streets for days before they get any help,” he said.
Of the 5,200 people applying for asylum in Brazil, just 649 were recognized, according to figures from the country’s Ministry of Justice. The largest group among them, 283, came from Syria, followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with 106, then Columbia and Angola.
The largest group seeking asylum, however, were the 1,814 Bangladeshis. Just one was recognized as a political refugee. Senegal followed with 868 asylum seekers, of whom four were recognized. In other conflict regions, such as Lebanon, Guinea-Bissau and Somalia, acceptance rates stood at below 3 percent.
Such statistics don’t include the 15,000 Haitians in northern Brazil. Roughly 70 per day arrive in Brasilia, a city of just 10,000 in the state of Acre, bordering Peru.
[….]
The unofficial influx has become a political problem. In an extraordinary cry for help, the state government of Acre requested on Wednesday (15.1.2014) that the federal Ministry of Justice allow it to close the border to Peru.
As always, I wonder how the poor and destitute from places like Bangladesh are getting the money to travel half way around the world to Brazil. And, do they all pass through Cuba on the way??? I suppose it’s just a matter of time before they work their way north to the US border!
….we are going to continue to turn boats away from our shores, said Immigration Minister Morrison!
I wasn’t planning on writing a second post on Australia today (see first one here), but when I saw this photo, I wanted you to see it!
What the heck is this—a strategy session with a white ‘community organizer’ where Somali men, at a hotel in Indonesia, plan their next attempt to break into Australia!
If they want asylum, ask for it in Indonesia, a safe Muslim country! International law requires legitimate asylum seekers to ask for asylum in the first safe country they reach!
This is the caption published with the photo: “Somali immigrants gather at a hotel where Indonesian authorities have billeted asylum seekers hoping to reach Australia. (AFP/JEMS)”
Here is the story that accompanies the photo, from Reuters:
SYDNEY — Australia’s government on Friday acknowledged its navy breached Indonesian territorial sovereignty several times as part of its controversial operations to stop boats carrying would-be asylum seekers from entering Australian waters.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said he had been informed earlier this week about the “inadvertent breaches” and immediately informed the Indonesian navy.
Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, the officer in charge of “Operation Sovereign Borders,” said the breaches occurred on multiple days but declined to provide further details.
“We deeply regret these events and have offered an apology,” Morrison told reporters. “However the Australian government remains committed to continuing to implement the policies to stop the boats.”
Most of those they are pushing back are from: Afghanistan, Darfur, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria.
The complaints, of course, mostly come from the humanitarian industrial complex and its henchmen at the UN.
Boat people attempting to get into Australia hit record high numbers in 2012. http://www.mole.my/content/boat-people-coming-australia-hits-record
We haven’t written much about Australia lately, but most Australians were so angered by those migrants arriving on boats and demanding asylum that they voted for a get-tough policy represented by Tony Abbott in the elections last year.
Here is some recent news, from the Irish Independent(that obviously leans left on immigration):
Australia will shut four mainland immigration detention centres, the government said on today, as it pushes ahead with controversial policies to turn back refugee boats and detain asylum seekers in remote centres offshore.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement the decision to shutter the facilities, which are run by British outsourcing company Serco Group Plc, would save at least A$88.8 million ($80.41 million) a year.
“These sites are remote, relatively small and expensive,” Morrison’s statement said. “These facilities were never envisaged as being permanent and due to the rationalisation of the immigration detention network they are no longer required.”
Australia’s conservative government routinely does not answer questions about its immigration policy, which was a central plank of its election victory last year, saying it does not comment on “operational matters”.
The number of would-be refugees reaching Australia pales in comparison with other countries but it remains a polarising political issue that also stokes tensions with neighbour Indonesia over border policies criticised by the United Nations.
Tuesday’s announcement comes amid growing scrutiny of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s asylum seeker policies. [Of course opinion lines like this are in here to bias the reader!—ed]
The government has refused to confirm widespread reports that the Australian Navy has started implementing a controversial policy of returning intercepted vessels carrying asylum seekers to Indonesia.
Guess where most of the illegal migrants are coming from?
Most of those held in offshore centres have fled conflict zones such as Afghanistan, Darfur, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria.
I’ll betcha even those coming from Darfur are Muslims!
Thanks to our visitors from Australia which consistently number second or third behind the US in visitor stats. This is our 121st post in our Australia category.
