No meds for ill Canadian child as demands rise for refugee applicants to receive health care

One of the most troubling questions for community members in a city or town where large numbers of refugees are arriving is—why are we doing this when we have our own needy people not being cared for?

I hear it all the time.  It goes something like this: ‘we have people (Americans/our neighbors) going hungry, homeless in the streets, or the elderly in need of attention and care and yet we can bring in tens of thousands of impoverished people from elsewhere in the world?  Why are our own needy so much less attractive?’

That is the question being asked in Ontario, Canada as Canadian health care can not afford Madi Vanstone, but are being pressured to care for refugee “claimants” who may or may not even be granted asylum.

Madi Vanstone’s meds vs. refugees’ meds?

Can you say “death panels” in Canada’s health care system?

Thanks to reader Joanne, here is the story at the Toronto Sun (emphasis mine):

TORONTO – Little Madi Vanstone is one beautiful child — with a major health problem.

The 12-year-old has a rare form of Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and requires a life-saving drug, Kalydeco, to keep her breathing.

The big problem is the drug costs $348,000 a year — and it’s not covered by OHIP.

[….]

Madi’s dad, Glen, a pipefitter, has insurance benefits that pay for 50% of her drug bill. The drug manufacturer picks up 30% — but that leaves the family paying $5,770 a month to keep their daughter alive.

[….]

They [the community raised money—ed] did what Canadians have done for generations — pulled together to help a child in need.

That’s what makes Monday’s announcement by the provincial health ministry so galling.

This province is trying to shame the feds into reinstating care for refugee claimants.

Really?

We can’t even afford life-saving drugs for a child who has lived in this province all her life. Whose family has paid taxes for generations.

But in a foot-stamping, blame-the-feds act of cynicism, apparently we have enough money to pay for health care for refugee claimants.

[….]

….the province adamantly won’t pay [for Madi—ed].

But we do have enough money to pay the very generous Ontario Drug Benefit Plan (ODBP) for people here as refugee claimants and those awaiting deportation.

Are we nuts?

And, here it is—one more sensible question from citizens regarding pressure from Canadian Doctors for Refugee Care. If these doctors care so much for the refugees why can’t they treat them for free!

Let refugee claimants hold bake sales for their health care, as Madi’s family has done.

….. Dr. Phillip Berger, of St. Michael’s Hospital and a member of Canadian Doctors for Refugee Care, said sick children and pregnant women can’t get care and cancer patients are denied chemotherapy.

If doctors care that much, they can treat refugees for free.

There is more, read it all (click here).

Update!  Doctors for Refugee Care win in Ontario—refugee healthcare reinstated.

Bruce Bawer: Norway’s insane asylum seekers

Some of the charming-looking and underfed asylum seekers whose blue trays were used for protest signs.

Frontpage magazine has a good article by author Bruce Bawer about how Norway is being transformed by the Left with the help of mostly Muslim migrants from various of the world’s hell holes.  Hat tip: Judy

Here are some snips from the must-read article (emphasis is mine):

We hear relatively often these days about the large and growing Muslim communities in major European cities. Less frequently a subject of media attention in the U.S., however, is an equally significant phenomenon: the asylum centers that dot the landscape in many countries. In Norway alone, with a total population of only five million, there are a hundred or so such establishments around the country, some of them in largish cities, some in rural hamlets. In these centers reside individuals of foreign origin, mostly from the Muslim world, who are awaiting decisions about their applications for asylum. The places aren’t locked. (Those who humbly propose locking them are routinely depicted by the political and cultural elite as inhuman bigots.) Consequently, they serve for many of their residents as handy bases from which they can venture out and plunder the locals. They are, in other words, Ground Zeroes for criminality. It should also be pointed out that many, if not most, of the people living in them have no legitimate right to asylum at all.

On Wednesday, November 27, a group of men who live in the Hvalsmoen asylum center on the outskirts of Hønefoss, a town in the southeastern Norwegian municipality of Ringerike, staged a protest against what they considered lousy meals and small portions in the cafeteria. The protesters, who numbered somewhere between 25 and 30 and hail from Syria, Sudan, Iran, Morocco, Somalia, and the Palestinian territories, vandalized their blue food trays, scrawling “Hungry strik” (which isn’t correct in any language) and “Nei rasisme” on them (picture here), and marched into downtown Hønefoss, crying racism.

[…..]

The men’s complaints didn’t set well with many of the people of Ringerike, who, like other Norwegians, are already less than thrilled with the presence of these centers in their midst. 

Read the whole article!

Bawer wraps up with this:

How depressing it is that while so many ordinary Norwegian citizens plainly have a very clear picture of what’s going on at these asylum centers – and of what it bodes for the future of their countries – their elected representatives seem not to grasp (or not to want to face the fact) that people who can be so arrogant, demanding, and belligerent even while their asylum applications are being scrutinized are probably not very likely to end up as peaceable, law-abiding, and productive citizens of Norway. Legitimate refugees don’t act this way; conquerors do.

For me, the most poignant reader comment on any of the news stories about this food flap was one that was posted by a young man who identified himself as Geir. “How did it get like this in Norway?” he asked. “I don’t get it. It wasn’t so bad when I was growing up in Oslo in the 1990s. What’s happening? It’s enough to make you go crazy.” Yes, it is. And what can make you go crazy even faster is that, thanks to the top-notch efforts of the schools and the media, somebody who grew up in Oslo in the 1990s can have reached adulthood without really understanding what’s been done to his country in his name.

For our ever-expanding archive on Norway, click here.  Don’t miss ‘Failed asylum seeker kills three on bus’ here last month.

As winter approaches, Berlin police try to break up refugee camp

The source for this story from earlier in the week is Revolution Now, so consider that as you read this news from Germany where “refugee” protestors have lived on the street for a year.

Around the world! This is what they are all agitating for! No borders!

Interesting that Revolution Now says the Green Party district mayor believes the longstanding camp demonstration is being fueled by ‘Leftwingers’ using the refugees as pawns.  Emphasis is mine:

The refugeee protest camp at the Oranienplatz in Berlin is under immediate threat of eviction. Earlier tonight German police tried to evict the camp but activists succeeded in defending the camp. After the police operation there was an unauthorized spontanious demonstration which was attacked by police forces.

In the earyl evening hours police tried to evict the refugee protest camp at the Oranienplatz, a square in the Kreuzberg neighbourhood in Berlin. In the  afternoon district mayo Miss Herrmann of the Green party declared the end of the tolerance of the camp and asked the police to evict the square. Because of a fast and massive mobilisation activists managed to prevent the eviction tonight.

City officials have found space to house 80 inside (out of the cold).  They aren’t throwing them out into some German forest!  The protestors basically are demanding the right to live in Germany freely.

District mayor Herrmann was in the camp in the afternoon and spoke with refugees and their supporters. She was informed about the fact that the building where refugees could stay if they would leave the camp has a capacity of 80 people so at least 30 refugees had to return to the camp.because there was no place for them in the building. Furthermore there were refugees who made clear from the beginning of the negotiations about an alternative place to stay for the refugees that they will not even consider to leave the protest camp as long as their demands are not met. They demand an end of the so called “Residenzpflicht” which restricts their freedom of movement, an end to their placement in isolated camps and a stop of all deportations. Although Miss Herrmann knew that a big group of refugees had to and/or wanted to stay at the Oranienplatz she ordered the police operation.

Hermann: Radicals exploiting legitimate refugees!

Refugees stated tonight: “Since the negotiations started we valued the limited access to an alternative place as an attempt to divide us.” From the beginning of the talks responsible authorities were informed by refugees that leaving the camp is not an option for many people at Oranienplatz. Miss Herrmann reacted that the struggle of the refugees was being directed by leftwing radicals and that the refugees were exploited by them. With this kind of reaction she denies the ability of the refugees to act politically for themselves in a self-determined way. She is also participating in a media campaign to delegitimize the refugee protests. This media campaign aims to divide people in “good” refugees who will accept an alternative place for the winter and repress people who want to change the system and who are fighting for equal rights for all people and who are protesting at the Oranienplatz for mor than a year now.

There is more, with photos.

For all of our posts on the problems Germany is having with refugees and asylum seekers, see our Germany archive here.

Austria: Mostly Muslim asylum-seekers demand right to live in Austria

“Asylum-seekers” camp in Vienna church

Or, at least be given the opportunity to move on to another European country to try for asylum if rejected by Austria.

Here is the story from Press-TV (hat tip: Joanne).  Be sure to watch the film clip accompanying this short story.  Will this one day be happening on the streets of American cities?

Refugee Protest Camp Vienna was founded a year ago, when a group of Somali refugees demonstrated outside Aussie parliament for weeks. For their one-year anniversary, the group organized a protest outside a refugee camp in Traiskirchen, south of Vienna. The movement is against refugee and deportation policies of the European Union and Austria. There are around 52,000 refugees living in Austria and 22,000 asylum-seekers in the country are waiting for authorities to decide their future.

Refugee Protest Camp Vienna is demanding legal residency status for refugees in Austria. They are also asking for those who are refused asylum to have their fingerprints removed from the government’s database, so they can apply for asylum in other European countries.

The EU law dictates that migrants must have their claims processed in the country where they first arrive. If their application is rejected, they risk being deported to their country of origin.

At the protest we met Syed Muhammed Mustafa, a refugee from Pakistan, who has spent some time in the Traiskirchen camp.

Most asylum-seekers from Pakistan get rejected in Austria without their case being reviewed individually. This is unlike other EU Member States.

Recently the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, announced a programme involving 17 countries to receive refugees from Syria. Austria is one of them and is set to accept up to 500 refugees from Syria and neighbouring countries in 2014. However the measure has been criticised by campaigners as insufficient for the growing needs of refugees.

We have written previously about “refugees” in Austria (click here).

It is time to read about Al-Hijra the Islamic Doctrine of Immigration, if you haven’t done so already.  The invaders want into those Gates of Vienna from which they were turned back centuries ago.

House Judiciary Committee says hearings to be held this year on asylum abuse

We told you a few months ago that there has been a dramatic jump in the number of asylum claims on our southern border with aliens claiming they were fleeing Mexican crime.  Our asylum system (established in the Refugee Act of 1980 and patterned after the 1951 UN Convention) was never designed to offer protection to people fleeing drug-related and other criminal activities from a country that has a functioning system of government such as Mexico.

Here is the announcement from the House Judiciary Committee, hat tip: Cathy.

And, go here for the Washington Times story yesterday (emphasis mine):

The House Judiciary Committee has begun looking at reports that Mexican drug cartel members are abusing the U.S. asylum system to bypass regular immigration checks and get into the country, where some are setting up smuggling operations and others engage in the same violent feuds that caused them to flee Mexico in the first place.

In one instance, a woman made a claim of asylum and three months later was apprehended at a Border Patrol checkpoint with more than $1 million in cocaine, according to a memo obtained by the committee that says criminal gangs are exploiting holes in the asylum system.

The memo, viewed by The Washington Times, also details cartel hit-squad members who won access to the U.S. after claiming they feared violence after they “fell out of grace” with their employers.

Claims more than doubled in the last year!

Homeland Security officials say they screen everyone who makes a credible fear claim and try to weed out those who don’t meet the standards, and try to detain those who do but also could be dangers to the community.

The asylum system has come under increasing scrutiny after reports that the number of people making “credible fear” asylum claims at the U.S.-Mexico border has more than doubled in the past year.

While case is pending, Obama administration favors release into society rather than detention!

Once an officer determines a “credible fear” of persecution or torture, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reviews the case to determine whether to detail [detain—ed] the individual pending a court hearing or whether to parole the person into the country on the admonition of returning for hearings.

“If an individual claiming asylum at the border is deemed to be a threat to public safety or national security, ICE has the authority to keep the individual in detention until their case is heard by an immigration judge,” Mr. Boogaard said. “Only a judge can determine asylum eligibility.

9% are actually granted asylum from Mexico (astounding, it should be near zero!).  91% “subject” to removal, but are they removed?

“On average, 91 percent of Mexican applicants seeking asylum following a determination that they have credible fear are denied. Individuals who are denied an asylum application are subject to removal from the United States,” he said.

Mr. Goodlatte, though, said the law requires most people who raise claims of “credible fear” to be put in mandatory detention. Parole is reserved for special medical emergency cases or humanitarian reasons, or when there is a specific public benefit to being released.

The Obama administration has taken an expansive view of the public benefit section, arguing that unless there is a demonstrable flight risk or apparent danger to the community, those seeking asylum should be released rather than held.

I want to know how many of those released ever show up for their court date!

There is more in the WT story, read it all here.

Searching RRW for ‘Mexico asylum’ here are all of our previous posts on the topic.

If S.744 (the Gang of Eight bill) should be signed into law, the definition of asylum will be expanded.