Some time ago a reader sent this web page (American Immigration Center) describing eligibility and how one might apply for asylum in the US. Since we write about asylum almost every day, I’ll post this in our ‘where to find information’ category for future reference. However, be aware this is not an official government website (even if it looks like one at first glance). Here is the home page for the American Immigration Center.
I can’t figure out who this group is, but it appears to be set up to get more would-be immigrants information they need to get into the US (and it probably isn’t free to the hopeful immigrant wannabe!). It does, however, give us some useful information.
Here is how they open their asylum page:
Millions of people every year find themselves displaced due to one form of persecution or another. Groups of people have been subjected to terrible conditions for the entirety of history based upon their ethnicity, religion, beliefs or some other or much more arbitrary reason, but the fortunate thing is that there are countries that can provide much needed relief to these peoples. The United States is one of the foremost.
Map is a little outdated, but still gives you an idea of where the migrants are coming from in Africa, and roughly how many.
There has been a second fatal boat sinking in the Mediterranean as “asylum seekers” attempt to escape the lawlessness and economic decay of North Africa (and Syria!).
Just 8 days ago, hundreds perished off Lampedusa, here.
Update October 13th: Another boat sank on Friday carrying mostly Palestinians, here.
It is my observation that the number of boats carrying hundreds of migrants has increased dramatically since the highly touted Arab Spring got underway. And, one wonders why European and American powers (who cheered-on the Arab Spring and helped overthrow Gaddafi in Libya) can’t get at the source of the problem (the crime!) in Africa.
Most news accounts of the quandary faced by European countries on the receiving-end of the migrant tide, directs the responsibility to find a solution on to European citizens to “welcome” the largely economic migrants instead of getting at the root problem in Africa and stopping the boats from launching there.
It almost makes me wonder if there aren’t ‘powers that be’ in the West who want the immigrant tide to continue.
I have never seen a single word in the press I follow on the Mediterranean boat people crisis that suggests attacking the problem in Africa, except of course that the West must help financially fix Africa.
Here is the latest news. This boat carrying 250 sank in waters patrolled by Malta. No nationalities of the deceased have been mentioned yet.
A boat packed with an estimated 250 refugees and migrants has capsized in the middle of the Mediterranean, just a week after a similar accident off the Italian island of Lampedusa left more than 300 people dead.
At least 200 people were reported to have been thrown into the sea after the boat tipped over yesterday and corpses were reportedly floating in the water.
According to Italian media reports, at least 12 people died in the incident and 50 are still missing, among them children, but up to 200 people have been rescued.
[….]
The capsizing happened around 60 miles south of Lampedusa, in waters where Malta has search and rescue responsibilities.
Malta immediately requested Italian assistance in going to the aid of the migrants.
[….]
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 32,000 have arrived in southern Italy and Malta this year alone, around two thirds of whom have filed requests for asylum.
In a dark mood? Read the 40-year-old prescient fictional work ‘The Camp of the Saints’by French author Jean Raspail. Raspail got one thing wrong—the continent—his third world invaders were coming from the Indian sub-continent so their voyage was longer.
This morning on my twitter feed the UNHCR was promoting a kid’s game—“Against all odds”—which I had never heard of. Turns out they have been working on building “empathy” in your children worldwide since 2005 with this game to be used in classrooms. The goal is for Western children to accept “integration” (note they always shun the word assimilation!).
See how clever this is! The character here looks strikingly like the internationally popular Japanese animation—Anime!
Here is some of what ‘wikipedia’says about it (emphasis mine):
Against All Odds is an Adobe Flash video game developed by UNHCR designed to teach players about the plight of refugees. Originally released in Swedish in 2005, the game has been translated into several languages, the English edition of which was released in November 2007.
Initial funding for the project came from a grant of NOK 1 million from Statoil to UNHCR’s Baltic and Nordic regional office, with the aim of developing a project to reach young people and promote integration in the region.
UNHCR decided to proceed the project as a web-based game, a medium which could reach a large number of young people, require no distribution costs and minimal marketing costs. The game was aimed at 12 – 15 year olds, an age where people began to develop ideas regarding refugees and similar issues.
In Against All Odds, the player takes the role of a refugee, and plays through twelve stages – depicting his persecution and flight from his native country, through to eventual integration into a foreign country as an asylum seeker.
In awarding a prize in Austria, a jury said this, according to wikipedia:
The jury praised the game for building understanding, empathy and concern for the plight of refugees in the player
Swedish young teens have had eight years of this indoctrination—-do you think it worked there? See here and here.
Life is harsh for Italians on Lampedusa and it has been made even more challenging with the arrival (or the sinking) of each new boat filled with African and Middle Eastern migrants that ends up on its shores.
Here is an article (from AFP), spawned by the mass drowning, well worth reading (hat tip: pungentpeppers) about the resentment the local residents have to refugees who, in life or in death, get more government benefits than they do. Lampedusa’s lament….
Lampedusa — Islanders on Europe’s southern edge have become used to tragedy and trauma, they see it every day in the thousands of asylum seekers who land on their shores — and they say they have had enough.
The locals of the remote fishing community on Lampedusa island rush to help every time but their patience is wearing thin as they see government funds allocated to migrants and not to them.
“Here it’s the dead that keep the economy going,” said Silvana Martelli, a waitress, as divers fished out bodies after a shipwreck in which over 300 African refugees are feared to have died.
“It doesn’t feel like our island anymore. There’s money to take care of the immigrants while the schools fall apart and rubbish piles up,” she said.
As European ministers discuss the refugee crisis at talks in Luxembourg on Tuesday, this type of local resentment is a concern for governments that see the problem before them but do not want to risk being seen as a soft touch on immigration.
With a resident population of just a few thousand people, Lampedusans are sometimes outnumbered by the new arrivals before they are transferred to asylum centres on the Italian mainland.
In a corner of the harbour, the blue and red fishing boats daubed in Arabic script that are used for the landings lie discarded —
Read on about problems such as burying this many people on a tiny island, here.
It seems a French Member of the European Parliament said she believes that since the Syrians occupying the port of Calais want to go to the UK, they should be let in! MEP Gerard Batten (Independence Party member) shot back with the truth one rarely hears regarding political asylum and why the Syrians want to be allowed into the UK. For new readers, our original post ishere.
UK Independence party representative Gerard Batten: Don’t offload your problem on us!
From the story at the UKDaily Mail(emphasis mine):
French politicians have been accused of trying to ‘offload’ Syrian refugees on Britain in a growing row over who should give them asylum.
Scores of Syrians have occupied the Calais ferry terminal including a dozen who are on hunger strike and two threatening to kill themselves if they are not given safe passage to Britain.
But a French MEP has come under fire after urging the European Parliament to back their call to be allowed into Britain.
If you have been wondering why the Syrians aren’t satisfied with France, here is the long and short of it:
Unlike Britain, France does not pay benefits to asylum seekers while their claims are being processed. About 40 Syrians have refused to move from a passenger gangway.
Batten to the rescue with several major points!
Mr Batten, the UK Independence Party’s spokesman on security and defence, said later: ‘The suggestion that Syrian refugees in Calais should be sent post-haste to England is absolutely outrageous.
‘These people have made their way across Europe with the intention of landing up in the UK. This is contrary to the UN Convention on Refugees that says they should seek refuge in the first safe country they come to.[Important point #1 and it is rarely mentioned by anyone!—ed]
‘They want to come to Britain because of our reputation as a soft touch. [Important point #2—ed]They may indeed be refugees, but they are attracted to Britain because of the generous housing, benefits, and social services systems made available to foreigners.
‘If the French have not prevented their entry into France, as they were entitled to do under the Convention[Important point #3, the French let them into France—ed], then the French should offer them asylum, not try to offload the problem onto the UK.’
Germany’s Friedrich and now Britain’s Gerard Batten, could we be seeing the beginning of a trend?
Some time ago a reader sent this web page (American Immigration Center) describing eligibility and how one might apply for asylum in the US. Since we write about asylum almost every day, I’ll post this in our ‘where to find information’ category for future reference. However, be aware this is not an official government website (even if it looks like one at first glance). Here is the home page for the American Immigration Center.
