Tag: boat people

Australia continues plans to keep illegal migrants off-shore amid the usual complaints

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

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.

Haitians coming to US by sea, government warns of dangers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We report all the time about the Mediterranean boat people trying  to reach Europe from Africa (many dying in the process), or the many boats full of mostly Muslim migrants trying to reach Australia, but this is the first time I’ve become aware of Haitians in large numbers employing people smugglers to get to the US.

30 died and 110 saved from this overloaded boat just last month. Photo: U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Images

The US Coast Guard has prepared a Public Service Announcement in hopes of halting the practice.

From NBC News (hat tip: pungentpeppers):

MIAMI – Following dozens of known drowning deaths at sea this year, the U.S. Coast Guard and Haitian-American community activists unveiled a public service campaign Thursday urging Haitians to avoid immigrant smugglers. They’re also asking Haitian family members in the United States to refrain from financing the smuggling operations, because they are so dangerous.

“Do not go to the sea. Do not put yours lives in the hands of these ruthless smugglers,” said Captain Mark Fedor, Chief of Law Enforcement for the Seventh Coast Guard District in Miami.

[…..]

In the last year, U.S. officials have seen a dramatic rise in the number of Haitians being smuggled in small, often-overcrowded boats across the 80-mile-wide Mona Passage to Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth.

So far this year, the Coast Guard and other law enforcement officials have apprehended 2,265 Haitians crossing the Mona Passage.  That compares to just 188 Haitians caught there in the previous eight years.

It is not clear what is done with those “rescued.”  Are they returned to Haiti?  Or do they get taken care of under a program called the Cuban Haitian Entrant Program where at least 20,000 Cubans and Haitians become eligible for taxpayer support every year in a program pretty much run by federal contractors—the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Church World Service—but paid for by you.

We haven’t written much about Haiti lately, but I see we have 52 previous posts on the subject, largely related to the temporary protected status they have available to them.

Photo is from this story.  By the way, what happened to all the celebrities who were rushing to Haiti after the Earthquake to bring them aid?  Did they get bored and go home?  Move on to the next humanitarian photo-op?

Italy: Syrian refugees pose threat to European security

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yes, we agree.  And, we have Obama and Samantha Power to thank for the lawlessness that now rules Libya.  So much for the Power doctrine—the “responsibility to protect.” Protect the Jihadists?

Italian foreign minister Emma Bonino: Ex-jihadists or members of al-Qaida getting in with women and children.

From AFP (emphasis mine):

The exodus of refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria represents a security threat to the European Union, Italy’s foreign minister said Monday, warning that potential terrorists could be among the displaced.

“Like all major humanitarian crises”, the Syria conflict “has political aspects and consequences that can have devastating effects”, Emma Bonino told reporters in Rome.

“If you consider displaced people, refugees and immigrants, we have millions of people moving around the southern Mediterranean,” she said.

“We have many reasons to believe that among the women and children, there are also less friendly immigrants — ex-jihadists or members of al-Qaida.”

“It is clear that uncontrolled landings on our shores have implications for the security of the European Union.”

While Bonino underlined the war in Syria as the main reason for displacement, she said poverty in the Sahel, insecurity in Somalia and lawlessness in Libya added to the problem.

“In the absence of any control over its territory, Libya is today becoming a sort of freeway where anything gets through — weapons, drugs,” she warned.

The EU has been examining proposals to beef up border surveillance and open up legal channels to reach Europe to deal with the boats packed with Syrian refugees that have been arriving in southern Italy.

UNHCR: 80,000 Somalis have returned to Somalia in 2013

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Half a million expected to return home in three years!  Is it time now to stop the flow of Somali “refugees” into the West?  Sure sounds like it!

Another boat full of Somalis washes up in Italy over the weekend. UNHCR should pack them up and take them to their safe zones in Somalia! Get them to work fighting for and rebuilding Somalia!


The Kenyan government has threatened to close one of the largest refugee camps in the world, but so far the UN has persuaded the government (fearful of more terrorists in the camp) to let the migration back to Somalia happen voluntarily.

Here is the news from last week at Xinhua News (hat tip:  Joanne):

DADAAB, Kenya, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) — The UN refugee agency UNHCR on Monday said some Somali refugees living in the northern Kenyan camps are willing to return home once they get support.

UNHCR official Mans Nyberg said the Kenyan government did not order the closure of the Dadaab refugee camp as reported by media.

Some refugees had turned up to the UNHCR offices in Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee settlement, to seek more information on their return, the official said.

[….]

The UNHCR and the Kenyan and Somali governments on Nov. 10 signed an agreement on the repatriation of Somali refugees. Up to 80,000 Somali refugees have spontaneously returned to south- central Somalia since January.

Also, last week the UN has identified three priority safe areas for returnees where they will be supplied with the basics to rebuild their lives.

From Reuters:

NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has identified three priority areas to which it will help Somali refugees return home from Kenya, a senior official said on Tuesday.

The UNHCR signed an agreement with the governments of both countries on Nov. 10, and half a million Somali refugees living in Kenya are expected to return home voluntarily over the next three years. The number of refugees from Somalia – 1.1 million – is the third highest in the world after Afghanistan and Syria.

[…..]

Mbilinyi [UNHCR rep in Kenya—ed] said the UNHCR can monitor the safety of returnees in these areas through partner non-governmental organisations working on the ground. Reception centres will be set up in the three cities, where returnees will receive food, household basics and other materials to help them rebuild their lives.

“Stability is coming back to Somalia. Most of the country is safe even though of course Shabaab are controlling some cities throughout Somalia,” Somalia’s ambassador to Kenya, Mohammed Ali Nur, told a news conference. “We believe that soon we will liberate the whole country.”

If all of the Somalis trying to find the cushy good life in the West went back to Somalia and worked hard they could easily expel al-Shabaab.

I’ll get in real trouble asking this question, but what makes some people willing to fight to improve their lot and others to become parasitic, is it inherited or learned behavior?

Photo is from this story.

Australia: people smugglers work a new angle

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Instead of selling phoney asylum seekers seats on a potentially rickety boat to Australia they now have an air route and fake visas for them.

Iraqis are running the operation!

Iraqi national Abu Tarek

Before I get to the story, I see there is news this morning that more Rohingya have been caught in Indonesia headed for a another of those boat crossings.   Indonesia is a Muslim country, so why aren’t the Rohingya satisfied to break in there and stay in their own culture zone, why Australia?  (silly question!)

Where the heck are these destitute “refugees” getting $16,000 to pay for a ticket?  From 9News:

People smugglers are selling asylum seekers passports and Australian visas for entry to the country by plane – offering them an alternative to a potentially deadly boat journey.

The ABC’s Four Corners reported that it secretly filmed people smuggler Abu Tarek in Malaysia talking about the deal.

The Iraqi man tells a potential customer that for $16,000 they get a passport with an Australia visa.

“The passport is from Oman or Bahrain, they get the Bahrain passport with the Australia visa in it, both official – not fake,” he said in a conversational secretly recorded by the ABC’s Four Corners.

“They use the passport to fly there and when they arrive safely, they tear it up and enter the country (Australia).”

He tells the person that when they enter the country they can then apply for refugee status.

His business partner Abu Saleh, also from Iraq, is accused of running his people smuggling business from an Indonesian prison with the help of corrupt prison officials.

One asylum seeker who dealt with him while he was in prison said he was “like a king”.

The photo is from a much more detailed story  (found after beginning this post) about this illegal operation at ABC News Australia.  Some of the flights are to New Zealand as well.