I promised over the last few months to update readers about what was happening in refugee camps with COVID, and as of this morning I can report NOT MUCH!
(In addition to the post linked above, see some of my previous postshere, here, and herefor example.)
I’m not planning to spend hours trying to find articles hidden in the dark recesses of the world wide web that might prove that the virus has developed into a “grave threat” for hundreds of thousands of refugees (living in close quarters without masks!) as the mainstream media was predicting for months.
There are many articles including this one below that discuss how the UN and other agencies have kept refugees safe, but they make me chuckle.
Since they can’t report some horrifying death toll, they are now taking credit for keeping the virus at bay in camps where dozens of people share latrines for their daily excretions, soap and water are not plentiful and they live in crowded huts (so much for social distancing).
You know if the case numbers and death toll was high we would be hearing about it from the front pages of the WaPo and the NYT!
Bangladesh, 24 August 2020: The global death toll from the coronavirus has crossed 800,000 as confirmed cases surged past 23 million, with Bangladesh overtaking Pakistan to become 15th on the list of countries with most COVID-19 patients. While the country has crossed a grim milestone, there are so far fewer causalities in the densely-populated Rohingya camps that have been and still are considered one of the most vulnerable places to the ongoing pandemic.
As of now, COVID-19 situation across the camps has been tackled somewhat successfully. However, the apparent success in keeping the virus away should not hide the fact that the risks of a COVID-19 outbreak in the camps remain very high. Despite taking all the preventative measures, it cannot fully alleviate the very difficult conditions continually present in the camps.
[….]
“Close to a million Rohingya refugees are living in highly overcrowded camps in the Cox’s Bazar region of Bangladesh. So far with the collective effort of all humanitarian agencies and the government we have been able to limit the spread of COVID-19 successfully. However, the risk still remains and we need to keep working with the communities on food and nutrition security, creating health awareness while reinforcing our disaster preparedness activity”- said Ram Das, Deputy Country Director – Humanitarian Response of CARE Bangladesh.
Sure seems like the international health establishment should be figuring out why the virus isn’t spreading where it seems that it should be—in crowded and unhealthy living conditions housing the “vulnerable.”
And, that reminds me, why isn’t there a huge sick/death count in the tent cities where the homeless are congregating in Democrat controlled cities?
1,318 refugees moved to America in the month of August. That is a huge jump from the previous COVID ‘crisis’ months that saw 522 arrive over a four month period from April through July.
Forty states welcomed the third worlders who will now need shelter, food, and medical care as US citizens continue to struggle themselves with those same needs.
Of the nine states and the District of Columbia that were unwelcoming, three are worth mentioning. Vermont (Bernie), Delaware (Biden) and the District of Columbia didn’t take any.
Here is the map for August from the Refugee Processing Center.
I know the numbers are hard to read, so here are the top ten welcoming states (sure send us more poor people!): Texas, California, Washington, Michigan, New York, Wisconsin, Arizona, Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia.
Presidential Determination for 2021 due by the end of the month!
September 30th marks the end of the fiscal year and the President is required to tell Congress this month how many refugees the administration would like to admit in the coming fiscal year.
Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy set up the Refugee Admissions Program that has been operating to bring in more Democrat voters for 40 years. But, I’ve found it ever-so-amusing that Delaware has welcomed only a tiny, tiny number of refugees in those 4 decades.
I haven’t seen anything yet about where the negotiations stand, but if this is like other years there is much negotiating going on behind the scenes. Of course the President could put off making any determination in light of the more important business facing the federal government right now.
Even if Trump sets a low ceiling, as he has done in previous years, it is just a ceiling and doesn’t mean that it must be reached. And, if Biden succeeds in November, all bets are off.
Biden has already promised 125,000 refugees for 2021.
I thought you might be interested in this data at the Refugee Processing Center which shows the ceiling and the actual admissions for the last ten years. Take note of the fact that Obama himself never brought in anywhere near 125,000 in a year.
August 2020 data (1,318) had not been added yet.
And, these numbers do not include the Special Immigrant Visas from Iraq and Afghanistan that are treated with the same benefits as refugees.
As soon as I see anything about what the President is proposing for 2021, I’ll report.
Remember, as we have said for four years, he can set the arrival number at zero!
First off, I wanted to know who the h*** is Banksy?
Banksy tribute to George Floyd. His ‘art’ pays for ‘rescue’ ships.
Turns out he is an anonymous British street artistwho is apparently rolling in dough—enough dough to fund a vessel that will bring more invaders to Europe nevermind any silly little lockdown (what pandemic?) that keeps you from visiting Europe!
Editor: By the way, I guess my August recess is over. Back to work!
Migrant rescue: UN urges help as 200 taken off Banksy rescue boat
The UN Refugee Agency says almost 400 refugees and migrants rescued by three ships in the Mediterranean must be allowed to disembark safely.
A joint statement issued with the International Organization for Migration said it was a “humanitarian imperative to save lives”.
Italy’s coastguard evacuated 49 people from an overloaded rescue vessel funded by British artist Banksy.
Watch some of the rescue here:
Another rescue boat SeaWatch 4 later took the remaining 150 on board.
The crew of the Louise Michel had earlier tweeted a call for immediate assistance. European authorities had not responded adequately, they said. Sea Watch 4 said late on Saturday it was now carrying 350 people who needed to disembark as soon as possible.
Chris Grodotzki, part of the Sea Watch 4 rescue team, told the BBC the people it picked up were “sea sick, they showed signs of fuel burns, they were disorientated, dehydrated”.
He said the situation on board was currently “stable” but that the vessel would not be able to carry that number of people for a long period of time.
“The decks are stuffed,” he said. “People are crammed together.”
[….]
The UNHCR and the IOM said the lack of a deal on a regional landing system could not be an excuse to deny vulnerable people safe harbour.
[….]
According to UN data, 443 people have died or have gone missing trying to cross the Mediterranean from north Africa so far in 2020.
Slightly more than 40,000 have arrived in Europe by sea during the same period.
So what lucky country will be getting this latest batch? We will be watching.
Sigh, don’t we all missMatteo Salviniwho briefly slowed the invasion.
By bringing in even greater numbers than we have in the past we can show the world that we have “moral authority” and even those dastardly Chinese will have to pay attention!
America needs more Rohingya refugees so we can show the world that we have moral authority and the rest of the globe will follow us to multicultural Nirvana.
They are all getting excited for Biden/Harris and here the Leftwing Brookings Institution*** in Washington says forget the idea of simply restoring our Refugee Admissions Program, it needs to be reformed to be even more robust when Biden gets to the White House in January 2021.
I thought I was going to be reading about real reform of the program when this headline was brought to my attention. But alas, reform=more poor (sick!) third worlders for your town.
COVID-19 and the chance to reform US refugee policy
COVID-19 has exposed the underlying fault lines in societies around the world and in modern globalization. Yet by revealing long ignored flaws, it presents a rare chance to reform.
Authors of this prescription for Biden. Yeh, we are going to take advice from a Turk telling us to go big with our refugee admissions numbers?
Unsurprisingly, refugees — the vast majority of whom live deeply precarious lives — have been among the most threatened by the pandemic.
A new U.S. administration should seize the opportunity presented by COVID-19 to build a better refugee policy, both for refugees’ benefit and for U.S. national security and strategic interests. [No one has ever shown me that our national security benefits from bringing in people from countries that hate us!—ed]
With the 70th anniversary of the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees approaching in 2021, now is an opportune time for an update to U.S. refugee policy.
[….]
Today, vibrant[They cannot write a refugee story without using that word!—ed] refugee communities can be found in cities like Los Angeles, California, Nashville, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri, which host the largest number of Vietnamese, Kurds, and Bosnians in the United States, respectively. [Notice they don’t mention the vibrant community of Somali Muslims in Minneapolis!—ed]
A compelling argument can be made that America needs refugees and owes part of its economic success to those who came to its shores seeking shelter from persecution and violence. The arrival of refugees helped to uphold America’s identity as a multicultural nation that accepts all victims of persecution who would come to its shores.
But that evil creature Trump has caused our “moral authority” to go into the toilet!
Blah, blah, blah…
I’m very interested to learn, if it’s true, that a battle is going on among Ds about whether to restore the program or go bigger….
As the 2020 presidential election draws near, a key division amongst Democrats who hope to see President Trump leave office in 2021 is between the restorationists, who think things can go back to the way they were before Trump, and the reformists, who see the hurricane of the Trump administration as an opportunity to build back stronger. COVID-19 should render this debate moot with regards to U.S. refugee policy.
Biden has already said he is going big in January (but won’t the pandemic still be raging in January)! And, I have no doubt he and Kamala will be eager to jump on the UN bandwagon on the Global Compact on Refugees!
There are already signs that a post-Trump United States could adopt a more helpful stance on refugees. Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has promised to rescind the Trump administration’s Muslim ban, restore access to asylum, and increase yearly refugee resettlement quotas to 125,000, a move that would show solidarity with countries hosting large numbers of refugees and likely spur U.S. allies to follow suit. There is also support in Congress for shouldering a greater refugee burden, as seen with Refugee Protection Act proposed in November 2019.
With a definitive end to the COVID-19 pandemic nowhere in sight, the threat facing refugees and the political stability of their host countries calls for the next administration to go beyond simply restoring the traditional U.S. leadership role on refugees. To address the challenge of rebuilding after COVID-19, the United States should endorse the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR).
And then this! By bringing in even greater numbers of refugees we can stick it to China, say the great minds at Brookings?
A revamped U.S. commitment to helping refugees carries direct benefits for U.S. national security priorities, in particular with respect to the strategic rivalry posed by a rising China.
Firstly, revamping its leadership role in managing refugee resettlement would go a long way in helping America reclaim the moral leadership it has enjoyed in past decades, which enabled it to create unique solutions to problems.
America’s support for refugees does more for it in a “battle of ideas” than its military and economic capacity alone: an America that actively protects the less fortunate might more easily win hearts and minds globally while also serving its own national security interests.
It drives me mad, when they say things like that—“win hearts and minds globally”—with not a bit of proof that anyone loves us more, surely not the Chinese!
And what about Americans’ hearts and minds!
The devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed deep flaws in countries around the world and endangered the health and livelihoods of millions. To build a better, more democratic, more equitable world after the pandemic, the United States could start by helping refugees, rather than what it can do by merely seeking its own benefit.
In the wake of the Chinese virus crisis the US has only one obligation and that is to take care of Americans FIRST!
***Brookingstries to pretend it is centrist however,
Starting with the 1990 election cycle, employees of the Brookings Institution gave $853,017 to Democratic candidates and $26,104 to Republican candidates. In total, since 1990, 96 percent of its political donations have gone to Democrats.
As you know if you follow RRW, the Refugee Admissions Program came to a grinding halt in March due to the worldwide travel restrictions in the wake of the Chinese virus pandemic.
However, the US State Department announced on July 29th that our welcome mat had once again been put out for third world migration to Anytown, USA.
Refugee admissions to the US resume after being on pause due to coronavirus
(CNN)Refugee admissions to the United States have resumed after being put on pause for five months due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the State Department.
In March, the US put a temporary pause on refugee admissions after the International Organization for Migration, which is in charge of booking refugees on their travel, and the United Nations refugee agency announced a temporary suspension of resettlement travel. Both organizations have since moved to restart admissions.
Sec. of State Mike Pompeo Opens Refugee Admissions Program as COVID (supposedly) continues to sicken and kill Americans and destroy the economy. What’s a few more mouths to feed!
In a statement to CNN, a State Department spokesperson said Secretary Mike Pompeo approved the resumption of admissions on July 29.
“This program is a vital lifeline for the world’s most vulnerable refugees who have no other alternative and who are made even more vulnerable by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the spokesperson said, adding that the program “resumed arrivals for approved refugees effective July 30 with significant COVID health measures in place as required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
The spokesperson didn’t provide additional details on what extra health measures entailed. Refugees are usually heavily screened before arriving in the US.
We have admitted 196 refugees and spread them out among 22 states in the two weeks since Pompeo made the announcement according to data compiled by the Refugee Processing Center.
The top three welcoming states are Texas, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Of the 196, 41 are Muslims (there is no Muslim ban). The 41 include 15 Burmese Rohingya people and 15 Syrians.
Just a reminder, next month the President is required by law to submit his determination (ceiling) for the number of refugee arrivals for FY2021 that begins on October 1, 2020.
We will be watching!to see what the President does. He can, of course, postpone any decision, or he can set the ceiling at zero.
