Tag: Libya

Pope lectures on Lampedusa

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
The Pope on Lampedusa yesterday. Photo: Tullio M. Puglia/Getty Images

Lampedusa is the Italian island that is usually the first bit of land the mostly Muslim illegal aliens come to when leaving North Africa via boat.  Lampedusa and Malta have been plagued for the last few years with the arrival of boat people, some claiming they want asylum—asylum from the turmoil that the US and European countries (including Italy) helped create with their enthusiasm for the Arab Spring and the destabilization of Libya.

Now the Pope unexpectedly arrives on Lampedusa, says Mass and lectures about the “globalization of indifference,”  which is fine, of course, as long as he only exhorts individual Christians to PRIVATE giving (opening their homes and wallets) and does not continue to demand Caesar’s money for the church’s charity.  And, frankly, that is exactly what is happening at least in America as long time readers of RRW know—the political activities of the Catholic Bishops are being funded by you through taxation.

Here is the story from the New York Times:

ROME — Pope Francis traveled on Monday to Lampedusa, the tiny Mediterranean island that has become a gateway to Europe for thousands of desperate asylum seekers and migrants, as well as an unknown number of others who have died during the perilous crossing from North Africa.

It was the pope’s first official trip outside Rome, and he used it to draw attention to a continuing humanitarian problem while chiding the world for its indifference.

“These brothers and sisters of ours were trying to leave difficult situations to find a little serenity and peace…..

Serenity and peace!  Then why do they riot and clash with police on Lampedusa, here is one instance of many!  In that post we quoted a line from The Independent:

Until the recent mass influx of north Africans, Lampedusa was a quiet community that relied on fishing and summer tourism for a living. The endless flow of arrivals and the catastrophic effect this has had on tourism have seen tempers fray.

Gee, not a peep out of the New York Times on the catastrophe for Lampedusa residents.

Not all arrivals are in need of asylum—many are economic migrants not protected by any international law regarding refugees and asylum.  ‘Economic migrant’ is just a fancy phrase to describe illegal aliens.  The NYT continues:

New arrivals on the island, about 75 miles north of Tunisia, are fed and fingerprinted and then separated into three groups: economic migrants, who could be repatriated after their cases are reviewed, and asylum seekers and minors, who after a few days are sent to detention centers on Italy’s mainland.

And here, when the Mayor of Lampedusa calls this a “humanitarian disaster” I don’t think he is talking only about the boat people.  I think he just might mean this is a human tragedy for the Italian people.

While praising volunteer associations, law enforcement officials and residents of the island for the assistance they have provided to the migrants, the pope criticized the “globalization of indifference” that he said was widespread among too many others. We “have forgotten how to cry” for migrants lost at sea and “take care of each other,” the pope said in his homily.  [Maybe Pope Francis could take some of the “refugees” back to Vatican City with him—ed]

Officials in Lampedusa said they hoped the pope’s visit would bring attention to what they saw as a humanitarian disaster.

“This island is the setting of one of the most epochal dramas of our time, but it is ignored,” said Giuseppina Nicolini, the mayor of Lampedusa. “The numbers of those lost at sea are those of a war, but a silent war that no one speaks of, except a few blogs that no one reads.”

Who is silent in the “silent war” (the suffering Italians?) because it surely isn’t the mainstream media that is silent on the plight of the migrants, and what “blogs” is he talking about?

For more on Lampedusa, click here for our complete archive.

UN closes refugee camp on Libya-Tunisia border, refugees refuse to leave

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is one of many enduring legacies Obama’s excellent adventure in Libya has left us.  Actually I should say Obama and his Humanitarian Vulcans—Clinton, Rice and Power—left us!   Tens of thousands of refugees were created when we helped oust Qaddafi.  Many were workers who had gone to Libya to work in the oilfields.  So much for Samantha Power’s “responsibility to protect!”

In truth, perhaps it was the Al-Qaeda rebels she and the girls were protecting.  Just think what a danger Samantha Power will be if confirmed as Obama’s UN Ambassador!

Samantha Power’s refugees at Choucha camp on the Libyan-Tunisian border at the heyday of US involvement in the Libyan conflict.  Photo: Renaud Philippe.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees was eager to close this camp, but the remaining refugees are demanding resettlement to third countries—that means the US, Canada, or Australia, because those three are really resettling the bulk of the world’s refugees

From the Saudi Gazette:

TRIPOLI — Some 650 refugees have refused to leave the Choucha refugee camp at the Tunisian-Libyan border, which officially closed Sunday.

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR announced the closure of the camp in March but many refugees have stayed on, despite water and electricity supplies being cut off. A Chadian resident, Mussa Ibrahim, confirmed that the camp is still open and continuing to house around 650 residents.

“The camp may be closed theoretically,” he said: “UNHCR said they closed it for administrative reasons, but they did it for media hype.”

He also told the Libya Herald that basic services have been reduced over the last week. The water, he said, was stopped, forcing refugees to fetch water from neighboring areas in Ben Guerdane.

Ibrahim said that the camp’s residents, especially asylum seekers who have had their applications rejected, are waiting for a satisfactory solution.

The Tunisian government’s earlier decision to integrate remaining camp residents into Tunisian society, or return them to Libya, was rejected by some refugees, who asked UNHCR to reconsider their demand to be resettled in Western countries. These individuals are apparently mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, Palestine and Iraq. The Tunisian Ministry of Social Affairs, said Ibrahim, has started taking fingerprints from refugees, on a voluntary basis, in a move to grant some six-month residence permits. “This would also give us free movement in Tunisia,” Ibrahim explained, adding: “Until then, we cannot leave the camp.” However, his permit, which he needs to support his family, has not yet materialized.

By the way, we have been resettling refugees from the Libyan upheaval with the theory that we broke it, we fix it.  Now we are moving on to doing the same thing in Syria!  At my most cynical moments, I think the goal of all of  our involvements in the Middle East is the creation of more refugees.

Samantha Power, White House Iraqi refugee czar, Soros protege’ leaving Obama Administration

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Power, also the architect of Obama’s excellent adventure in Libya, was supposed to have led an intergovernmental reform of the Refugee Resettlement Program which never happened unless you consider throwing more money to the contractors a reform!  By the way, she once served as a director of the wealthiest refugee resettlement contractor (funded largely by US taxpayers)—the International Rescue Committee (George Rupp, their head honcho makes a cool $447,432 in salary and benefits which beats Obama’s $400,000 salary!)

Human Rights First cheered her role as Iraqi refugee czar at the White House here in 2009.  But, by 2011 Power was quoted (by Joe Klein) as saying she wanted more exciting work then the “rinkey-dink do-gooder stuff”  of helping beleaguered Christians in Iraq.  So she moved on to working with Obama’s female hawks to oust Gaddafi from Libya (we see how that is working out!).  Well, heck, the move produced a whole new wave of refugees in need of resettlement services from the federal contractors!

Power’s name came up as a possible second-term pick for either UN Ambassador if Susan Rice moved up to the Secretary of State position we all know went to John Kerry.   There had even been talk that Power, a Soros protege’, might be in line to fill her nemesis’ shoes at State.  Remember Power called Hillary a “monster” during the 2008 Presidential primary campaign.

We have a lot of posts on Power, you can check them out here.

The percentage of white men surrounding the President just went up!

Here is Bloomberg on Power’s leave-taking (for now anyway):

Samantha Power, one of President Barack Obama’s top advisers on national security and a longtime aide, is leaving the administration, at least temporarily, to focus on family matters, a White House spokesman said.

Power, director for multilateral affairs and human rights at the National Security Council, has served as an aide to Obama since his 2008 presidential campaign and is a Pulitzer Prize- winning author for her book on genocide. She has two young children, one three years old and the other eight months.

Power probably will return to the administration, though no decisions have been made on what her future role might be, according to the spokesman, Tommy Vietor.

“Samantha has been a powerful voice in this administration and a longtime friend and adviser to the president,” Vietor said. “We will miss her at the NSC, and we look forward to continuing the president’s work promoting human rights and dignity.”

Power, 42, who successfully advocated for the 2011 intervention in Libya on humanitarian grounds, has played a central role in discussions over how far the U.S. should go to protect civilians from repressive regimes.   [Her ‘responsibility to protect’ doctrine is a thinly disguised excuse to send the US to war—ed]

[….]

Her departure comes as Obama has been criticized for not appointing a sufficient number of women to high-profile posts as he forms his second-term team.

Libyan “refugees” want their rights to social services in Italy

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We talked about the mess that Obama helped create when he and several European leaders decided to depose Muammar Gaddafi in their zeal to spread the Arab Spring across North Africa here just a few days ago when former Libyan rebels toured US border crossings.   Following the overthrow of Gaddafi, tens of thousands of economic migrants launched themselves from Libyan shores (escaping the joys of the Arab Spring) and landed in Europe (Malta and Italy mostly).

I’d like to know if the rebels in charge of Libya are going to close their ports so that no more “refugees” can embark to Europe?  The rebels are Arabs and I wouldn’t be surprised if they ‘permitted’ those other dark-skinned ethnic groups to skip the country and head to Italy and Malta.

Last Sunday, hundreds of asylum seekers protested in an Italian city demanding their right to stay and get on welfare.

From Struggles in Italy (a lefty blog):

 On Sunday, December 16, a group of migrants fleeing Libya demonstrated in the streets of Reggio Emilia, the city where they are currently living. Several associations called for the rally, including Associations Città Migrante, GA3, Emergency Reggio Emilia and Laboratorio Aq16. The migrants reminded everyone that the City of Reggio Emilia has not, to date, granted residency to asylum seekers from Libya; as their banner read, they want to be “no longer refugees, but citizens”.

In the wake of Gaddafi’s overthrow, around 20,000 people fled Libya and arrived in Italy, a country with a population of 60 million. Such numbers are hardly an “emergency”, the ridiculously inaccurate description used in the media and political discourse.

Following the Italian civil protection agency’s North Africa emergency plan, the asylum seekers were distributed across the country, according to agreements with the regions, provinces and municipalities, and according to each area’s population density. In the past year and a half, the Province of Reggio Emilia has received 200 migrants.

Most of the asylum seekers are not Libyan nationals: they originally fled other countries such as Somalia, Eritrea, Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, Chad, Sudan, the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Burkina Faso, but they were living and working in Libya at the time of the revolution.

So, why couldn’t they just stay and work there after the glorious revolution?

Comment worth noting: Reader responds to this morning’s Libya post

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, tells us how the migrants are launched from Libya and arrive in Malta with the help of the Catholic Church. Then, of course, many are moved along to the US.  In the US the Catholic Bishops/Catholic Charities are then paid by you (taxpayers) for the migrants care.

I’m posting this comment here because I’m afraid you won’t see it simply as a comment at my Libya post this morning.   We don’t often use it, but that is what this category (comments worth noting) is all about.

From Charles (emphasis mine):

Practically all the illegal immigrants’ boats departing from Libya start their voyage from the port of Zuwarah which is about 2 miles south east of the city centre (look it up in Google Earth). The harbour master there seems to be very accommodating 😉

As soon as the boat is outside Libyan territorial waters, the occupants use a satellite phone to call an Eritrean priest in the Vatican, Don Mosé Zerai, He then contacts the Rome Rescue Coordination Centre who in turn communicate the details to the Maltese RCC. The position of the boat is obtained from Thuraya, the satellite phone company because all sat phones have GPS and the origin of the call can be pinpointed to within a few metres.

Libya never launches any Search and Rescue (SAR) operations, so the Maltese prime minister, whose loyalty is first to the Vatican and then to Brussels, takes it upon himself to authorise operations in Libyan SAR waters, lest some illegal immigrant drowns. This is how it is done nowadays. Gone are the days when illegals used to try and sneak in clandestinely. They don’t have to. They get a free ferry ride into harbour where food and drink, medical aid and midwives will be waiting for them. There are invariably severely pregnant women on every boat. Some have given birth on the high seas and their offspring cannot be issued with a birth certificate, but that’s another story. Pregnant women escape detention and once the baby is born and has served its purpose, it is abandoned to the institutes run by the Catholic Church.

Any sat phones, GPS navigators and documents are dumped overboard as soon a the rescue launch approaches. They will then sometimes hang small children over the side and threaten to drown the children unless they are taken to Malta immediately. They interpret kindness and mercy as weakness and exploit it ruthlessly.

You can use Google Translate to read the story here:
http://xn--identit-fwa.com/blog/2012/10/24/ce-un-trafficante-di-clandestini-in-vaticano/

If you need any help with translation I can do it for you.  [not me, Charles!—ed]