This is a very handy graphic published by the BBC (we like maps at RRW!). For new readers we have written extensively on the invasion of Europe by Middle Easterners and Africans for years, but this year has seen the greatest increase in the numbers trying to get to Italy as the number one destination. From there they hope to move on through Europe. For a chuckle, see yesterday’s poston cannibalism on the way to the land of free meals.
I see there is no major migration route to the Vatican in Rome, maybe we should spread a rumor that the Pope is “welcoming” the stranger!
Isn’t it great how the US and certain European countries destabilized Libya and made it the go-to place for illegal migrants wanting to get to Europe!
Scene Of Cannibalism For The Raft Of The Medusa by Theodore Gericault
They were only at sea for three days but, what the heck, rather than starve (hardly possible in three days is it?), one of the aliens took a chunk from a dead man. That is perhaps the most dramatic moment of this fascinating tale from a Somali migrant desperate to cross the Mediterranean and find a new life in the land of milk and honey—Italy!
The story is here at Vice.com and below are some excerpts. You decide if the storyteller is for real (but maybe first revisit, Greenfield on the Hyena Cure!) (Emphasis is mine)
On Tahrib!
Hassan Ali is a 23-year-old Somali who survived gun battles and poverty in his youth in his native country before deciding in 2009 to embark on Tahrib, the perilous journey from Africa to the Italian island of Lampedusa.Thousands of Somalis make this trip every year, and this month it made headlines after a boat caught fire and capsized on October 3, killing over 300 would-be immigrants. Eight days later, a different vessel capsized in an accident that claimed at least 34 lives. Here, Hassan speaks about his troubled life before the trip and the horrors he experienced en route to Europe.
The cannibalism didn’t start until our second boat journey, from Libya to Lampedusa. We had already been traveling for ten days; people were dying and there was no food. I actually saw one guy cutting a piece of flesh from another man’s body.
Our Ali wanted to be an astronaut, but that wasn’t (understandably) possible in his home town in Somalia where squabbling clans were bringing AK-47s to mosques and shooting at ten-year-olds racing home. So, our young and desperate adventurer, upon reaching the age of 19, found enough friends and relatives to front him $800 to go on Tahrib (described as attempting to get to Europe, but one definition I saw was that it translated to ‘smuggling’—being smuggled or doing the smuggling wasn’t clear).
Mom thought he was crazy! That is what all Moms say!
I first heard about Tahrib on the radio when I was 19. There were people in Europe talking about their new lives and how they’d traveled there from Somalia by boat. It sounded like a good idea. After a while I told my parents I planned to leave. They were shocked. “Are you mad?” my mother said. “You’re a young boy, what has gotten into you?” I told them how I thought Tahrib was my only way forward, that I could only find a better life in Europe. They thought I was joking. When I called them from the first boat months later, they were terrified.
First boat was bad, but no cannibalism yet!
Our first trip was from Beled Hawo to Bosaso, a port city on the northern shore of Somalia. It wasn’t the worst journey, but we had hardly any food and the people who drove us there were being very cruel, shouting at us and hitting people occasionally. I was only a kid [editors note: Somalis are “kids” for a long time, I noticed that when they were leaving Minneapolis to join al-Shabaab, kids, just kids!] —I missed my hometown already and everyone seemed so sad even though they were heading off for this exciting new life.
Captured by Libyan armed men who extracted $300 from Mom and Dad for Ali’s release and then on to the merry Tahrib again!
All I wanted was to be back in Beled Hawo with my parents. I didn’t care if I ever made it to Europe. Even if, miraculously, we survived the journey, how would the Europeans treat us? Would I get a visa? Would I be thrown in jail? I was terrified.
The trip across the Mediterranean was the worst part—people were dropping dead and others needed a little protein with their bread and biscuits.
It took another ten days to find a boat from Libya to Lampedusa. Then the real horror began. There was only bread and biscuits on board and the heat was unbearable. People were dropping dead and the captain did nothing. People started eating each other: it was like something from a scary movie right in front of my eyes. That leg of the journey took three days. It felt like years.
Ali, the would-be astronaut, knows who to blame for all of this horror—politicians who don’t help Somalia! Of course that is the moral of the story after all! Ali continues:
Everyone knows that politicians in Europe and Africa are doing nowhere near enough to address the dangers of Tahrib. Otherwise all those people would not have died near Lampedusa this month. No one is addressing the real issues—the violence, the poverty—that led me away from Somalia.[Here is an idea—-how about if Somalis get their own house in order!—ed]
Postscript! Italy let me rebuild my life—-back in Somalia! WTH!
People tell me Lampedusa is beautiful. I have no idea. I can barely remember any of the landscape I saw: everything was so terrifying. But, Alhamdulillah [praise to God], I made it there alive and, amazingly, got an Italian visa after three months of being held at a camp. Some people I traveled with waited years and others never got one. I love Italy, though. I lived there for three years and made a small living working in various jobs. I may never be an astronaut but Italy let me rebuild a life that was destroyed. I’m back in Somalia now—not in Beled Hawo but another city. I hope I get to visit Italy again some day.
It’s a good thing the USS San Antonio doesn’t carry immigration lawyers on board or asylum requests might have been filed!
Update October 18th: Not Somalis at all! Instead a mishmash of African economic migrants who turned violent when put in detention in Malta—read all about it here!
VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — The American warship where an al-Qaida suspect was interrogated after being snatched from Libya by U.S. special forces has come to the rescue of 120 Somali migrants.
A statement Thursday from the Maltese army says it asked the USS San Antonio to intervene Wednesday because it was close to the migrants’ dinghy.The Somalis were having trouble in rough seas and high winds some 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Malta and were taken to the Mediterranean island.
Libyan terror suspect Abu Anas al-Libi, whose real name is Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, was captured during a military raid in Libya on Oct. 5 and questioned for a week aboard the San Antonio before being transferred to the U.S. He is due to stand trial on terror charges in New York City.
The ship is very similar to the one that came to the rescue in the newly released Somali pirate movie, “Captain Phillips,” which I had not particularly wanted to see after I read reports that some of the crew of the Maersk Alabama thought the film was inaccurate. After seeing it, I do recommend the movie for a whole host of reasons I won’t go into here. But, if you read Greenfield’s ‘Hyena Cure’yesterday (and see the movie) you may see that Greenfield is on to something.
Regular readers know that boats are launching daily carrying illegal migrants from Africa hoping to reach the promised land—Europe. Some make it, some don’t.
The story basically says—-If only the uneducated boobs among the public were better informed they wouldn’t fear that their country was being “invaded.”
Shipment of Syrians (?) arriving on Malta’s shores.* Nah! No invasion here, nothing to see, move along!
Longtime readers know that we have been following the plight of the tiny Mediterranean island nation of Malta as it has been overwhelmed for years with boat people (asking for asylum) from Africa—-most recently the flood is a result of the glorious Arab Spring and the US-supported (US-driven!) ouster of Gaddafi in Libya.
Our interest in Malta is two-fold. First, as much as I hate the worn-out phrase ‘canary in a coal mine’ that about sums up what Malta represents, and secondly the US State Department (egged on by their Jesuit friends on Malta) is transforming Malta’s illegal aliens by the hundreds into “refugees” destined for your town!
Seems that a major news outlet on Malta—-Malta Today—did a survey and found that shock-of-shocks, the general public is feeling invaded.
Here is a bit of the story:
MaltaToday survey indicates that a majority of respondents (55%) support the pushback policy. [Go here for some of our coverage last month of the proposed push-back policy.—ed]
The MaltaToday survey held this week reveals that the greatest concern the Maltese people have about migration by ‘boat people’ is the fear of being ‘invaded’ or seeing their country ‘taken over’ by migrants.
The survey indicates that a majority of respondents (55%) support the pushback policy considered by the new Labour government in July, before the European Court of Human Rights stopped any such action. It had already ruled such a policy illegal when practised by Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing government in Italy.
Support for pushbacks is particularly strong among Labour voters and those lacking a tertiary education.
LOL! It is my experience that the less-formally-educated country class (working class) on whole are much smarter when it comes to mass immigration then their “tertiary-educated” and politically-correct fellow citizens.
The photo is from this story, although there is no caption, this must be the boatload of Syrians referred to in the article.
* Correction, a reader has reported this boat actually landed in Sicily. Malta has only gotten a few Syrians, most arriving there are Africans.
The Telegraphhas a detailed article on Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s plan to try to stem the tide of illegal aliens arriving on Malta, and getting stuck with them, because the EU rules they must abide by are really screwy.
“Refugees” hanging around in Malta waiting for a ticket out—to the US maybe!
We told you about the plan here and here the other day. If no changes are made Malta will eventually become a Muslim country, and the US will have played a role.
The tiny island of Malta has received 17,743 mainly African migrants this decade – the equivalent, in Britain, of 2.5 million people. And it is struggling to cope, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat says.
[….]
Perched on a tiny but strategic set of islands between Europe and Africa, the Maltese have long prided themselves on their ability to repel unwanted invaders. In the 1500s, their resident Knights of St John were the heroes of Europe after seeing off the Ottoman Turks, and in the Second World War, they won the George Cross for helping Britain to keep Hitler at bay.
Their latest efforts to turn back a foreign armada, however, are unlikely to win such plaudits. Or not from the European Union, anyway, which last week was embroiled in a bitter row with Mr Muscat’s government over its plans to return Mr Abdi [a newly arrived Somali from Libya] and his ilk to Libya, from where they came in a people-smuggling boat 12 days ago.
Malta the doormat:
….the row has highlighted how Malta – and nearby Italy – is struggling to reconcile their obligations as EU states with their unsought role as the doormat for illegal migrants from Africa seeking entry to Europe.
EU rules keep them in Malta:
….few African immigrants seek to put down roots down in Malta, preferring instead to head to mainland Europe, where job prospects are better, and where they can legally go under the Schengen arrangements.
But that creates another problem. The rules insist they must return to the country where they first claimed asylum within three months, and while the majority simply overstay, every year hundreds are caught and forcibly returned to Malta from other Schengen countries.
The US to the rescue!
For new readers this is why we follow closely the controversy with illegal aliens (yes, The Telegraph calls them that in this piece) arriving on Malta—we are taking the largest share to America in a perversion of international refugee law.
Katrine Camilleri with Jesuit Refugee Services
A transfer scheme is already in place, but over the past decade other European nations have taken only 700 of Malta’s arrivals, with the US taking 1,300.
* Photo above is from this storywhere an immigration lawyer, Katrine Camilleri, (we mentioned herhere) got an award for her stellar work with the migrants arriving on Malta. This is what we want to know:
How many “refugees” has Ms. Katrine Camilleri welcomed to live in her home?
One more thing, Muscat represents the Center Left party in Malta and they are ticked-off at being labeled “xenophobes” by the immigration industry advocates.
Type ‘Malta’ into our search function for our many years of coverage of the Malta mess.
