Tag: Malta

UN to Italy and Malta: Let the Mediterranean Migrant Flow Continue!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Invasion of Europe news….

The Chinese Virus crisis has caused legitimate concern to European frontline countries which have been the target of migrant boats launching from Libya.

In recent weeks, Malta and Italy have been forcing ‘rescue’ boats back toward the Libyan coast infuriating ‘aid’ agencies and the UN which claim that, “departures from Libya during the first quarter of the year rose four-fold over the same period in 2019.”

It’s been awhile since I reported on the Mediterranean route to Europe from the north African coast, primarily from Libya.

Hillary and her gal pals are directly responsible for the hell hole that is Libya today.

Just a reminder that the chaos that is Libya today is a direct result of the Obama Administration’s policy then crafted by Hillary Clinton (with Rice and Power) that brought down the government of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, not exactly a decent guy, but his absence opened up the sea route, a fast lane, for the invasion of Europe.

See my Hillary and Libya archive here.

From Middle East Monitor:

UN urges EU member states to disembark rescued migrants

Two UN agencies on Thursday called on Malta and other European countries to speed up efforts to bring to dry land some 160 rescued refugees and migrants from Libya, who remain at sea aboard two private vessels after two weeks, Anadolu Agency reports.

 

Earlier this month, Italy impounded the German rescue ship, Alan Kurdi, after its latest batch of migrants was quarantined offshore for two weeks due to the virus crisis in Italy.  https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/05/1063592

 

Middle East Monitor continues:

The UN Refugee Agency and International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned that direct or indirect state involvement through the commercial Captain Morgan vessels in the return of the rescued migrants and refugees to Libya might violate international law.

“UNHCR and IOM unequivocally reiterate that no one rescued at sea should be returned to Libya,” said the statement.

“The misery and risk to life posed by intensifying conflict, arbitrary detention, and widespread human rights violations, amongst other factors, meaning it cannot be considered a place of safety.”

Necessary health measures undermine reception capacities in some Mediterranean States due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, prompting the UN agencies to offer support for the effective and speedy processing of new arrivals.

[….]

The UNHCR and IOM noted that the Mediterranean countries had been at the forefront of receiving sea arrivals in recent years and that their efforts, along with non-governmental organizations’ search and rescue vessels, had prevented many tragic deaths.

“However, the UNHCR and IOM are also deeply concerned about reports that States have been ignoring or delaying responses to distress calls, especially amid a sharp decrease in state-led and NGO search and rescue capacity,” said the statement.

More here.

See my ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive for more than a decade of news on the subject.

German government dragging its feet on admitting migrants they promised to take

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Invasion of Europe news…

And, German hypocrisy alert!

Well what do you know, Germany made a big show a few months back when it said it would take migrants from ships docked in Italy and Malta.  Those countries were not letting the wannabe Europeans disembark until other countries promised to take them.

Now we learn that 115 are still in Italy and Malta as Germany must thoroughly screen them!

 

Sea Watch
In a Mediterranean ship version of whack-a-mole, the German ‘Sea-Watch’ migrant transport ship will be back in business soon!

 

From Deutsche Welle:

Rescued migrants in limbo while waiting for resettlement in Germany

 

One hundred and fifteen migrants who were rescued in the Mediterranean Sea have been waiting for months in Italy and Malta for Germany to take them in as promised, the German government has said.

The migrants needed to undergo a medical examination, be registered and attend interviews before they could be transferred to Germany, according to a statement made in response to an enquiry by German parliamentarians of the Left party. They also required checking by German intelligence services before the German federal refugee agency BAMF could arrange a transfer, the statement added.

Salvini grim
What will Italy’s Salvini say? We will be watching!

It said some of the migrants were saved by two military ships on July 13 and taken to Sicily, and others rescued by the NGO ship Aquarius on August 10 and brought to Malta.

Italy and Malta allowed them to disembark only after other EU member states had promised to take them in.

Ulla Jelpke, a spokeswoman for the Left’s parliamentary party, commended Berlin for having pledged to take in the migrants, but called for quick action to fulfill the promise.

“There is no plausible reason for their entry to be put off because of bureaucratic measures,” she said.

Several other EU states have already received the migrants they pledged to take.

Meanwhile, they are baaaacck!

At least one NGO migrant transport ship will soon be back in business on the hunt for African migrants launching from the coast of North Africa.

In another related development, the German NGO Sea-Watch said on Saturday that its vessel Sea-Watch 3 would return to migrant rescue operations after Malta allowed it to sail to Spain for maintenance work, having impounded it for three months.

Sea-Watch accused Malta of having acted “without any legal basis” and said more than 500 people had drowned at sea while the ship was being “illegally detained.”

More here.

For posts extending as far back as ten years, see my ‘Invasion of Europe’ file, click here.

Malta takes another 44 migrants from ship Italy refused

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

But, there is something you, Americans, need to know about Malta.

Before giving Malta ‘high-fives’ for humanitarian zeal, consider this:

The European island nation has been sending its excess migrants to the US ever since the George W. Bush administration in what is a possibly illegal maneuver by our US State Department.

Malta is a safe European country and anyone who gets there seeking asylum is their problem, not ours!

The practice of sending a few hundred to Yourtown, USA has been going on for years. Although the numbers are down under President Donald Trump, we are still taking some.

First here is the latest from the European migration crisis.

From France 24:

Malta takes migants after Italy stand-off

 

VALLETTA (AFP) –
Migrants rescued at sea by a merchant vessel are being taken to Malta after two days in limbo following Italy’s refusal to accept them, the Maltese armed forces said Wednesday.

Malta ship
So where will this group of 44 Africans be resettled?

The Just Fitz III plucked 44 migrants from a rickety wooden boat late Monday after they ran into difficulty during the perilous crossing from North Africa.

The Marshall Islands-flagged vessel, which had been headed to Tunisia, was diverted to help the migrants as they floundered some 60 nautical miles south of the Italian island of Lampedusa, in Malta’s search and rescue zone.

Valletta said those rescued at sea should be taken to the nearest safe port, on Lampedusa.

But Italy’s new and hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini, the head of the far-right League, has vowed to stop migrant arrivals.

“Following the refusal of Italy to provide for the nearest place of safety, shelter and logistical support to the ship and in view of deteriorating weather conditions affecting the area,” Malta agreed to take the migrants, the army said.

An offshore patrol vessel picked up the migrants from the Just Fitz III and was expected to disembark them on Malta late Wednesday.

More here.

The Malta to US express!

Ambitious readers might want to have a look at my Malta archive, here, which I have been building for over ten years.

See here, that even in Trump’s first full year in office we are still bringing ‘refugees’ from the safe country of Malta.  We ‘welcomed’ 128 migrants from Malta in FY18.  We are not told where they were placed in the US.

And note that there were 93 cases for the 128 migrants which tells us they were mostly single people (probably single men)!

Migrants and asylum seekers who make their way to Europe are not our problem.

We have enough problems with fake asylum seekers coming to our borders.

Surely Malta isn’t going to step up and say we will take a few of those Hondurans off your hands!  Not in a million years!

If he knew this was happening, Trump could stop the Malta to Yourtown express with a phone call.

See my ‘Invasion of Europe’ file here.

We are still taking ‘refugees’ from safe countries

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Every so often I check out the Processing Country data at the Refugee Processing Center (Wrapsnet) maintained by the US State Department.

rpclogo

More frequently I report to you about the nationalities entering the US, but processing country data is very different.

From processing country data, we learn in which countries supposed ‘refugees’ are processed in to the US, but we don’t learn where they came from before they arrived in that country.

I first became aware of this about ten years ago when I noticed that illegal aliens, who arrived by boat at the tiny island nation of Malta in the Mediterranean, were being sent to the US as refugees. (See my explanation of refugees vs. asylum here yesterday.)

What!!!  Malta is a safe country in the EU, anyone arriving there claiming to be a refugee by seeking asylum must apply there, not be packed off to the US.

I have a huge file on Malta where this legally questionable movement of mostly Africans to your towns was put in place during the administration of George W. Bush and continues through today.

We are doing the same with Israel and South Africa where migrants get in to those countries from elsewhere (seeking asylum) and we help those governments out by taking some of their excess off their hands.

Heck, we have our own problem on our southern border where illegal aliens cross by the tens of thousands and then ask for asylum.

Are we going to ask Malta, South Africa and Israel to take a few of our excess asylum seekers?  (Don’t laugh!)

Here (below) is the end of the fiscal year data table for Processing Country.  I’m posting this now because it will disappear by the beginning of November.

Again, just so you know we are not taking Maltese people, South Africans or Israelis to America, the numbers represented here are people from elsewhere who got in to those three countries and are unwanted by those three countries.

 

Screenshot (1487)_LI

Screenshot (1488)_LI

 

Notice the numbers for Papua New Guinea and Nauru.  Those are the Australian rejected asylum seekers we are taking off Australia’s hands in the same possibly illegal manner.

There are probably other questionable processing countries above, but the three I have highlighted are countries which I have followed closely over the years.

The Trump Administration could stop this possibly illegal use of the refugee admissions process in a heartbeat if they wanted to!  Congress would not have to be involved!

If you haven’t noticed, I have a link in the right hand corner of RRW for the White House contact information.  Please take time to express your opinion to the President.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees: Politics driving EU migration debate

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Duh! No kidding!

Invasion of Europe news….

UNHCR Filippo Grandi:

“Responsibility-sharing has been replaced by responsibility-shedding.”

Clever phrase by Grandi but a whole lot of average Europeans (Americans too!) are asking why it is their responsibility to save the African continent.

 

Grandi with Soros
UNHCR Grandi glad-handing with Soros! Oh happy day!   https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/12/04/israel-ready-to-deport-thousands-to-africa-un-furious/

 

From the Malta Independent:

UN refugee chief says Med migrant rescues ‘taken hostage’ by politics

 

The head of the U.N. refugee agency says returns home among the millions of Syrians living abroad are few, and insists that rescues on the Mediterranean Sea have been “taken hostage by politics” — and must be restored.

Aquarius 2
58 migrants who had been kept out at sea for days have now disembarked in a deal that will divide the group four ways.  France, Germany, Portugal and Spain will share them as Italy refused to let the Aquarius 2 dock.      https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2018/09/30/58-Aquarius-migrants-disembark-in-Malta/4651538326085/

Filippo Grandi also urged Myanmar’s government to do more to create the conditions for Rohingya Muslims to return home. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh to escape a bloody crackdown since August last year.

The wide-ranging address by Grandi at UNHCR’s annual executive committee meeting on Monday comes as the European Union has been riven by discord over how to handle an influx of migrants in recent years — though the rate has dropped off from a record high in 2015.

The new government in Italy, which has taken a stricter line on migrants, has refused to allow in some boats that retrieved desperate people who left from Libya, dropping the dilemma of whether to take them in on fellow EU countries like France and Spain.

Grandi, who is Italian, appealed to Europe to preserve its asylum policies. He noted that Libya — the main launch point for migrants hoping to cross the Mediterranean — has strengthened its coast guard in recent months, but not its other institutions.

As a result, more would-be migrants and refugees have been getting forcibly returned to Libya, and “that means more and more people exposed to exploitation and detention — in horrific conditions.”

“Responsibility-sharing has been replaced by responsibility-shedding,” Grandi said, alluding to the EU squabbles. “Pushing people away cannot be the answer, and negotiating disembarkation boat by boat, even when successful, is not a good option.”

Go here for more.

See my ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive here.

And, don’t miss Hillary cackling about killing Qaddafi and bringing down the Libyan government which allowed Libya to become the invasion gateway to Europe.