Lucky Europe! Louseborne Relapsing Fever among East African Refugees, Italy, 2015

11/11/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That is the title of an article at the Centers for Disease Control which reminds us that it isn’t just the Islamic terrorists that Europe has to worry about, but diseases that had long been eradicated in advanced western countries. Lucky taxpayers too!

More ‘Invasion of Europe’ news……
From the CDC:

During June 9–September 30, 2015, five cases of louseborne relapsing fever were identified in Turin, Italy. All 5 cases were in young refugees from Somalia, 2 of whom had lived in Italy since 2011. Our report seems to confirm the possibility of local transmission of louse-borne relapsing fever.

Louseborne relapsing fever (LRF) was once widely distributed in all geographic areas, including Europe and North America, occurring in association with poverty and overcrowding. In Europe, it virtually disappeared after World War I in parallel with improved living conditions that led to substantially decreased body lice infestations in humans (1). Currently, LRF is reported mostly from Ethiopia and surrounding countries, where it is endemic (2): in this region, it is an extremely common infection with substantial mortality. The causative agent is the spirochete bacterium Borrelia recurrentis. In nature, the only relevant vector is the body louse, which feeds only on humans; no other reservoir for this infection is known (1,3). The incubation period is 3–12 days. We report 5 cases of LRF in refugees to Italy from East Africa that occurred during 2015.

[….]

Italy has recently received large numbers of refugees from East Africa, particularly from Somalia. These refugees come from and travel through countries where B. recurrentis is endemic; along the way, they are often sheltered in crowded conditions with very poor hygienic facilities. Two of the patients reported here indicated that, while staying in Libya, they were held with many other persons in a close environment, and all refugees housed together reported severe itching.

Many of these refugees enter Italy through Sicily, from where they are sent to reception centers throughout the country. Some of these reception centers have grown to substantial size and now house a more stable population, with continuous input of new arrivals. In these conditions, local transmission can occur with a possible risk for epidemics: 2 of the 5 patients reported here were long-term residents in Italy, and they denied recent travel to Africa, so they probably acquired the infection while being housed in the same facilities as the newly arrived refugees. Although it is possible that they denied recent travel for fear of legal consequences, they are unlikely to have had the opportunity to travel out of Europe for economic reasons.

More here.
For future reference this post is filed in our ‘Health issues’ category, here (285 previous posts), as well as in our ‘Invasion of Europe’ archives, here.

Did your state get Somalis in October? Minnesota number one destination!

10/31/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That Minnesota is the state receiving the most Somalis is no surprise as the US State Department and its contractors work to help create the new Somalia in Minnesota.
Since I was checking numbers this morning, see Syrian refugees in previous post, I thought I might check Somalis too. (Of course all Somalis are Muslims, or almost all of them.)

595 in the month of October were distributed around the US.

Go here to see how many Somalis we have admitted since the mid 1980s and ask why the heck are we still bringing them in here?
And, go here to see where I’m getting this data.

Here are the top ten states for Somali resettlement for the first month of FY2016 (some numbers aren’t clear on the map):

Minnesota (80)

Arizona (73)

New York (51)

Texas (47)

Ohio (42)

Massachusetts (31)

Pennsylvania (29)

Kentucky (27)

Missouri (25)

Washington (23)

Minnesota pay attention!

Then I decided to check where they went in Minnesota in the last 4 weeks and the numbers surprised me (I think it will surprise Minnesotans more!). It was only two weeks ago that Minnesota Governor Dayton caused a stir when he said if you don’t like the Somali migration to Minnesota, find another state in which to live! BTW, infidel Dayton won’t have a political future in the state once the Muslim population reaches a certain level.
Of the 80 who were placed in Minnesota in the last 4 weeks, here (below) is where they went. If 80 (or so) continue to be resettled in MN this year (FY2016), the state will see another nearly 1,000 needy Somalis arrive from Africa and elsewhere in the world (in addition to 1,000-2,000 secondary Somali migrants from other parts of the US that regularly arrive in MN as part of the colonization of the state).

Mankato (1)

Marshall (4)

Minneapolis (33)

Richfield (1)

Rochester (1)

Saint Cloud (32)

St. Paul (1)

Willmar (7)

Meanwhile the UNHCR is returning Somalis to Somalia from camps in Kenya, so why do we still have to bring them here?

DNA testing required in wake of widespread Somali family reunification fraud

10/21/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In an otherwise whining piece about how the feds are too slow to admit family members of refugees, at least this Frontline ‘news’ story admits that thousands of Somalis entered the US fraudulently resulting in a 4-year closure (in 2008) of the so-called P-3 family reunification program of the US State Department.

Dadaab-refugee-camp-007 — Somali refugees in Dadaab, a massive UN camp in Kenya. Truth be told, there is no way to thoroughly screen the refugees we accept from the UN any better here, than those we are accepting from UN camps in the Middle East. Photo: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/sep/12/somalia-kenya-murder

You should read the whole long article, but here (below) is the segment on Somali fraud (btw, none of those who got in here by lying were ever deported).
For our thousands of new readers: We covered the discovery and aftermath extensively, here. The fraud was originally reported at the Wall Street Journal in August of 2008.
The nine major federal resettlement contractors fought tooth and nail to keep the State Department from requiring DNA testing.
Frontline on DNA testing:

Even if those restrictions are loosened, refugees applying for family reunification will face another hurdle to clear: DNA testing.

The inspiration for this requirement was born in East Africa, where more than 1 million Somalians have been displaced from their country by civil war and famine. In the mid-2000s, the U.S. was providing refuge to about 10,000 Somalians a year*** — many of whom went on to apply to the family reunification program to bring over relatives.

Immigration officials suspected that some were inventing “ghost children,” and filling out applications for children not related to them. There had even been some reports of brokers who sold the ghost children’s slots for profit, according to a U.S. Department of State official who spoke to FRONTLINE but asked not to be named.

So in early 2008, the State Department launched a pilot program to determine the extent of fraud by testing relationships using DNA.

In the initial pilot of 476 applicants in Nairobi, Kenya, only 16 percent were genetically related to every person they said was in their family. Another 39 percent tested false for at least one family member. In the remaining 45 percent of cases, applicants either refused to participate or didn’t show up for the test.

Officials interpreted these results as proof of widespread fraud. The P-3 program was suspended, and did not reopen for more than four years.

This stunned refugees around the world, many of whom had spent years waiting for P-3 applications to be approved. Most were told to apply for an alternate visa, but it was even more restrictive than P-3 and soon had a multi-year waiting list.

There is much more, read on.
*** We admitted 8,858 this past fiscal year, (9,000 the year before that!):

As the UNHCR is sending Somalis back to Somalia from its Kenyan camps we admitted 8,858 Somalis to the US in FY2015, here (many from the Kenyan camps!). Somalis are the third largest ethnic group admitted to the US this past year.

Go here to see how many Somalis entered the US through the Refugee Admissions Program since its inception. Notice some of the biggest years are in the George W. Bush Administration.

Why are we still admitting Somali refugees after three decades?

Seattle has a commission on refugees and immigrants, November meeting coming up

10/16/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A reader has brought to my attention that there are opportunities for concerned citizens to attend meetings where you can learn more about what is going on where you live and who the principle players are (who are the people in your community calling the shots).
No rent hikes! What do you think? Are they getting community organizing training somewhere? You betcha!

See our post last year where Somali community organizers protested an effort by the Seattle housing authority to free up some public housing for 9,000 on a waiting list. The housing authority failed. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2014/12/19/seattle-housing-crisis-pay-attention-refugee-welcoming-cities/

In Seattle there is the Immigrant and Refugee Commission. Here is the meeting schedule for the two remaining meetings this year. Surely they will be discussing how many Syrians will be seeded in Seattle.
In the last few days we reported on opportunities here in Orlando, FL (one of our readers attended! thank you!) and here in Minneapolis, MN to attend PUBLIC meetings to learn more about what is happening where you live. To be effective in standing up for your community, you need to understand how refugee resettlement works and who the players are where you live.

Maine: African refugees charged in brutal murder

08/15/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Except apparently it was so brutal that the case (and the autopsy) has been sealed from the media for at least a week! Or, why else would it have been sealed?

Diversity is strength alert!

The story is here at World Net Daily:

Authorities in Portland, Maine, have arrested three Somali-American men in connection with the brutal killing of a man inside his apartment, then moved quickly to seal the case from public view.

Police arrested Abil Teshome, 23, Mohamud Mohamed, 36, and Osman Sheikh, 31, on Thursday. All three are charged with the murder of 49-year-old health-care worker Freddy Akoa.

Mohamed-Mohamud — Mohamed Mohamud, one of three suspects charged in the killing of Freddy Akoa in Portland, Maine. Credit/Portland Press Herald http://www.pressherald.com/2015/08/14/three-men-charged-in-cumberland-avenue-murder-ordered-held-without-bail/

Police have provided almost no information on the killing, not the cause of death, not the type of weapon used, nor any possible motive for the killing. They even refused to release prison mugshots of the suspects. The Associated Press and local TV stations failed to identify the three suspects by their country of origin or race.

[….]

The killing “wasn’t random in nature,” said Police Chief Michael Sauschuck, indicating the alleged killers knew their victim.

The U.S. State Department, in cooperation with the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, has sent 1,379 Somali refugees to Maine since 2002, with 1,010 of them going to Portland, according to the State Department’s refugee database. Records prior to 2002 are not kept online, but the U.N. has been sending Somali refugees to the United States since the early 1990s with the full support of the U.S. Congress, despite the fact that hundreds of them have turned out to be jihadists or criminals.

There is much much more from reporter Leo Hohmann who tells us about how the case is sealed for at least a week from media review.
By the way, my first thought, when I saw the original news yesterday, was that the case involved rival gangs fighting over drugs, but the victim, Freddy Akoa, another immigrant (most likely a Christian, but we don’t know that yet), was by all accounts a successful middle-aged man (with a loving family) working in the health care industry.
Readers often want to know how we know if someone got into the US as a refugee. For some ethnic groups we don’t know, but virtually all of the Somalis in the US and those in Maine are here as refugees or the children of refugees. Some may have come illegally, but the Refugee Admissions Program of the UN/US State Department is responsible for the vast majority of Somalis in your towns and cities. By the way, the accused have not been publicly identified as Somalis yet, but the names of at least two of them are common Somali names.
Hohmann also reports on the bill introduced recently by Rep. Brian Babin of Texas which seeks to suspend the refugee program until questions about the cost and impact on national security have been examined.
Continue reading here.

Maine the welfare state!

We have written a lot about how Somalis got to Maine with the help of Catholic Charities, the primary resettlement agency in the state. Here is a post from 2009 about how Somalis were attracted to Maine welfare. For years that post was one of our top most-read posts.
The primary resettlement agency in Maine is Catholic Charities. However, we don’t know if the accused arrived in Maine with the help of a resettlement contractor or were secondary migrants who were resettled somewhere else in America and then moved to Maine to live in one of the Somali enclaves there—in Portland or Lewiston.
Learn about one of the leading figures in Portland promoting more African resettlement for Maine, here.
See our very extensive archive on Maine by clicking here. There are more murder and crime stories in the archive.
In addition to refugee resettlement, Maine has become a desired state for asylum seekers to head to as it is one of the few states that gives welfare to those seeking asylum who have not yet been granted permission to stay.