Sri Lankan illegal alien poster boys for critics of US asylum system

Judy Rabinovitz, the men’s ACLU attorney, is concerned for the US taxpayer! Sure she is!

This story makes my blood boil, but not in the way the New York Times hopes it will.  Five Tamils (Sri Lankans, are they Tamil Tigers?) paid smugglers $55,000  each to get them to the US where they planned to apply for asylum.  Instead they were caught, placed in detention where they languish supposedly because we have a screwed- up asylum system.

First question of course is where did poor struggling ‘refugee’ fishermen get $55,000 each?  And, since we learned they traveled through Dubai, Moscow, Cuba and Haiti why didn’t they ask for asylum at their first stop, second stop, third stop?  Legitimate asylum seekers are to ask for asylum in the first safe country in which they land!   (Amazing that the reporter seems not at all interested in answers to these two important questions!)

Readers, this is not the first time we have read about the Moscow to Cuba route for illegal alien smugglers to get people to America!  And, it is just assumed in every report I have read that it is aok just to work one’s way across the world with the US as the target destination.  Some of them go from Cuba to Mexico and then across our land border.

Here is some of the story, but read all of it!  From the New York Times via NDTV (hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’):

New York:  Five Sri Lankan men left hometowns reeling from the remnants of a ruthless civil war and embarked on a months-long human-smuggling journey that spanned seven countries.

They each paid $55,000 for a ride by air and sea to a fresh chance in the Americas. They were captured within hours of their arrival in South Florida and served as witnesses for the FBI in the investigation of their smugglers, cooperation that the men were led to believe would work in their favour as their cases made their way through immigration courts.

Three years later, they are still waiting for their cases to be resolved.

Captured in Florida:

The fisherman said that in Sri Lanka he was being extorted for money, received telephone death threats and was forced to quit his job with an opposition party. After contacting a wealthy smuggler known as Mohan, he left his wife and toddler and fled on a five-leg flight: Sri Lanka to Dubai to Moscow to Cuba to Haiti.

In Haiti, he met Mohan, and the other Tamil immigrants who would become his companions in a years-long court battle. They left Haiti for the Bahamas, then embarked for Florida on Dec. 5, 2010.

They were brought to a safe house, another Sri Lankan in the group, whose first initial is R., said in an interview at the Krome Service Processing Center, an immigration jail in Miami at the edge of the Everglades. He said they were given a warm meal, a hot bath, and an extortion demand for an additional $6,000 from each of them.

A few hours later, the FBI woke the men from their slumber.

Boo hoo!  They got the wrong immigration judge:

The men applied for political asylum, each with a personal story of the persecution they suffered as Tamils.   [likely a made-up story prepared before leaving home—ed]

Had their cases been heard one county south, said Ferreyra, the former federal prosecutor, their asylum claims would more likely have been accepted.

Are US immigration lawyers at the ACLU keeping them here for their own selfish reasons—as poster boys for their media/political goals?

“This just all shows how irrational and unjust the correctional immigration system is,” said Judy Rabinovitz, a lawyer for the men and the deputy director of the ACLU’s immigrant rights project. “How much have U.S. taxpayers paid to keep these people locked up?”

The men are torn between their lawyers’ insistence on fighting for asylum and their desire to go home, even if to a dangerous and uncertain future.

I agree with Rabinovitz on one thing—don’t keep them locked up at taxpayer expense!   Deport them sooner than later!

In the past we have written a good bit about Sri Lankans breaking into Canada, check out some of those posts here.

Arab country doesn’t take refugees, so we take them off their hands

Sri Lankans who arrived illegally in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have arrived in Los Angeles!

Sri Lankan refugees, bags packed and  headed your way!

 

This is a similar pattern to the “Malta Doctrine”*** the Bush Administration created some years ago.  Illegal aliens arrive in some country seeking asylum and we go in and scoop them up to add to our “refugee” population.  Readers, international law says that “asylum seekers” must ask for asylum in the first safe country in which they arrive—that country is not meant to be a transit stop on the way to America.

The UAE’s migrant population is NOT our problem!  The fact that many ARAB countries do not take refugees is not our problem!

Gang of Eight bill will codify what the State Department is already doing!

Before I get to the news, let me say here that one of many problems, and a very significant one, in the Gang of Eight’s “comprehensive” immigration reform (S.744) is this line (I highlighted it on Wednesday):

a. Section 3403 – expands the President’s authority to designate “specifically defined groups of aliens” for resettlement based on either humanitarian reasons or because it “is otherwise in the national interest.”

The first part of that change means that whole groups of people could be deemed refugees just because they belong to a certain class (presently they must prove they personally are persecuted), and it is going to surely open the flood gates even wider.  Asylum seekers only need to say: I’m Iraqi, I’m Somali, I’m gay, therefore I am persecuted.

But, it’s the second part that I’m focusing on here this morning, and it is troubling because we are already doing it!  Illegally!  We have been using the refugee program to ‘help out’ other countries for some other purpose.  Can you say Uzbek airlift? (where we airlifted political dissidents/so-called refugees who had been troubling the President of Uzbekistan to the US at the time Bush wanted access to Afghanistan through Uzbekistan).

S.744 would codify what the State Department has already been doing on the sly.  What the hell is “in the national interest?”

Are we trying to curry favor with the government of the UAE by taking their illegal alien Sri Lankans off their hands?  Is it in our “national interest” to do so?  Hmmmm?

From The National (more people in need of welfare on their way to LA!) Hat tip to Joanne:

DUBAI // Eleven Sri Lankan refugees have arrived in Los Angeles  to begin their new lives after receiving care in the UAE for six months.

[….]

“We can now lead a life without fear and don’t have to live as refugees any more,” said Sivabalan Niranjani, 35, of the harrowing journey that ended when she landed in Dubai. She arrived in the US with her husband and two children yesterday.

Mrs Niranjani was seven months pregnant when she and 44 others set sail from India by boat last October to seek asylum in Australia.

Five days later their boat broke down and they had to be rescued by the Singaporean ship Pinnacle Bliss, which was en route to Jebel Ali.

[….]

When the group arrived in Dubai on October 23, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) notified the UAE of their presence.

Although the Emirates is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and not legally obliged to allow refugees to stay, they were allowed to disembark and the UN agency was granted access to determine the legitimacy of their claims for asylum.

While waiting for asylum, Mrs Niranjani gave birth to a girl in December at Dubai’s Latifa Hospital.

[….]

Babar Baloch, a spokesman for UNHCR, said the refugees’ departure was arranged by the International Organisation for Migration.

“Authorities in the US will handle refugees that have been accepted for resettlement,” Mr Baloch said.

Of the 46 who arrived in Dubai, including Mrs Naranjani’s baby, seven were sent back by the UN as they were deemed not to be in need of international protection.  [Some were not legitimate refugees!—ed]

Eight were sent to Sweden and one went to the US earlier. After another 11 left for the US yesterday, 19 are left in the UAE to continue their wait.

Asylum shopping:

Kulasegaram Geetharthanan, a lawyer with Jein Solicitors in the UK, has submitted asylum applications to several consulates in Dubai on their behalf – including Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Germany, Austria, Ireland and the UK.

I guess he can take Switzerland off his list!  But, we hear Ireland is very welcoming!  BTW, Tamils are mostly Hindu, with about 5% Muslim population, however, the Tamil Tigers are infamous for having invented the suicide belt.

For more on Sri Lankan “refugees,” just type ‘Sri Lankan’ into our search function and see the problems both Australia and Canada are having with them arriving in boats.

*** I call it the Malta Doctrine because back in 2007 or 2008, Bush’s Ambassador to Malta set a precedent by turning “asylum seekers” (really economic migrants arriving on Malta’s coast illegally from North Africa) into refugees to be resettled in the US.  Type ‘Malta’ into our search function and you will see in dozens of posts how this really illegal process has evolved turning Malta into a magnet for even more illegal migration.  That is why it is so important for the refugee industry advocates to get that line into the new Gang of Eight bill—the President can deem someone or some group as being in the “national interest” to bring to America.

New Zealand an asylum magnet now; Amnesty International takes opportunity to tighten screws

Sri Lankan young male migrants aboard boat flying the flag of New Zealand: Let us in! Photo / Perth Sunday Times

The news from New Zealand this week is that a boatload of illegal aliens was found off the coast of Australia and its Sri Lankan “asylum seekers” on board held up a sign saying they wanted to go to New Zealand.  Now the new controversial agreement between the two countries will be tested (see our February post).

The Refugee Council of New Zealand says the policy will make New Zealand a magnet.  Kinda like Malta (or America for that matter) is a magnet (when a country doesn’t immediately send them back, it becomes a magnet).    Here is the story from The New Zealand Herald:

The arrival in Australia of a fishing boat, overcrowded with suspected asylum seekers appearing to have been headed for New Zealand, is the result of a deal formed between the two countries, says a refugee expert.

New Zealand has become “a magnet” for asylum seekers since an agreement was formed between the two countries earlier this year, said Refugee Council of New Zealand spokesman Gary Poole, who was critical of the agreement.

The boat believed to have travelled from Sri Lanka with 66 passengers holding a sign saying “We want to go to New Zealand” was spotted off the coast of Geraldton, about 400km north of Perth in Western Australia yesterday.

In February, Prime Minister John Key and his Australian counterpart Julia Gillard announced a deal in which New Zealand would accept 150 Australian-approved refugees each year.

It was at no extra cost to New Zealand, because the 150 will come out of New Zealand’s existing annual 750 refugee quota and would give access to Australian intelligence and other resources to disrupt and intercept people-smuggling, Mr Key said at the time.

However, Mr Poole said the arrival of the boat in Australia reflected Mr Key’s “bad decision” to enter the agreement, which he said was attracting more asylum seekers to this part of the world. [This Poole fellow sounds pretty sensible for someone in the refugee business—ed]

“This is precisely what we predicted. Unfortunately what our Government has done is they’ve actually fed into the whole problem in Australia.”

No boat has ever made it to New Zealand and it was unlikely to because of “treacherous” conditions in the Tasman Sea.

“But what it’s done, it’s now acting as a magnet, the particular policy, because he’s now accepting 150 out of their camps. We’ve become part of Australia’s problem,” said Mr Poole.

New Zealand only takes 750 “refugees” a year, and has said that 150 they will take from Australia is included in the 750.  Did you notice that the Rohingya in my previous post have their sites set on New Zealand?  The word spreads fast among the asylum-seeker enablers and coaches (the NGOs!).

Frankly, there is no end to this—once a Western country becomes “welcoming” the word is out and one day the illegal migrants trying to escape the hell-holes of their own countries (often Muslim ones!) will sink Western civilization.

Amnesty International New Zealand, taking advantage of the situation with the boatload of migrants from Sri Lanka, says New Zealand must take more!

Up until now New Zealand has capped its generosity at 750 refugees, but that won’t last for long because we also see this week that Amnesty International is tightening the screws on them.

Here is the report from News 3 New Zealand.  LOL!  How do you like that barbed wire photo to illustrate the story? Let the bullying for more refugees begin:

Amnesty International says New Zealand needs to up the number of asylum seekers it takes in each year, following the arrival of a boatload of Sri Lankans in Western Australia.

[….]

New Zealand’s annual refugee quota is 750, which from next year includes up to 150 who arrive in Australia by boat. Mr Bayldon (Amnesty New Zealand) says this is “tiny” compared to Australia’s 20,000, and New Zealand should be taking in more.

For new readers:  We don’t have a category on New Zealand (yet), but you can find a catalog of Australia’s problems with illegal immigration, here, in our Australia category (95 posts).

Ahhhh! Australia housing asylum seekers on college campuses, students didn’t know….

….until a female student was allegedly assaulted when a Sri Lankan young man entered her dorm room in the middle of the night.

There are lots of news stories from Sydney about the incident that at first was not blamed on one of the illegal alien boat people Australia is swamped with.

Here is an early account from ABC Australia on the 26th of February:

Macquarie University where asylum seekers were being housed while their asylum claims were being processed. Photo credit: ABC

There are claims security guards at a university accommodation campus failed to call police after a 20-year-old female was allegedly sexually assaulted last week.

Triple j’s Hack can also reveal that students are concerned the alleged perpetrator was an asylum seeker who was living at the accommodation, but that is yet to be proven.

The alleged attack happened at a Macquarie University student accommodation centre in Sydney.

[…..]

It is only since this incident that hundreds of residents at the village learned there were 80 asylum seekers living among them.

This was an arrangement struck between the Red Cross and Campus Living Villages, the company running the Macquarie Student Village.

Students at the village say they believe most of the asylum seekers are Sri Lankan men.

No-one connected to this incident has confirmed the alleged perpetrator was one of the asylum seekers but the alleged victim and lots of campus residents are suspicious.

Yup!  An asylum seeker was arrested and demands soon followed that the program of granting “bridging visas” be halted.

From the Newcastle Herald on February 27th:

Coalition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison has called for an immediate freeze on the provision of bridging visas for asylum seekers, after it was revealed a man released into the community on a bridging visa had been charged with indecent assault.

Mr Morrison said that a review was needed into the guidelines for how boat arrivals were released into the community.

He said that such a review must detail a “requirement” to notify police and neighbouring residents about people on bridging visas or community detention in their area and the establishment of “behaviour protocols … with clear negative sanctions for breaches of such protocols”.

Mr Morrison also called on Labor to suspend the further release of boat arrivals into the community on bridging visas and community detention, “in all other than exceptional circumstances”, while the review was under way.

He said the freeze should not be lifted until Immigration Minister Brendan O’Connor and his department could give the community a “clear guarantee” that there were safeguards in place.

His comments come in the wake of the arrest of a 21-year-old Sri Lankan asylum seeker, charged with indecently assaulting a student at Macquarie University last week.

Then here is the latest—this is fast—from The Australian on February 28th (LOL! tomorrow):  Contract dumped!

A PRIVATE company that billeted dozens of asylum-seekers in student accommodation at two Sydney universities has terminated its contract with the Red Cross in the wake of an alleged sexual assault on a female student.

Campus Living Villages, a wholly owned subsidiary of infrastructure giant Transfield Holdings, had been providing temporary accommodation for the refugees on campus at Macquarie University and the University of Western Sydney.

This is crazy, I wonder whose bright idea it was to put young illegal alien men on college campuses?

And, by the way, I have other news about Sri Lankan boat people in an update from Canada—some are Tamil Tigers—tomorrow.

An afterthought:  This is our 92nd post on Australia’s immigration/refugee problems, check it out here.