Michigan: Pakistani Hotel Owner Alleges City Picked on Him for Housing Syrian Refugees

The point you should take away from this story is that in addition to new refugees being illegally housed (newly arriving refugees are required to be placed in their own apartments or homes upon arrival, not placed in hotel rooms) is that the Michigan Lutheran refugee resettlement agency was working with the Muslim hotel owner who the city says was already in violation of fire and other safety codes. 

Formerly Lutheran Social Services of Michigan

The Lutheran resettlement agency, Samaritas, is a subcontractor to Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service I wrote about yesterday. Check out that post and see the salaries you pay!

For newcomers to RRW, there are nine federal resettlement agencies largely funded by you, the taxpayers, who work for the US State Department.

Each of those has many subcontractors.  Your money flows through the nine down to hundreds of smaller organizations (like this Michigan subcontractor) making it very confusing for concerned citizens to know who it is that is changing their communities and it makes it almost impossible to follow the money.

(See LIRS other subcontractors below.)

From Detroit Free Press:

(emphasis below is mine)

Sterling Heights hotel in dispute with city alleges anti-Muslim, anti-refugee bias

The owner of a Sterling Heights hotel who is Muslim and of Pakistani descent alleges in a lawsuit filed Monday that city officials targeted and drove him out of business because of his faith and ethnicity and because he had housed about 200 Syrian refugees.

But on the same day, a Macomb County judge ruled against the hotel in a separate lawsuit that had been filed by city against the hotel, agreeing with the city that the hotel had failed to meet safety regulations.

Asad Malik, the owner of Wyndham Garden on 15 Mile and Van Dyke and president of the Pakistani Association of America, says in a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Detroit that after he started housing Syrian refugees in 2016, the city started to slap him with citations for violations of fire codes that he said other hotels with similar problems were not receiving. The hotel closed in September.

Malik purchased the hotel in 2014. He is an active member of the Muslim community in metro Detroit as a leader with the Islamic Association of Greater Detroit in Rochester Hills and meets with elected officials who have visited the mosque over the years.

The hotel was “opening her arms to refugees escaping from their war torn country,” his attorney Shereef Akeel, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Sterling Hotels, told the Free Press. “The last thing you would think is then one of our own cites shutting the door on them. And now, my client has had to pay dearly for their act of generosity.”

The hotel started taking in Syrian refugees in November 2016 [during the big Obama flood of refugees—ed] working with Samaritas, formerly known as Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, which helps resettle refugees.

Malik said he then received an email from the Sterling Heights city manager asking him: “Are there any Syrian refugees being housed at the Wyndham? A resident is alleging such at our council meeting.”

The targeted harassment started after that….

Keep reading to learn more about the complaint.  The fallback position for a certain group of people is to cry DISCRIMINATION!

So where else is LIRS working to change America by changing the people?

This is something I need to do every time I write about a resettlement agency funded by you, in this case Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (the mothership) that passes its case loads to subcontractors like Samaritis.

Here is where you can find out if a refugee agency in your city is affiliated with LIRS.

Below is a screenshot of the full list of subcontractors.  Note how some have dropped the word “Lutheran” from their names.

Denmark Telling Syrian Refugees that it is Time to Go Home!

Human rights activists, of course, condemn such action!

Invasion of Europe News…

Remember this story from 2006 as you read about how those mean Danes want to send Syrians home!

In 2006, Syrians in Damascus torched the Danish embassy over those Mohammed cartoons.  And, yet now Danes are expected to welcome and pay for the upkeep of Syrian Muslim refugees!

Thousands of angry Syrian demonstrators storm the Danish Embassy in Damascus, Syria, on Saturday and set fire to the Embassy building in protest of offensive caricatures of Islam’s prophet. . (AP Photo Bassem Tellawi).

 

From Middle East Monitor:

Denmark may return Syria refugees as Damascus area deemed ‘safe’

(Should have blocked their entry in the first place!)

Denmark is considering sending Syrian refugees home as it deems areas under the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad in Damascus safe, Sputnik reported.

The Danish government is fast-tracking a review of residence permits for some 900 Syrian refugees from Damascus, claiming that Damascus is safe, leaving there no reason for them to warrant Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

In the announcement, Danish Integration Minister Mattias Tesfaye said that any refugees forced to return would be given travel money.

“Last year, there were almost 100,000 refugees returning to Syria from the surrounding areas. I think it is fair that the people who live here in Europe also return home if they don’t need protection,” Tesfaye added.

The announcement has come under severe criticism from human rights campaigners who point out that no area of Syria is currently safe to return to.

Some Syrian experts condemned the decision emphasising that anyone who returns is at risk, and that Denmark is setting a dangerous precedent for the treatment of Syrians by EU countries.

Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees stressed that there was no prospect for a peaceful solution to the long-standing conflict in Syria.

Elisabeth Arnsdorf Haslund

“Unless the situation in Syria is significantly improved in terms of ensuring protection for the population, UNHCR calls on states that have received Syrian refugees – including Denmark – to continue their protection,” UNHCR spokeswoman Elisabeth Arnsdorf Haslund said.

Since 2019, the Danish government has been considering that Damascus and its region are safe places and says the refugees must return there.

Last December, Denmark became the first country to deny a Syrian asylum seeker on the basis that the country is safe,despite continued killings of civilians due to air strikes.

Go here for my ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive.

Bad News for Europe: Turkey Will No Longer Stop Migrants from Crossing into Greece

Invasion of Europe news….

If Europe doesn’t have it bad enough already, it looks like a new wave of migrants from Syria is on the way to the west.  And, they aren’t all Syrians!

In 2016 the Turkish government, in a deal with the EU, agreed to not permit border crossings into Europe, but it looks like that agreement is now out the window.

At a time when the whole world is focused on the movement of sick people, here is an example of how vulnerable every country that doesn’t seal its borders is to the transmission of deadly pathogens.

From Deutsche Welle:

Turkey will not stop refugees ‘who want to go to Europe’

No caption to indicate where or when the photo was taken but note the two on the left in face masks.

 

Hundreds of Europe-bound migrants have begun heading to northwest Turkey towards Bulgaria and Greece. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party said the refugees began their journey after a Syrian attack in Idlib.

Turkey is “no longer able to hold refugees” following a Syrian attack that killed 33 troops in Idlib, Omer Celik, a spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AKP party, said on Friday.

The announcement comes as some 300 migrants walk through northwest Turkey towards its borders with Greece and Bulgaria on Friday, according to DHA news agency.

“As a result of the attack, the (refugees) in Turkey are heading towards Europe, and those on Syrian territory are heading towards Turkey,” Celik told CNN Türk shortly after midnight Friday morning. “Our refugee policy is the same as before, but we are now in a situation where we can no longer hold them.”

Demiroren news agency said the group of migrants, including women and children, embarked on their journey from Turkey’s Edirne province toward borders with Bulgaria and Greece — two European Union nations — at around midnight. Syrians, Iranians, Iraqis, Pakistanis and Moroccans were among those in the group.

[….]

According to EU figures, Greece saw more than 60,000 asylum seekers arrive from Turkey on the shores of its Aegean islands in 2019, and it expects more than 100,000 more in 2020.

More here.

See my Invasion of Europe archive where I’ve been filing stories for a decade on the topic.

***Update***

Don’t miss my follow-up post this morning:

Middle East Migration: Could it Hasten the Spread of Covid-19?

 

Note to PayPal donors!  I want to thank all of you who send me donations for my work via PayPal. I very much appreciate your thoughtfulness. However, PayPal is making changes to their terms of service and I’ve decided to opt out beginning on March 10, 2020.

Syrian Refugee Shot/Killed by Thug in “Safe” Baltimore

It was only a matter of time.

Crime-ridden Baltimore is for some strange reason a desirable resettlement location for the do-gooder refugee resettlement contractors.

Message to the ‘humanitarians:’  Diversity does not bring strength to rotting American cities!

See many previous posts on Baltimore here.  Baltimore mayors, Dems of course, have been yammering for years that they need more immigrants!

Here is one post in particular about the filthy rich International Rescue Committee touting Baltimore as a safe city for Syrian refugees.

And, see the one about how much diversity was poured into Baltimore and how angry blacks when rioting directed gangs to target Asian and Arab shops.

From the Baltimore Sun:

Police have posted a video of the man they believe is responsible for the killing. You can see it all in the Baltimore Sun article.

He fled Syria for Baltimore, finding friends and a job in his new home. Someone gunned him down as he delivered pizza.

Khaled Heeba fled the most dangerous place on earth in 2016, escaping Syria’s civil war with his parents to come to the United States for a better life. He settled in Baltimore.

He went to work delivering pizzas full time to help support himself and his parents, his co-workers and a family friend said.

Heeba’s American journey ended less than two weeks ago when someone gunned him down in broad daylight in Harlem Park — less than five minutes from the pizza shop where he’d worked since he got to Baltimore. The 31-year-old man was found in the 1300 block of W. Franklin St. around 1:15 p.m. Feb. 7 suffering from gunshot wounds to the chest. He died after being transported to a nearby hospital, police said.

Continue reading.

Denmark Paying Syrian Refugees to Go Home (But They Can Come Back!)

Invasion of Europe news….

It strikes me that there is a major fly in the expensive ointment!  They can return to Denmark if they find they can’t hack it back home.

I sure hope there is a provision that says they must repay the taxpayers of Denmark the money they received to leave should they choose to go back to Denmark.

Syrians protest Denmark’s government earlier this year. Well-trained protesters: Moms, children and English language signs.   https://syriadirect.org/news/%E2%80%98my-life-is-here%E2%80%99-syrian-refugees-in-denmark-at-risk-of-asylum-denials-future-returns-under-new-danish-policy/

 

From The Local:

Denmark pays 71 Syrians to leave country

71 Syrians have been paid since May 1st this year by the Danish state to leave the country and return home, figures from the Danish Refugee Council show.

Each left the country with at least 140,000 kroner paid to them by the Danish state through an incentive scheme introduced under the previous government.

That is about $15,000 US dollars!

None had left the country under the scheme prior to May 1st.

New rules took effect this year, meaning that Syrian refugees who live in Denmark do not immediately lose their right to residence if they return home.

They now have up to a year in which they can change their minds about the decision. The addition of this clause has encouraged people to take up the option, according to the Danish Refugee Council (DRC).

[….]

“Many people simply feel that it is too difficult to enter the jobs market and get established in Denmark,” the council’s head of asylum Eva Singer told Kristeligt Dagblad.

“The money makes a difference to their considerations but also means thay can change their minds if Syria turns out to be too dangerous,” Singer added.

Syrians are not the only nationality encompassed by the incentive programme.

During the first ten months of this year, 438 refugees and migrants left Denmark with such a payment from the state.

The Ministry of Immigration and Integration told Kristeligt Dagblad that it expects to spend 102 million kroner this year paying refugees to return home.

More here.

I once suggested we consider such a payment plan for certain migrants to America, but many of my readers screamed bloody murder and suggested we simply deport them!

Of course the obvious flaw in Denmark’s plan is the escape clause which allows them to return to Denmark within the year if they don’t like it at home.

I have an extensive ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive going back at least ten years, but alas have not added to it lately, not because there isn’t enough news (the invasion continues), but for lack of time.