As World Refugee Day approaches on June 20th, expect to see more stories like this one about the plight of a growing number of refugees (they are always growing, so nothing new there!) whose movement is blocked not by racist border restrictions, but by the Chinese Virus that has closed borders since late March.
On March 22nd the United Nations, with its branch called the International Organization for Migration that facilitates refugee travel, shut down almost all refugee movement.
Indeed it had to because 150 countries have closed their borders completely or have strict requirements for movement across them.
I had been wondering if the UN is restarting the flow, but apparently not.
The story atStuffis mostly about New Zealand that had just begun in earnest to ‘welcome’ the third world when COVID began its deadly spread.
But, here are a couple of bits that interested me besides learning that the UN continues to be responsible for the moratorium, not Donald Trump as I see most days in the US media.
Scores of refugees in limbo as quota system in holding pattern due to Covid-19
As we approach World Refugee Day on June 20 we have the highest number of refugees worldwide than ever before.
According to the latest UNHCR figures, there are 70.8 million forcibly displaced people, including more than 41 million internally displaced people and 25 million refugees.
Only 1 per cent of those 25 million refugees are resettled. That number is now at zero because of Covid-19.
More than 150 countries have closed their borders or put in border restrictions.
The vast majority of them have no exceptions for people claiming asylum.
They have no exceptions for refugees who need to flee their countries because of persecution, human rights abuses or war to be able to bypass border restrictions connected to Covid-19.
Flow of money is stopping too!
Rarely do we hear about the amount of money that refugees and migrants send HOME from the country where they have migrated to—money lost to the host country’s economy.
Migrant workers would not able to send money home to support their families and communities in their countries. The economic impact on those migrant workers and the decline in their livelihoods is going to have a massive impact on remittances, he adds.
“Latest figures are that remittances will go down $100 billion globally.”
Hope all of you are doing well and taking this time to appreciate home and family during this challenging period.
I’ve been monitoring stories from around the world as alarm bells are being rung about a catastrophe (“carnage” seems to be the operative word) that has not yet materialized that refugees housed in crowded camps will be consumed with the virus and that someone (government?) has to do something. Of course, what governments might do is not clear.
I told readers here that NGOs that should be expected to help are concerned with protecting their staff.
As epidemic menaces refugee camps, the Middle East’s most vulnerable face a deepening nightmare
Many paragraphs in we learn this:
Egeland of the Norwegian Refugee Council is ringing alarm bells, but what is any country supposed to do. In his case, Norway is closed as cases rapidly mount there. https://www.lifeinnorway.net/coronavirus-in-norway/
“When the virus hits overcrowded settlements in places like Iran, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Greece, the consequences will be devastating,” Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said this week. “There will also be carnage when the virus reaches parts of Syria, Yemen and Venezuela, where hospitals have been demolished and health systems have collapsed.”
Health experts hope that the relatively young average age of the displaced will help keep the death rate low. (In some centers, more than 60 percent are children.) And for now, no camp outbreaks have been reported. In some cases, the camps’ very isolation may be slowing the appearance of the virus within their fences and walls.
Access to Gaza, for example, is tightly controlled by Israel, which has largely sealed the enclave’s crossings to Israel and Egypt. Aid workers there are using the time to prepare for what they view as the virus’s inevitable arrival. [So can we say for a change that Israel is doing something good by sealing borders?—ed]
At NBCon Thursday, the answer is supposedly that governments should be testing in the camps. Heck, governments are having enough trouble testing their own citizens.
Coronavirus could cause ‘carnage’ among the world’s refugees, aid groups say
WASHINGTON — The coronavirus outbreak threatens to inflict “carnage” on refugees around the world who often live in cramped conditions, lack access to clean water and are in countries with failing or stretched medical systems, humanitarian aid groups say.
Muhammad Zaman, a professor of bioengineering at Boston University wants testing in camps. That would be the UN’s job right?
From Syria to Bangladesh to Uganda, the risk posed to people who have fled war and persecution is potentially dire, and only urgent international action can avert a catastrophe, aid organizations told NBC News.
As of Tuesday, only 10 cases had been reported among refugees and displaced persons, and all of those were patients in Germany, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
But in the absence of extensive testing at refugee camps in the Middle East, Africa or Asia, it’s unclear whether the fast-moving virus has already reached them, medical experts and humanitarian workers said.
“We don’t know, and that’s largely because we haven’t done any testing,” said Muhammad Zaman, a professor of bioengineering at Boston University. “We need to know how acute the problem is before we come up with an intervention.”
I see this morning that the flow into the US has stopped for the regular refugee program, but am waiting to see data indicating we have shut off the Iraqi and Afghanistan special visa spigot as well.
You would never know that if all you ever read is the mainstream media eager to show that Donald Trump’s America is mean while other western countries are ‘welcoming.’
U.S. Was the Number-One Refugee Resettlement Country in the World in 2019
And most likely will be in 2020, as well
New data released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on its 2019 resettlement activities shows that the United States remains the top country for refugee resettlement. Furthermore, just like in previous years, the vast majority of refugees referred by UNHCR for resettlement in third countries in 2019 were not the most vulnerable or in urgent need of relocation. This contradicts the UN refugee agency’s constant claims that resettlement is a “life-saving tool”, a “critical lifeline” for refugees that needs strengthening. This also casts some doubt on UNHCR referral processes.
[….]
The statistical snapshot provided by UNHCR on its 2019 resettlement activities (figures are for the calendar year) has the United States as the top resettlement submission and destination country in 2019 (as it was in 2017 and 2018 under the Trump administration, see here and here):
Now see below which countries actually took in fewer by larger margins than the US.
I chose the data for the Top 25 US cities ‘welcoming’ 100 or more refugees each year between 2015 and 2019. The maps are interactive so when you visit you can click on the city and learn more details.
That smashed together location in Georgia is Atlanta and Clarkston. Clarkston is the number one city in the country on a per capita basis.
Since it is such a muddle there in the Northeast, here is a blow-up of that section of the map:
You might want to go visit and see if your city is in the Top 100.
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My first thought when I saw this news was, everywhere we are told by the likes of Michael Bloomberg’s New American Economy that refugees are working and bringing economic boom times to dying cities, so why do they need more taxpayer dollars?
And, my second thought was, why can’t a bunch of entertainers like Stiller pool their excess cash and donate the $5 million. Why should the hardworking families of NY state, scrimping and saving for their kids’ college educations, have to pay anything for refugees?
Oh, but it isn’t really for the refugees, it is to keep the phony-baloney non-profit groups afloat.
Actor Ben Stiller joins advocates urging aid for New York refugees
ALBANY — Actor Ben Stiller’s latest role is no laughing matter.
The “Zoolander” star joined lawmakers and advocates Tuesday in the capital in calling for more money for a state-funded refugee program.
Stiller is an ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. How many refugees has he welcomed to his home?
“New York has a great history of doing this,” Stiller said. “These programs need to keep going. There’s institutional memory that needs to stay alive and as the refugee flow is lower right now at some point it’s going to come back up and these institutions need to be up and working when it happens.”
He means that they expect to oust Trump and then go back to full steam ahead with 100,000-200,000 annual refugee admissions (compared to Trump’s 18,000 this year).
And, as for this next bit, in my analysis of six of the nine major federal resettlement contractors, five are doing financially as well or better under Trump as they did under Obama.
Federal funding for refugee resettlement services has dropped significantly in recent years as Trump administration policies restricted the number of people being granted asylum or refugee status each year.
[….]
The New York State Enhanced Services to Refugees Program has received $2 million each year in the budget since it was formed in 2017 in response to the changes at the federal level.
But advocates say the state needs to step up and ensure funds are available to non-profits assisting the thousands of refugees already here.
[….]
The 14 resettlement agencies in the program, the Fiscal Policy Institute, and the New York Immigration Coalition joined Stiller, Ryan, and other lawmakers in calling for at least $5 million set aside for the program. [They have salaries to pay, after all!—ed]
Gov. Cuomo included no funds for the measure in his fiscal proposal earlier this year.
Cuomo trying to balance his budget to slow the bleed of taxpayers leaving the state?
But, heck, a state full of fully employed refugees and immigrants paying taxes should keep the state budget flush, right?
Although it’s becoming a bit overused, there is no better phrase than ‘demography is destiny’ and Mark Steyn’s now famous book, ‘America Alone’, published twelve years ago next month, nailed it.
Taking a little break from wandering through the weeds of the US Refugee Admissions Program severely curtailed by President Trump’s policies that include a significant reduction in refugee admissions to the US, we see that the Migration Policy Institute(a leftwing Washington DC think tank) has opined that Europe will be picking up the slack left by the US under the Trump administration.
If Europe does indeed pick up that slack it will only hasten the basic premise of Steyn’s ‘America Alone’.
Can you see the day a few decades into the future when westerners will try to flee to America to escape the demographic hodge-podge (and economic decline) being created in the heart of the birthplace of western civilization? I can.
The Future of Refugee Resettlement: Made in Europe?
Europe’s refugee resettlement programs are at an inflection point. Since 2017, more than 40 percent of all refugees resettled globally through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have found new homes in Europe, a sharp uptick from the 8 percent share the continent represented a decade ago.This is the result both of the dramatic growth of resettlement capacity in Europe—places have more than doubled since 2014 as countries such as Croatia and Slovenia have begun resettlement operations—alongside the dramatic shrinking of the U.S. resettlement program under the Trump administration. Beyond the numbers, Europe has increasingly become the center of gravity for innovation in resettlement. Today, new ideas for how to grow and strengthen resettlement are born in Europe.
These developments mark a potentially important shift in agenda-setting power from what have been the “Big Three” resettlement programs (the United States, Canada, and Australia). As national and EU leaders consider a new European migration agenda this spring, they face a choice: to claim a leadership role in shaping the global resettlement space, or to fall into this position by default. [Have at it Europe, set the agenda and leave the US alone—ed]
There is talk of “innovation” to get more migrants placed in Europe including using the Canadian model of private sponsorship that recently came under fire in a piece published in a Canadian policy magazine entitled: ‘The Cracks in our admired private refugee sponsorship program.’
It would be wise for European policy makers to see what is going wrong with the Canadian model before they pronounce it the greatest thing since sliced bread! And watch for the private sponsorship theory to become a flavor of the month here too.
MPI continues:
A New European Stamp on Resettlement?
While Europe’s innovative turn was driven primarily by internal needs, with less attention to how these actions will influence the resettlement space beyond its borders, it may offer much needed and timely inspiration at the global level.
As resettlement countries globally seek to fulfill the commitments of UNHCR’s three-year resettlement strategy, adopted in June 2019 under the Global Compact for Refugees, resettlement programs must learn and evolve. They will need to prove themselves able to extend their processing and reception capacities to welcome greater numbers of refugees without sacrificing the quality of support they provide.
The US did not sign the Global Compact for Refugees, see here at the Center for Immigration Studies. However, if any Dem wins the White House in November expect to see the US jump on lickety-split.
And they must find ways to address legitimate questions and concerns on the part of communities resettling refugees regarding how newcomers will be integrated. More than ever, it is European resettlement countries that are proving themselves to have the creativity and adaptability to address these challenges. As the availability of resettlement spaces on the global level continues to dwindle, due in large part to the deep cuts to resettlement commitments made by the United States, this energy and creativity will be needed more than ever.
[….]
Resettlement programs in Europe have advanced rapidly over the last decade. European countries now occupy a significant share of resettlement space globally and have developed a robust and innovative resettlement infrastructure.These programs have a great deal to offer in support of resettlement on the international level—if European leaders are willing and able to seize the opportunity.
Read it all here. And, kiss (much of) Europe as we knew it, good bye.
Can you see the consternation at the United Nations some day when it comes to white Europeans asking the UN to help them get into the US as refugees!
New data released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on its 2019 resettlement activities shows that the United States remains the top country for refugee resettlement. Furthermore, just like in previous years, the vast majority of refugees referred by UNHCR for resettlement in third countries in 2019 were not the most vulnerable or in urgent need of relocation. This contradicts the UN refugee agency’s constant claims that resettlement is a “life-saving tool”, a “critical lifeline” for refugees that needs strengthening. This also casts some doubt on UNHCR referral processes.
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Europe’s refugee resettlement programs are at an inflection point. Since 2017, more than 40 percent of all refugees resettled globally through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have found new homes in Europe, a sharp uptick from the 8 percent share the continent represented a decade ago.This is the result both of the dramatic growth of resettlement capacity in Europe—places have more than doubled since 2014 as countries such as Croatia and Slovenia have begun resettlement operations—alongside the dramatic shrinking of the U.S. resettlement program under the Trump administration. Beyond the numbers, Europe has increasingly become the center of gravity for innovation in resettlement. Today, new ideas for how to grow and strengthen resettlement are born in Europe.