Nearly 12,000 Somali refugees transferred

Hiraan online ^ | 10/08/02 | XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

[ozone1]

Nearly 12,000 Somali refugees transferred within Kenya NAIROBI, Oct 8, 2002 (Xinhua ) - Some 11,800 Somali Bantu refugees have been successfully transferred from the Dadaab refugee camp in northeastern Kenya to Kakuma camp in the northwestern Turkana District, the United Nations refugee agency said here Tuesday.

The transfer, which took nearly four months to complete, is aimed to facilitate the process of resettling the refugees in the United States, said the George OKoth-Obbo, representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

"This challenging operation could not have been possible without the support of partners, above all the International Organization for Migration, but not less so the government of Kenya, which provided various administrative support including police officers to escort each and every convoy," he said.

In Kakuma, the Somali Bantu refugees will undergo resettlement processing, including documentation and medical examinations as required by the US immigration, and the first of the refugees accepted are expected to leave for their new home early next year.

The Somali Bantus are a minority in Somalia and their physical, cultural and linguistic characteristics distinguish them from the Cushitic majority.

There are widespread discrimination against the Bantus in Somalia, and many of the Somali Bantu refugees have expressed unwillingness to go back to Somalia, said the representative.

The U.S. agreed to settle the refugees after Mozambique, a southern African country, turned down a resettlement request from UNHCR.

"Considering the security situation and specific protection concerns in their country of origin, repatriation of these refugees back to Somalia in safety and dignity was considered quite unlikely," he said.

[FITZ]

Why don't they want them at the Vatican? They could import them there.

[ozone1]

"What political party is responsible for this disgusting fiasco?"

"the US declared the Somali Bantu a persecuted group in 1999."

Let me guess who was President back then, Hmmmmmmmmm.

[ozone1]

"Some 133,000 Somali Bantu (Mushunguli)..... are living in refugee camps along the Kenya-Somalia border."

Ten more years worth are following the yellow brick road.

[contessa machiaveli]

why do they come to the US, why not canada, peru, columbia or brazil.we can't absorb the world's rejects anymore. i totally give up, everything is out of our control.

[ozone1]

"Police said about 250 people......Somalis were outnumbered about 3-1 by longer-term residents of Lewiston in the march"

190 social workers and 60 Somali.

[metesky]

''We had a little walk planned before the present controversy,'' Mark Schlotterbeck, city missionary for the Calvary United Methodist Church, told the Lewiston Sun Journal before Sunday's event.

''Now lots of people are going to walk: Christians, Muslims, Jews, Unitarians and civil rights teams from local schools.''

All the usual suspects.

A gathering of the mini-hive.

[ozone1]

Time for Welfare Reform in Maine.

[Black Agnes]

Yup. Earlier immigrant groups had a very strong work ethic. To keep them 'honest' in this regard, we didn't have a welfare system to prop them up and make them lazy. NOW, however, the work ethic is different AND we have welfare. Read PJ O'Rourke's books where he talks about Somalia. Apparently their work ethic ain't so great in Somalia either.

[willyone]

The goal here is to continue to flood the country with unassimable people. With the ultimate view of having us disolve into warlord type situations. It's alot closer than we think. There are areas of Ca. where the residents do not acknowledge that US law pertains to them. Except of course on the day the checks come in the mail.

[2rightsleftcoast]

I'm confused and angry! Why are they allowed to come here?
I vote no!!! Why don't we get to vote on this?

[2rightsleftcoast]

No, I voted for Bush and I am happy I did.
I don't want the next wave of Somali's here.
We can't take care of the world. We must
protect our borders.

[Lorianne]

http://allafrica.com/stories/200210020316.html

http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view...dbb8ddde830627b

NAIROBI --Plans to resettle over 10,000 Somali Bantus – eventually to the United States – from refugee camps in nothern Kenya were in jeopardy after reports that some of the refugees had recently subjected their daughters to female circumcision. The US has agreed to resettle Somali Bantu refugees, but media reports said the authorities had threatened to bar some of the families whose daughters had undergone the procedure.

The INS is considering denial of visas for parents who have recently subjected their daughters to FGM [female genital mutilation]. The INS informs applicants that female circumcision is illegal in the US, thereby prompting many on the waiting list for entry to the USA to hurry up and perform the brutal torture on their daughters before they are relocated.

Perhaps this shows how eager they are to adapt to the customs and laws of the USA?

[Nowhere Man]

A little different than previous immigrant groups. I know my Irish ancestors had to take hard jobs to come here ---I'm glad they didn't have welfare then. This group is another group destined to failure because they'll get used to project living and welfare, and watching Jerry Springer all day for something to do.

I know, in my case, I come from a long line of hardworkers too. Back then, when you came here, you found something to earn your keep. I have nothing against welfare and such if a person is disabled, too old to work, and so on, but it seems like most waves of new immigrants come here to feed off the welfare system. I know this may not be politically correct, but I think it's time we put a hockey jersey, goalie mask, and goalie stick on the Statue of Liberty. B-P I think we need a lot more tighter controls on immigration than we have now.

Also, don't forget that most immigrants who came over from the Colonial times to the mid 20th Century came from countries that had basic Western values and predominatly Judeo/Christian so those immigrants could have fit into American society much easier than most immigrants today. I just think our national identity and survival are at stake here and I think we are doing a poor job at worst and lackluster job at best into protecting that.