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2010-11-20T23:46:00.000-01:00

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Paul Biya after being booed on his
most recent trip to New York
This week, Had this very special
interview with GOP VP Pick
Sarah Pallin.
(more... View The Complete Conversation. Too Funny)

Welcome to the Activists
Corner. On this section,
you can find recent petitions or humanitarian causes that
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whether intellectual, financially

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Visa Free Nations
For Cameroonians UPDATED
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Today's Headlines - Cameroon & Immigrations

What Everybody Ought to Know About Immigration In 2009

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11 days in Dusseldorf, Berlin and Humburg

2010-11-20T06:35:00.000-01:00

Saturday November 20, 2010

11 days in Dusseldorf, Berlin and Humburg
SAM ANOKAM, who was in Germany to witness the celebration of Nigeria’s 50th independence anniversary concert, reports that one experience he would not forget is witnessing two teenagers having sex in the open, in a night club.
Saturday, November 20, 2010

Photo: SAM ANOKAM

More Stories on This Section

When our plane touched down on October 10, at the Dusseldorf Airport, Germany, the blast of chilly air was the first sign that we were no where in the tropics. The weather was extremely cold that I shivered, despite the thick coat I wore. I told myself: Welcome to Europe. It was my first trip to Germany, the country that produced Adolf Hitler.

It was not as if the unfriendly weather was a surprise. Before we left Nigeria, we had been warned of the extreme cold in Europe, at this time of the year. I was among three Nigerian journalists who went with ace musician, King Wadada, a KORA reggae award winner for 2010 and Acho, another KORA nominee for a concert commemorating Nigeria’s 50th independence anniversary, at the instance of Miracle Day Music. I would say that we had prepared for the cold, by arming myself with warm and thick clothes. But what I experienced at the airport told me that Europe cold defy thick clothes.

Indeed, coming down from the plane, into the cold, was like going to hell. It was with pain that we eventually made our way from the aircraft to the shuttle bus, just six metres away. Our first attempt to disembark from the aircraft was aborted, as we could not face the chilly cold. We had to rush back into the cosy warmth of the plane, as soon as the cold hit us. None of us could dare the short dash to the bus. However, we had to face the music, as it were, and made it to the bus. At a point, between the aircraft and the bus, I felt so cold that I thought I would freeze to death and become a pillar of human being.

Once in the bus, I temporarily came back to life. And as I sat down in the bus, I remembered my experience at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, from where we departed. It was a different world. In Lagos, the temperature was 31 degree celsius and the atmosphere was warm. Even when we got to Tripoli, in Libya, for a brief stopover, as Afriqiyah does, the temperature was friendly. It was just like Nigeria. I also remembered my experiences on the plane. Members of the cabin crew were courteous and the food good. I had kept myself busy watching TV throughout the flight, not wanting to miss anything.

The shuttle bus took us to Dusseldorf Airport lounge, where we passed through the immigration. The halls in the airport are breathtakingly beautiful. Flight boards are placed at strategic places, giving information to travellers. After immigrations formalities, we stepped into the arrival hall, where we were supposed to meet the organisers of the tour. When we got there, we were shocked that nobody came to receive us. In fact, at that time, our host was miles away, in Berlin, eight hours by bus. To reach him, a good Samaritan came to our aid. He offered us his phone to call Omenka Uzoma Day of Miracle Day Music, who travelled ahead of us. Surprisingly, the good Samarithan, who we later discovered was a Cameroonian, did not understand or speak English. He could have sensed our predicament and offfered his phone.

Apart from offering us his phone, the Cameroonian was of immense assistence. He directed us to the nearest train station, from where we went into town. At the train station, one German, seeing Wadada with a guitar and his dreadlocks, assumed and rightly, that we were musicians on tour. He told us he was a musician too and helped us to buy train tickets from a slot machine. We took the train into town. We went to Burgher King, an eatery, where we waited as Kenneth Gbandi of Heritage International Business Concept GmbH, whom Omenka had contacted, to make hotel arrangement.

Dusseldorf is no different from other German cities, I observed that it has a large number of young people. Boys and girls roam the streets freely in the city. Often, you see couples, including same sex, kissing openly. Where their counterparts in Lagos might be more discreet in publicly displaying affection, these German youths do not give a damn. They are more brazen and daring.

I observed that Dusseldorf residents like bicycles. However, there are cars and trains. What Nigerians may call exotic cars are used as commercial cabs in Dusseldorf. Traffic laws are obeyed to the last. Defaulters are immediately penalized. For boarding a train without tickets, for instance, a defaulter would pays as much as 2, 400 Euros. The ticket costs only three Euros.

I observed the good road in Germany. Indeed, from Dusseldorf to Dortmund and Hannover, the roads are smooth. The country is a cashless place. You can stay for days without seeing anybody paying for something with cash. The medium of exchange is mostly credit cards. Also, transactions are done mostly through the Internet.

The Berlin experience
Berlin, the capital city of Germany, is very much the same with other cities in the country, in terms of weather and style of buildings. However, the city has some unique characteristics. It is the seat of government. It is also the cultural capital of Germany.

Going to Berlin, from Dusseldorf, was not quite eventful. A Turk, who drove us from the hotel where we lodged to the train station, told us we would be departing at 6.30am. We thought he was joking, until he arrived as scheduled. By then, we were not ready. We finally left the hotel at 7.30am for the train station. I observed that there are more Turks in Germany than other immigrants. Next are the Afghans. From Africa, Ghanaians are more, followed by Nigerians.

Home food abroad
Savouring pounded yam and egusi in Germany was what we least expected in Germany. London is famous for its amala joints and suya stands, most of them owned by Yoruba proprietors. However, there are indigenous recipes in the heart of Germany.

For us, it was a welcome relief. Until we found Nigerian food, we had practically lived on pastries, bread and spaghetti. We also resorted to Arab recipes, like kebab. All that got us hungrier for indigenous meals. It was in Berlin we got our chance to eat Nigerian meals, thanks to Nigeria Hous, a restaurant run by Mama Joy. The restaurant serves Nigerian and Afro/Caribbean dishes. In this restaurant, you can watch local (Nigerian) stations, such as Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), African Independent Television (AIT) and other African channels, like Ben TV, South African TV, OBE TV and others. Interetingly, the operator has lived in Berlin for 22 years. Another Nigeran eatery, Wazobia, is also owned and run by Mama Joy. The two restarurants are patronised by visiting Nigerians and Nigerians in Diaspora.
A Nigerian told Saturday Sun: “This is where I come to catch up with my African roots.”

Straight talk from Nigeria’s envoy
It is interesting that Nigeria’s Charge d’ Affairs, Mr. Ayodele Ayodeji, interracts with Nigerians visiting Germany. He uses the opportunity to advise them to be of good bahaviour.
The envoy had told our team: “As soon as you land in the country, you are being watched. Do not do anything against the laws of the land. Try as much as possible to present the image of the country in positive light throughout your stay here.”

Harassed by a junkie
You can’t come to Berlin without visiting clubs. Notable for such music genre, like rock, German clubs are popular. Our experience in one of the night clubs, called Sage on Heinrich-Heine StraBe, is remarkable. Through Omenka Uzoma Day, who knows the terrain, we entered free while others were on queue. Inside the club are different large rooms. We were just five blacks out of all the crowd therein. A rock band that was singing, “All my friends are dead,” was on stage while fun lovers were busy drinking and dancing.
When we got tired of dancing, we sat down to catch our breath. There were different platforms, like bed and pillows made of leather, at different areas, including a swimming pool side.

I was on my own when one girl, without hair on her head and dressed in black attire, suddenly sat beside me. She wispered something in German to my ear. When I did not respond, she said: “ English?” adding: “I was asking if you have weed for sale.”

I told her I was not into such business and she again said: “If you see anyone selling weed, tell me.” She walked away. One hour later, she came back and folded herself in one corner of the bed shivering. I went to meet her and asked if she was alright. She said she was and later staggered outside. I never saw her again.
As I closed my eyes to catch some sleep, one guy, who I suspect was gay or drunk or both, just dragged me off my temporary bed unto the dance floor. I politely gestured that I was not interested in dancing, but he held me tight and kept dragging me along. He was saying something in German, which I did not understand. I managed to free myself and went back to where I lay.

Again, as I was dozing off, Wadada tapped me and pointed to something. Just close to us were two lovers having sex, without a care in the world. The journalism intinct told me to take a photograph of them, but sensing that this could put me in trouble, I decided otherwise. After the act, they stood up and left as if nothing happened.

The big event in Hamburg
We had a swell time in Hamburg, wgich was our next port of call. Here Nigerians celebrated the country’s 50th independence anniversary in style. It could be said that this German city is home to many Nigerians, just as Berlin. We were picked up at the bus station by Twelve Stones. As he drove us to his house, in the heart of Hamburg, one could observe the wide streets, wider than Berlin’s. Twelve Stones’ beautiful wife served us hot rice and some drinks. I discovered German beer is light. A drunk in Nigeria can consume a crate of beer withpout staggering on his way out.

Afterward, we watched a popular programme on television, entitled, Das Super Talent, where people with exceptional talents were showcased and rewarded. We also watched Vitali Klitscchko, as he pummeled America’s Shannon Briggs at the 12th round, at the O2Arena, in Hamburg.

We thereafter, proceeded to the venue of the Nigerian independence anniversary celebration and had a good time. Of all the musicians who performed, King Wadada and Acho justified their being KORA awardees. It was fun, as Nigerians in Hamburg converged to celebrate their nation. People from different tribes in Nigeria came together as one indivisible entity to celebrate, in an event which had Nigerian ambassador, Miss Nigeria in Germany, and many other important dignitaries in attendance.

Popular compositions by Nigerian musician, like Willy Onyeabor, Evangelist Sunny Obey, Danny Orji of the Peacock fame, D’banj, P-Square and Austino Milano, among others, were played. Hamburg-based musician, Black I, moved the crowd with his latest hit, Kolo, just as Ade, a seasoned musician and photographer as well as Tommy James did not disappoint.

Twelve Stone told us that Germany rewards hard work. “If you come here and work hard, you would rise and get what you want, but if your intention is to go the fast lane, you would suddenly find yourself where you never thought you would get. Remember, you are being watched constantly,” he lectured us.
On a Sunday morning, at the lobby of the hotel we stayed, a young teenager was busy browsing on her laptop. Omenka, curious apprached her, having seen a big book, which looked like the Bible, with her. He asked the girls if she was going to church. She looked at him and said: “This is my diary” and continued what she was doing.

We went attended an evening church service. Nigerians present were not up to 100. The guest speaker, a Nigerian thrilled the congregation with his sugar-coated tongue, like an average Pentecostal preacher in Nigeria. Of course, there was time for donation – in Euros mind you.
Hamburg, being the biggest port city in Germany, is busness district. Close to the port, there are Hafun city and Alster.

Our stay would hardly have been complete without coming across the ubiquitous skinheads of Hamburg. Also called Neo-Nazis or lazyheads, they’re mostly angry youths whose major grouse is that foreigners take their jobs. They are always attacking foreigners, mostly blacks and non-Europeans. Just as the Klu Klux Klan members wore hoods, skinheads wear black and shave their heads completely.

The highpoints of Germany
German citizens enjoy efficient social system that caters for jobless people. Education is almost free. House rent is paid for by the government and jobs are provided. If one owns a dog, the animal gets paid. Also, if you have a baby, he or she gets paid.

New Streamlined Russian Work Permit Law June2010

2010-06-18T05:36:00.001Z

Russia: New Streamlined Work Permit Procedure for Highly Qualified Workers

by Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP View Firm Credentials
New York Office

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by this firm

by this topic

June 8, 2010

Previously published by Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP Client Alert on June 1, 2010

Russia is introducing a new streamlined work permit program for highly qualified foreign specialists on July 1, 2010. Under the new program, eligible organizations seeking to hire these specialists will be exempt from Russia’s work permit quota and employment permit regimes, though they will be subject to a variety of safeguards and reporting requirements. Russia is also simplifying the rules for individual Russian citizens seeking to hire foreign workers and the registration requirements for foreign nationals relocating internally in Russia.

Which Employers Qualify to Use the New Program?

Only Russian legal entities and accredited branch offices of foreign legal entities will be able to sponsor foreign nationals for the new highly qualified specialist work permits. To qualify, employers must be able to demonstrate that they have not violated any rules or procedures relating to the employment of foreign nationals within the two years preceding their application.

Representative offices of foreign legal entities will not be able to sponsor foreign workers under the new permit program. They must continue to use the standard process for obtaining work permits for any potential foreign employees, even if those employees are highly qualified.

Who Is Eligible as a Highly Qualified Specialist?

To be eligible as a highly qualified specialist, a foreign employee’s prospective annual gross income must exceed two million rubles (approximately US $65,000) and be paid in accordance with all Russian labor and contractual laws. The foreign national must also have considerable experience, skills, and achievements in their field of employment, though Russian authorities have not specified the levels necessary to qualify.

Benefits of the New Program

Eligible employers seeking to sponsor foreign workers for the highly qualified specialist work permits will not be subject to the normal Russian work permit quota restrictions and therefore will not have to anticipate their foreign labor needs in advance. They will not have to obtain an employment permit before they can issue invitation letters to prospective foreign workers, nor will they be required to certify a highly qualified specialist’s educational credentials. In addition, there is no limit on the number of highly qualified specialists an employer may hire. The new program is expected to reduce work permit processing times to fourteen business days, from the normal average of three to six months.

The validity of work permits under the program will be increased to three years. Highly qualified foreign workers will be able to extend their stay, provided that they file for an extension at least thirty days before the expiration date on their visa. Work permits for highly qualified specialists can be issued for multiple regions within Russia, rather than a single jurisdiction, provided the highly qualified foreign national will actually work in the regions covered by the permit. Lastly, highly qualified specialists will pay lower Russian income taxes than other foreign workers.

Restrictions and Safeguards Against Misuse of the New Program

Employers must provide highly skilled specialists and any accompanying family members with full private medical insurance. Foreign specialists will be required to register with Russia’s tax inspectorate, and employers must, within thirty days of a work permit’s issuance, notify immigration authorities of the foreign national’s tax registration. On a quarterly basis, employers will have to notify immigration authorities of the number of highly qualified specialists they employ, along with their salary and tax withholding information. Employers must also notify Russian authorities if any of their foreign employees have an unpaid break in employment of a month or more within a 12-month period.

Employers that fail to comply with all of the new program’s requirements, or any other immigration regulation, may be barred from using the highly qualified specialist program for a two-year period.

Other Changes

In addition to the new program for highly qualified specialists, Russia also eased rules for individual Russian citizens who employ foreign nationals. Foreign nationals will no longer need to obtain work permits to work for individuals. Instead, they will obtain a work license which will be issued for one to three months initially and can be extended for a subsequent three-month period.

Russia is also simplifying its registration procedures for foreign nationals relocating within Russia. When a foreign national relocates to another region, he or she will no longer have to de-register with local authorities before moving, as is the current requirement. Rather, authorities will automatically de-register the foreign national once he or she registers in the new location.

In preparing this article, Fragomen worked closely with the Migration Law Department of the Russian firm, VISTA Foreign Business Support (VFBS). The content herein is provided for informational purposes only.

Asylum Seekers' Nightmare in USA - Waiting That Is

2010-06-16T05:20:00.001Z

Posted on Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Immigration court backlog keeps asylum seekers in limbo

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By Abby Sewell, Medill News Service | Medill News Service

WASHINGTON — People who come to the U.S. seeking asylum from persecution are struggling while their cases stall in the backlogged dockets of the nation's immigration courts.

As a result of heightened immigration enforcement in the past several years, the courts have shifted their resources to deal with people in immigration detention facilities. Combined with a shortage in judges, that has meant longer wait times for all types of immigration cases to be resolved.

For asylum seekers, longer waits can mean spending months or years in detention. For those not in custody, the delays can leave them in a state of limbo, allowed to live in the country legally but not to work or access social services while they wait to plead their case in front of a judge.

Sa'youh Tunji, 28, from Cameroon, who now lives in Maryland, spent more than five years waiting for his day in court.

"I went from trouble back home to more trouble," he said.

Tunji fled Cameroon in 2003 after his father was killed — by government forces, Tunji thinks. His father had been a political activist with the Southern Cameroons National Council, a group that advocates for independence of English-speaking Southern Cameroon from the French-speaking majority. Tunji recalled police harassing the family when he was a child, raiding their house and taking him into custody to question him about his father. As a university student, he became an SCNC activist and was arrested twice for his own political activities. He described being beaten and tortured in police custody.

After his father's death, Tunji got word that the police were looking for him. He left the country, entering the U.S. on a visitor's visa to stay with family friends. He found himself thrust into a process that resembled a Kafka novel.

His initial application at an asylum office in October 2003 was rejected and referred to the Baltimore immigration court. Over the next several years, the court postponed his hearing date time after time.

In the end, a judge granted his asylum petition. In the intervening years, however, Tunji couldn't work legally. He had to largely rely on his wife — a U.S. citizen he met after arriving in the country — to pay the bills for them and their infant daughter.

Within months of gaining asylum status, he found work as an office coordinator, and he now studies information technology at Johns Hopkins University.

However, Tunji said the years of uncertainty took a toll on his marriage. He and his wife are now separated.

Asylum seekers may apply for work authorization 150 days after filing their asylum application, but the authorization "clock" can be stopped for a number of reasons — including any time asylum seekers or their attorneys ask for hearings to be postponed. The rules are intended to discourage people from filing frivolous applications, but immigration attorneys interviewed for this story said the current regulations are overly complex, and often courts stop the clock in error.

When that happens, the clock doesn't restart until the next hearing date, which, because of the number of cases on each judge's docket, may not be for a year or more.

In the meantime, asylum seekers with pending cases are not eligible for government-provided social services. Those who arrive without savings must rely on family, friends, religious organizations or private charity groups to get aid for needs such as medical care and housing.

"It's a very difficult circumstance we put people in who are escaping persecution," said Karol Brown, an immigration attorney in Seattle.

A bill introduced in March by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., would limit the detention of asylum seekers and remove some of the legal barriers to petitions, such as the current one-year deadline to file an asylum application after arriving in the U.S. The bill wouldn't change the work authorization system.

Asylum regulations mandate that cases should be resolved within 180 days, but many drag on longer.

A Justice Department review of its own performance in fiscal 2009 shows the percentage of asylum cases completed within the mandated window was at a 10-year low, at 82 percent — short of the department's 90 percent target.

The Justice Department report cited an increase in detentions as the primary reason asylum cases are falling behind, noting that detained cases had increased 70 percent in the past five years and comprised about half of the immigration courts' caseload in 2009. As a result, the report said immigration judges had been shifted away from other types of cases.

Dana Leigh Marks, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, said that on top of that, the hiring of judges hasn't kept pace with the rate of judges retiring or leaving. The caseload that immigration judges deal with — the average judge had 1,200 pending cases last year — makes it difficult to devote attention to complex and high-stakes asylum cases.

"We feel that we are doing death penalty cases in a traffic court setting," she said.

Elaine Komis, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review, said the agency is trying to address the judge shortage now. The office is hiring 43 new judges, including 28 new positions, by the end of the current fiscal year and hopes to increase the roster of judges by 19 percent by the end of fiscal 2011.

(The Medill News Service is a Washington program of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.)

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McClatchy Newspapers 2010

Russian Immigration 301 - June 2010

2010-06-14T12:22:00.001Z

Russia:Visa and immigration

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Do I need a visa or work permit?

All foreign nationals need a visa to travel to the Russian Federation. You cannot enter Russia without a tourist, student or business visa. It is crucial that you follow the guidelines issued by the Russian Consulate in your country. If your stay in Russia is to be longer than two to three days, your passport must be registered and stamped at the local office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs within one week of arrival.

Once you are in Russia, travelling out and in again may breach the conditions of your visa, which is one of the common frustrations experienced by expats living in the country. It is more common to apply for further permits while living in Russia.

How do I apply for a visa?

To get a visa for Russia, you need to be invited to stay there, perhaps by an employer, university, travel agency, or other independent agency.

A student visa is one of the most flexible visas available but the invitation must be applied for well in advance by contacting the ‘foreign department’ of the university or college you will be studying at (see postgrad study).

A tourist visa lasts for up to 30 days, but you may face some problems if you intend to leave and re-enter the country during this time; depending on your intentions you will require either a single or multi-entry visa. All visas must be applied for via the Russian embassy or consulate in the country where you are (in the UK, Russian Consulate in London), and processing times vary depending on the applicant’s country of origin. Americans require a special visa application form.

On payment of a higher fee, visas can be processed on the same day. Embassies often only open at certain times of the day, so check before visiting. The Russian Embassy can generate a tailored timeline, checklist, price and application form just by filling in a few questions about your country of origin and the type of visa required.

A business visa lasts for 12 months and must be supported by an agency that wishes to or is employing you. Russian companies wishing to employ foreign workers in Russia must apply for a general permit from the Ministry of Ethnic and Migration Policy. This does not apply to employees of Embassies, scientists and artists working in institutions established in accordance with international agreements, journalists accredited in Russia, crew members of ships and boats, and students on study internships.

You may find it helpful to contact your ministry of foreign affairs to find out whether there are any issues to be taken into account when considering travelling to Russia. If you are not in your home country, check with your own embassy in the country where you are.

How do I apply for permanent residency?

The Russian visa system is famously confusing and bureaucratic.

Once you are living and working in Russia, you can apply for a temporary residence permit. The permit may take up to six months to be issued, and lasts for three years.

A permanent residence permit can be applied for after one year of living in Russia on a temporary permit. The permit is issued for five years, and can be renewed at five-year intervals. This permit allows travel in and out of Russia without a visa.

Both types of permit are notoriously difficult to obtain, are applicable only to the region in Russia where the applicant lives, and are subject to a quota system similar to the USA’s Green Card system. Applicants have to collate up to 15 documents for their application, including a letter from a police authority from their home country, and HIV/AIDs test results. For further advice on some of the problems faced, see for example the July 2008 and October 2005 issues of Passport Magazine

Ghetto Pastor performs 360 sham Weddings for 3000 pounds a piece - UK

2010-06-14T05:11:00.001Z

Vicar ‘held 360 sham weddings for illegal immigrants’

Steve Bird

A Church of England vicar presided over hundreds of sham marriages between Africans and Eastern Europeans in a “massive and systematic immigration fraud” that allowed illegal immigrants to remain in Britain, a court was told yesterday.

The Rev Alexander Brown, 61, was accused of conspiring to exploit “vulnerable”, “desperate” and “poor” migrant workers who were “cajoled” into fake marriages with Nigerians and Rwandans to help the Africans stay in Britain.

The jury was told that he carried out about 360 sham marriages at the Church of St Peter and St Paul in St Leonards, East Sussex, between 2005 and 2009. That figure was 30 times greater than the 13 marriages he conducted over an earlier four-year period between British couples before he was alleged to have become part of the purported scam.

Mr Brown, who had been the parish priest for 20 years, is charged with conspiring with Michael Adelasoye, 50, a solicitor specialising in immigration, and who is also an Evangelical church preacher, and Vladymyr Buchak, 33, a Ukranian illegal immigrant, to breach immigration law by holding marriages of convenience in East Sussex. They all deny the charge.

Opening the case for the prosecution at Lewes Crown Court, David Walbank said that Africans desperate to stay in Britain took part in fake marriages with people from countries including Poland, Lithuania and Estonia who were living in Britain and were paid up to £3,000 each.

He said that Eastern Europeans who responded to an advert in Russian offering “help” were put up in a shared house and given work. They were then approached by Mr Buchak who “cajoled” them to take part in the fake sham ceremonies in return for cash.

Mr Brown carried out the ceremonies at his church. Mr Adelasoye, the prosecution claimed, then sent new applications to the Home Office claiming that the Africans could stay in the country because they had now married a citizen from the European Economic Area.

When Mr Brown was arrested in June last year, he said that he had “grown suspicious” about the number of weddings at his church.

Mr Walback said that in one example, Egidijus Salasevicius, a Lithuanian man, responded to the advert and was given accommodation and work.Then, it was said, Mr Buchak asked him to marry Chy Chy Perpetua Ifeagwazi, a Nigerian who had lost her job at a nursing home because her entry visa had expired. In April 2007 Mr Salasevicius was paid £2,000 for marrying the woman, who then got her job back.

Mr Walbank said: “She was working on the night that should have been her wedding night if this had been a normal wedding arrangement. Nothing better, we say, could illustrate the bogus nature of this supposed marriage that these two people went through.”

The trial continues.

Wed Since 1993, but Stuck in Immigration Limbo & Still Not Legal

2010-06-14T05:07:00.001Z

Wed in 1993, but Stuck in Immigration Limbo

Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

Inderjit Singh and Shari Feldman at home in Queens. “I couldn’t live without him,” Ms. Feldman said. But they fear he could be deported.

By NINA BERNSTEIN

Published: June 13, 2010

REPRINTS

In their cluttered studio apartment in Astoria, Queens, after nearly 17 years of marriage, Shari Feldman and Inderjit Singh seem like a pair of old shoes — a little the worse for wear but comfortable with each other’s creases.

City Room: Could Your Marriage Pass the Test? (June 11, 2010)
Do You Take This Immigrant?(June 13, 2010)

Enlarge This Image

Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

After their wedding at City Hall, in 1993.

“Our marriage certificate is so old, it’s yellow,” Ms. Feldman, 51, joked over the Bollywood soundtrack that blared from the TV. “Hey, honey, would you turn that down?”

Yet three petitions and five marriage interviews have failed to convince federal immigration authorities that the couple’s union is not a charade to get a green card for Mr. Singh, 45, a car service driver from India.

Last year, after they reapplied with a new lawyer, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services refused to interrogate them again, citing the conflicting answers they gave four years ago to questions like what Mr. Singh wore at their 1993 wedding and whether he had taken Ms. Feldman out to eat on her last birthday.

The couple may be an extreme case, but they are not alone. As immigration authorities have stepped up efforts to ferret out sham marriages among hundreds of thousands of petitions by United States citizens seeking green cards for their foreign spouses, cases of longtime couples cast into limbo have multiplied.

Petitions by 20,507 citizens were denied in the last fiscal year, or 7.2 percent of the total; of these, only 506 were for fraud, and the rest were for reasons like discrepancies in the couples’ answers or not showing up for an interview.

One Florida pair spent two years fighting for recognition of their seven-year marriage, and in the end had to prove their love to an immigration court to halt the wife’s deportation back to Peru; a nun testified on behalf of the couple, who worked at a flea market in Tampa.

In an Oregon case, it took four years and two federal lawsuits to force the agency to accept the marriage of an American woman and her Algerian husband, despite the birth of two children; it emerged in legal discovery that government investigators had collected hundreds of pages of information on the wife and her associates.

Immigration officials, who say they cannot discuss individual cases, acknowledge that mistakes are sometimes made. But they point out that the burden of proof is on the couple, and that the duration of a marriage can cut two ways.

“They’ve been married 8, 10 years, and they don’t know a thing about each other?” asked Barbara Felska, a veteran in the Stokes unit, the New York office that quizzes spouses separately, then compares their answers to determine whether their relationship is real. “You don’t know his medical conditions, or that he has high blood pressure?”

The predicament of Ms. Feldman and Mr. Singh reflects what legal scholars see as a growing tension in national values between the protection of marriage from government intrusion, and the regulation of marriage through immigration laws.

The couple has appealed, but they worry that Mr. Singh will meanwhile be deported.

“I couldn’t live without him,” said Ms. Feldman, a short, wisecracking woman who credits her husband with helping her cope with her diabetes, asthma and years of being legally blind. He nursed her, she said, through several eye operations that restored her sight in 2008, when she finally saw him well enough to crow, “Honey, you’re the one with the wrinkles, not me.”

Her surgeon, Dr. Gary Hirschfield, confirmed that Mr. Singh had been supportive. “I can definitely affirm that he was involved and interested, and he was present and involved post-op,” Dr. Hirschfield said.

Mr. Singh entered the country illegally in 1992 but could be granted a spousal green card — a fast track to citizenship — under the more forgiving immigration laws governing those who wed citizens before May 2001.

He estimates that he has spent $20,000 on immigration fees, fines and legal costs, most of it borrowed from an uncle. He did not visit his mother in India after his father’s death two years ago, for fear he would not be allowed to return to his wife.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m going to jump out the window and finish,” he said in imperfect English, brewing tea near an image of a Sikh prophet and the Jesus clock he bought his wife at a 99-cent store. “But I know she need me.”

From a jumble of documents and photo albums on their king-size bed, they pulled out their joint apartment lease, tax filings and bank statements. But the immigration agency dismissed such documents in its last denial letter, dated Aug. 10, 2009, noting, for example, that the joint account they opened in 1997 showed low balances of $8.11 and $62.15 in two 2008 statements.

Surviving immigrant babies are adopted in Malta

2010-06-14T05:00:00.001Z

Sunday, 13th June 2010

Surviving immigrant babies are adopted

Cynthia Busuttil

Blessing, one of three orphan immigrant babies, is being adopted, almost two years after being saved from a sinking boat. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Almost two years after they were rescued from a sinking boat, two migrant sisters will be adopted by a foreign couple living in Malta.

"There is already contact with the future parents," Emigrants Commission head Mgr Philip Calleja told The Sunday Times.

Three-year-old Destiny and Victoria, two, were saved from certain death after being found floating face down in the water in September 2008.

According to AFM Sergeant Silvio Xerri, Victoria was almost dead when she was taken on board an army rescue boat.

"She looked like a rag doll. She was not breathing and had no pulse," he told The Sunday Times.

Sgt Xerri, an engineer trained as a combat medic, said a colleague handed him the baby, who was around six months old at the time.

"There was chaos, immigrants in the sea and the two children floating face down. Her lungs were full of water," he said.

After removing the water filling her lungs and applying CPR, Victoria started stirring, although she remained unconscious. Destiny was also unconscious, but in a better state than her sisters.

The sisters' adoption will bring to an end months of uncertainty for the youngsters, believed to have lost their parents as they crossed over from Africa in a bid to reach European soil.

Very little is known about the two sisters, with Mgr. Calleja saying they had to undergo DNA tests to determine their age. The woman who was caring for them during the fateful voyage died, and other migrants were not able to give the authorities details about the girls. It was the sisters at the crèche who named them.

Another girl, Blessing, who was rescued in similar circumstances two years ago, is also being adopted, with Mgr Calleja saying she is already living with her adoptive parents.

The daughter of a woman from Cameroon and a Nigerian man, Blessing was born in Libya on June 13, 2007, according to a declaration signed by Benedicte, a woman who initially claimed to be her aunt but later admitted she was not a relative. Both Blessing's parents - Morine and Dadau - and her brother are believed to have drowned during their journey to Europe.

Sergeant Derrick Pepe, who winched Blessing onto a helicopter, said it was very emotional to see young children all alone. "I can imagine what she went through. At least we were able to save her."

Blessing was rescued and spent months being cared for at the Ursuline Sisters Crèche while the authorities decided on her future, becoming the youngest unaccompanied minor to arrive in Malta before Victoria was saved from another sinking boat in September 2008.

Fake Asylum Claim By Cameroonians In The US

2010-06-03T11:45:00.002Z

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Bloggings on Political Asylum

by Jason Dzubow

Jun 02, 2010

Fraud and Asylum

A recent report from Ireland found that almost two thirds of asylum seekers who claimed to be from Somalia were lying. The investigation found that the “Somalis” were from other countries, such as Tanzania, Kenya, and Yemen. Apparently, some of the asylum seekers were found out based on language or a lack thereof; others had previously applied for visas to the UK using different nationalities. There may be some reason to doubt whether these techniques for outing “Somalis” are valid. For example, some Somali nationals may have been refugees for many years, raised in other countries without knowledge of Somali languages. Others may have used false passports from other countries to travel to Europe. Nevertheless, the high percentage of cases that are likely fraudulent presents a problem for the “system” and for those who represent asylum seekers.

Of course, the problem is not confined to Europe. In 2007, the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia issued a cable (I have not been able to find it online) entitled: Report on fraud trends in Ethiopian asylee claims: A guide for DHS adjudicators. The cable talks about “following to join” cases where an alien has been granted asylum in the United States and has filed a form I-730 for his relatives to join him in the U.S. From August 2005 to May 2006, the Embassy reviewed 1,449 following-to-join cases, which represented 288 asylum grants in the United States. The Embassy writes that ”Almost every [following-to-join] interview at Post uncovers information that calls into question the petitioner’s original claim.” In addition, the Embassy has found that “more than 75 percent of documents investigated were fraudulent” and consular officers “suspect that the fraud rate is well over 50 percent.” Again, there may be problems with the Embassy’s methods of investigating fraud, but the cable certainly presents evidence of a problem.

The U.S. Embassy in Cameroon has issued a cable similar to the Ethiopian cable. It states that asylum claims have increased dramatically since 1992. The Embassy knows of no corresponding increase in political problems, though the economy has gotten worse, leading to the conclusion that many asylum seekers are economic migrants (the State Department Report on Human Rights conflicts somewhat with this view, listing human rights abuses such as torture, arbitrary arrest, and life-threatening prison conditions). The Embassy also reports that Cameroonians have been detained entering the United States with all sorts of fake documents that could be used to create fraudulent asylum claims. Relatives following to join frequently know nothing about the asylees’ political activities or persecution. As a result of this fraud, non-immigrant visa refusal rates have increased from 35% in 2001 to 60% in 2004. Further, the Embassy complains that fraudulent applications and following-to-join applications have dramatically increased its workload. It recommends that Cameroonian asylum cases be viewed skeptically.

Other evidence is more anecdotal. A recent report from the blogosphere–I cannot vouch for the report’s credibility–indicates that an Ethiopian diplomat at the Embassy in Washington, DC quit his job, claimed asylum, and then returned to work at the Embassy as a public relations officer. He was even listed on the Embassy website. The report states that the diplomat’s asylum claim was false, and urged the U.S. government and the Ethiopian government to investigate.

The problem of fraud presents a dilemma for attorneys who specialize in asylum and a challenge to the “system.”

Attorneys who specialize in asylum have generally entered the field to assist those who genuinely fear persecution (we certainly don’t specialize in asylum for the money!), not to help facilitate fraud. However, for the most part, we can’t know which cases are genuine and which are not, and it’s sometimes dangerous to judge. I remember one Ethiopian woman whose case I doubted. We won, and a few months later she returned to my office and asked whether I could help her find a doctor. Ever since her detention and beating, she said, she had been suffering pain on one side of her body. Although I don’t know whether this was true or not, she had no reason to lie. Experiences like this make me cautious about judging my client’s veracity. Instead, it’s better to represent my clients to the best of my ability and to let the Immigration Judge decide the case.

The problem of fraud also presents a challenge to the legal system. Our country has–I think quite properly–taken a generous approach to asylum. We would rather allow some fraudulent cases to succeed than turn away genuine asylum seekers. Of course, if fraud becomes too pervasive, it might cause us to re-consider how we evaluate asylum claims. The Australia government recently initiated a six-month freeze on processing asylum applications filed by Afghani and Sri Lankan asylum seekers who arrive by sea. The system was becoming overwhelmed by applicants, and the government reacted with a heavy hand. Such a broad brush approach is questionable under international law, and would obviously affect legitimate and illegitimate asylum seekers.

So what can be done to reduce fraudulent asylum claims?

The U.S. Embassy in Cameroon suggests that DHS check asylum applications with records obtained at the Embassy to determine whether family members listed on the asylum form were also mentioned at the Embassy. This would avoid the problem of asylum seekers ”adding” family members in order to bring them to the U.S. after they win asylum. If “false family members” could not follow to join, the incentive for seeking asylum might be reduced.

Also, more generally, documented information at the Embassy could be compared with information in the asylum application. Theoretically, this should happen already, but DHS has limited resources, and this method seems to have limited value, as most biographical information is consistent between the Embassy and the asylum application.

In many cases, friends and relatives in the home country submit letters in support of an applicant’s claim. Such people could be called to the Embassy for questioning. It is more difficult to create a fraudulent case if people in the home country are required to testify about the claimed persecution. Of course, this would have to be done while maintaining confidentiality, but this should be possible given that such people already know about the asylum claim (having written letters in support of the claim).

Another option is to identify attorneys and notarios who prepare claims deemed suspicious. Such people should be investigated and, if evidence of fraud is uncovered, prosecuted. This, to me, is the easiest and most effective solution. The DHS attorneys generally know who is producing and/or facilitating fraudulent claims. Why not send an undercover investigator posing as a client to the suspected attorney? If the attorney suggests that the “client” engage in fraud, the attorney could be charged with a crime (that is exactly what happened to a Washington State couplewho helped create fraudulent asylum cases). Such tactics would reduce fraud by eliminating the purveyors of fraud and by deterring others who might engage in such practices.

The trick is to reduce fraud without preventing legitimate asylum seekers from gaining protection.

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About The Author

Jason Dzubow's practice focuses on immigration law, asylum, and appellate litigation. Mr. Dzubow is admitted to practice law in the federal and state courts of Washington, DC and Maryland, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Third, Fourth, Eleventh, and DC Circuits, all Immigration Courts in the United States, and the Board of Immigration Appeals. He is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the Capital Area Immigrant Rights (CAIR) Coalition. In June 2009, CAIR Coalition honored Mr. Dzubow for his Outstanding Commitment to Defending the Rights and Dignity of Detained Immigrants.

Bushfallers' Nightmares June 1 2010

2010-06-01T07:34:00.002Z

"My life now is about avoiding arrest and finding somewhere to stay at night.

Wanting out of Africa ... coach Isaac Aloti, with his young players (from left) Daniel Vijo,
Imano Buso and Mafiau Asare, who hope to become the next African football star

Robin Hammond/PANOS

By DAN McDOUGALL, in Africa and Paris

Published: Today

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ON a pitch strewn with broken glass and bordered by an asbestos mine and a canal of rotting sewage, dozens of young lads chase a football - and an unlikely dream.

They are pupils at one of the thousands of unlicensed soccer schools in Africa.

Their families have often given up everything in the hope that their boys can become the next Michael Essien or Didier Drogba.

Coach Isaac Aloti, 23, runs the school in Accra and tells The Sun: "These are my boys. I have their contracts, their parent's signatures - they will go for trials in London when they are ready.

"They will go far and they will help me go far."

In the lawless backstreets of the Ghanaian capital and the city of Abidjan in neighbouring Cote D'Ivoire, "soccer slavery" - the trafficking of child footballers from Africa to Europe - is big business.

It is a trade in exploitation that snares truly talented young players into binding contracts that will ensure any future fortunes will go to ruthless agents, and not their families.

In a related, even crueller trade, youngsters with no real football skills are being "sold on" by shady middlemen who just want to exploit downtrodden, desperate families.

In Abidjan, informal soccer academies are booming. In return for placing boys in such schools, slum-dwelling mums sell their belongings, and sometimes even themselves, to unscrupulous coaches.

At one school we visited, boys are provided with bibs, balls and a patch of rough ground. In return, they sign away their lives.

On the tiny pitch almost 50 boys, some as young as nine, make shuttle runs back and forward.

Balancing a cheap synthetic ball on his head Doho Lou Olivier stands out among them.

His coach whispers to me: "A French club want to take him. His contract is owned by a Lebanese but we are training him on behalf of the businessman and the boy's family. If we sell him on we all take a cut."

At his family's slum home nearby, the importance of Doho's success to his family is clear.

Nine people live in two tiny rooms. His mother, Gasso Youa, clutches one of her son's cheap trophies and says: "I am told he is good enough to go to the West.

"He is only 14 but he can go now. He is the future of this family.

"We trust his coach to get the best price and the best deal for him. The money is the most important thing."

There is rarely a happy ending for the betrayed boys of Africa. In Paris, in the tough suburb of St Denis, we catch up with Simone, 18, an illegal Cameroonian immigrant.

He chokes back tears as he recalls the journey from his home: "I came here two years ago on a 30-day visa with the dream of playing for Paris St Germain but never made it.

"In Cameroon I was a player. Here I can't even make the local amateur teams. My family expected everything from me.

"My mother hired out a local bar. They made a huge banner saying, 'Good luck, we're so proud of you'.

"And after the club said no, part of me was too ashamed to return so I stayed on as an illegal.

Dreams into dust ... for Simone, pictured, and countless others

Robin Hammond/PANOS

"I tell my mother I will send money home soon, to pay the agent, I tell her that I am playing well.

"She believes I am succeeding but my life is in this squat, tripping over drug addicts in the doorways and scrambling a living selling fruit.

"This is no dream for an African, I feel like a condemned man, that my life is hopeless.

"I am 18 years old and in my village in Cameroon I am a hero."

Sixteen-year-old Effa Steve, a midfielder from Equatorial Guinea, came to France aged 14 on the promise of a trial with a top club.

His visa and flight were arranged by a Bulgarian middleman in his home country.

Effa's mother sold her house to get her boy to the West. In the youngster's case the trial actually materialised - but he was dropped almost immediately after suffering a knee injury.

Since then Effa has been living in a high-rise squat in the Montrouge district of Paris. He recalls: "Everyone was celebrating when I left Guinea. My mother told me that I would make them proud and provide everything for my family - she told me to be strong and play to win.

"My visa expired after 30 days and the club said they had no interest in me after my injury, but I came to Paris and stayed on, hoping for another trial.

"I play for an amateur team now but the standard is very good and I don't always get a game.

"My life now is about avoiding arrest and finding somewhere to stay at night.

"We make money selling fake Prada handbags in the markets. I share the floor of an abandoned apartment with four others. My life here is misery and cold."

Working with Paris's desperately overstretched social work programme is Jean Claude Mbvoumin, from the charity Culture Foot Solidaire.

It was set up to help hundreds of African teenagers trafficked or sent to France for football trials, only to be cast out by the system.

Jean Claude says: "The summer is fine, they can sleep on the streets But in winter they become more desperate, they become criminals, drug-users.

Inspiration ... Didier Drogba

"They come here with agents' promises ringing in their ears and all they are left with is the sound of police sirens and the smell of rotting rubbish in high-rise flats."

South Africa, where the World Cup begins in ten days, is one of the world's hotspots for the £10billion human trafficking trade, according to the United Nations.

It is the world's third-most profitable criminal enterprise after drugs and guns.

Save The Children's Cote D'Ivoire country head, Guy Cave, says: "It is a ruthless business playing on the false hopes of millions of impoverished slum mothers, conned into believing their footballing sons will rescue them from misery.

"Football scams are putting children across Africa at risk and costing poor families everything they have, absolutely everything.

"We've spoken to families who have paid three times their annual salary to send their children abroad to play football and lost everything."

Former Cameroon star Roger Milla - a veteran of three World Cups - says: "It is the parents' fault. They get lulled into this belief that their son can make a lot of money and then they sell everything they have.

"The people who are feeding them this poison must be stopped. It is a slave trade that pulls in children as young as ten.

"All the while the agents and traffickers are benefiting.

"In Africa when an important man tells a family their son has talent, that family will do everything to raise the money to send that boy to the West, sell their house, their youngest sons, their life away. There are so many of them because there are so many desperate people in the world.

"These brokers are getting £4,000 per child and offering to smuggle them out on the promise that they will sign for a big club.

"So many boys have gone missing in this way. It is not an agent they need, it is a mother and father."

Such is the overwhelming desire among the parents of young African players for their offspring to make it as professionals that almost TWO MILLION child footballers turned up across a dozen nations for bona fide trials for just 23 places at the respected ASPIRE sports Academy in Qatar.

So many dreams - and so many people ready to exploit them.

Russian Immigration and Asylum Study

2010-06-01T07:03:00.000Z

MIGRATION
Aspects of Co-operation between the Russian Federation and the USA in the field of Migration

.
04.06.2010

Автор(ы): Gannushkina Svetlana (Head of the “Migration and Law” Network, Chairperson of Civic Assistance Committee, Member of the board of the “Memorial” Human Rights Center)

Русский текст

MIGRATION
Aspects of Co-operation between the Russian Federation and the USA in the field of Migration

Svetlana Gannushkina, Member of the Council on Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights under the President of the Russian Federation

Migration is one of the main issues of concern in the world today, and is linked to many factors, including the intense growth in opportunities to travel and the stunning broadening of the informational field.
New technology has had an effect not only on the mobility of people across the world but also on attitudes to migration and the general lowering of the level of strictness in the regulations governing crossing state borders.
On the other hand, the critical demographic situation characteristic of developed countries, forces them to compete for migrants from countries that are “migration donors”.
The Russian Federation is not an exception in this. The population stood at 147 million in 1990. By 2002 it had gone down to 145 million, and now, taking into account a slight rise in the last year, it is 142 million. At the same time we are witnessing an obvious aging of the population, the birth rate has fallen to the level of developed countries, and the death rate has gone up to the level of developing countries.
Active debates in academic and political circles over recent years and up to the present day have led to an understanding that migration is an absolute necessity to counterbalance the natural decrease in the population. It follows from this that the state’s migration policy should be welcoming, aimed at the reception and integration of migrants coming to Russia for long-term residence, and at creating a simple system to legalise labour migrants.
Active migration is happening today in Russia, however, the majority of those migrants in Russia (living here permanently and working temporarily) remain outside of the law and do not have any permission to work. Russia is second in the world according to the number of migrants who come here, after the USA. The USA has invaluable experience in the reception and integration of migrants. Russia also has its own historical experience of people of different confessions and cultural traditions living together on its territory.
Apart from this, both our countries have a huge influence on the processes of migration in the world. Our policies in many ways define the situation in terms of migration in other countries in our spheres of influence. This brings a great responsibility to the authorities and people of our countries not least to ensure the effective functioning of the institution of asylum as defined by international law.
For this reason, co-operation and studying the legal system and practice in the field of migration together, as well as developing joint positions and solutions to problems of migration is not just important, but an absolutely necessary part of the cooperation between our two countries.
It should be noted that on the level of non-governmental organisations and civil society, this type of co-operation has been happening for many years already. As an example, I would like to mention the many years of co-operation between the Civic Assistance Committee and Memorial and the American sections of International Amnesty and Human Rights Watch. In 2002 – 2005 our organisations ran a series of joint discussions on the US resettlement programmes for specific groups of migrants from Russia. Very recently Civic Assistance and HRW ran a joint discussion on a draft law concerning labour migrants in the Russian Federation and drew up recommendations to improve it. These recommendations were sent to Deputies from the State Duma and were included by them for the second reading of the bill.

Below are several area in the field of migration, which it would be useful for both the state authorities of the USA and Russia, as well as our civil societies to co-operate on.

1. The Reception of Migrants

As was mentioned earlier, the USA has a huge amount of experience in the reception of migrants, indeed the whole state system is based on this. This process, one, which helped to form the state itself, continues today. Clearly it brings with it many issues for the state and society. Issues that will never be completely resolved.
These issues are now becoming more current in Russia and there is constant discussion about them.
The long-term prognosis of demand in the flow of migrants, planning their reception, mechanisms to regulate flows, the regions that they will stay in, offering them preferences, integration into local society – all of these issues are currently not resolved in a satisfactory manner in our country. What is missing is a scientifically based and clearly formulated conception of a migration policy, the lack of which is fatal in a state whose development depends so much on migration. The Federal Migration Programme was approved last for the period covering 1998 – 2000 and it has not been applied at all since then. In 2004 the Government Commission on Migration Issues was abolished – the only forum where representatives of the ministries and government agencies, academics and civil society could sit down discuss all aspects of problems concerning migration.
The adoption of unfounded, wilful decisions and the elaboration of directions without any prospects have become rooted in practice.
In 2009 there were considerable positive advances. Without a doubt the creation of the Government Commission on Migration Policy was a positive event. The decision to form it was made by President Medvedev after his meeting with the Council on Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights. Ella Pamfilova, Lidia Grafova and Svetlana Gannushkina are members of the Commission, as well as representatives of various ministries and government agencies.
The Commission has begun working on the concept of a state migration policy. The Government Programme on the Voluntary Resettlement of Compatriots is being reworked to enable not only those who are newly arrived to take part, but also those culturally Russian inhabitants of other countries who have already settled in Russia. This is something that civil society leaders have said many times to those who drafted the programme, even before they had started their work.
At a time when serious work has begun in the Russian Federation in the field of migration, discussing current aspects of migration with colleagues from the USA, an exchange of experience at different levels and developing mechanisms for solutions could all prove to be important in solving any problems that might arise and could prevent us from making several mistakes.

2. Legalisation
The Commission began to work in October 2009 and started its activities by examining the problem of legalising former citizens of the USSR, who have been living in Russia for a long time. The majority of people in this group, about 300,000 people by our estimates, do not have any citizenship at all. There are children who have grown up in Russia and reached adulthood here, who do not have any type of identity document and have been effectively forced to live illegally. The Federal Migration Service (FMS), working closely with NGOs, has now developed a bill to include changes in the Laws on Citizenship and on the Legal Situation of Foreign Citizens and has sent it to the Duma, the Council of the Federation and the Commission on Citizenship. In it there are proposals whereby adults could go through a procedure to confirm their identity and then start a process of legalisation, whilst any children they have who have not yet reached adulthood would be given Russian citizenship straightaway upon their parents applying. The FMS has already started the process of finding and confirming the identity of stateless persons. Today the bill has been finalised, approved by the Commission and taken to the Duma by deputies from the Council of the Federation.
If this law comes into force, then at long last we will have corrected the mistake of 2002. It was then, in the course of one day, that the new versions of the laws on Citizenship of the Russian Federation and on the Legal Situation of Foreign Citizens turned hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of Russia into illegals, including veterans of WWII who had never taken Russian citizenship, only because that it had never entered their head that they would need to.
This law will be similar to the immigration amnesties (legalisation) that are regularly carried out in many countries, including in the USA.
Immigration reform was one of the key pre-electoral promises of Barack Obama.
It would be extremely interesting to find out how this reform is going, what objections have been brought against it by those who do not agree with it, and what arguments are being used by adherents of reform. Are there any criteria in the USA for cases when removal would not be admissible? (e.g. the presence of family or children, cultural links, the fact a person is stateless, difficult economic circumstances in the countries of origin, or other)? What are the ways and means used to limit migration? How do they correspond to the observance of human rights?

3. Creating the conditions for integration. Fighting xenophobia and migrant-phobia.
As migration always means new cultural elements are introduced into society, then the problem of overcoming cultural differences and facilitating tolerance becomes extremely important. In Russia today it has become the norm to say that the flow of migrants is leading to tension in society and that the cultural differences between migrants and the local population are so great, that they almost cannot be overcome. The Mayor of Moscow,Yury Luzhkov, is particularly noted for this type of comment. He is constantly coming out with maxims on the higher levels of criminality amongst the migrant community. This does not correspond to reality: the percentage of crimes committed by foreigners is not high – it wavers around 3%. Meanwhile, a third of the cases of crimes committed by migrants are charges of falsifying documents. As a rule, in these cases the migrants themselves are victims of illegal firms who offer them all sorts of services but who disappear the moment the law enforcement agencies start to question something. The unsuspecting migrant presents a forged work permit or residence permit and comes face to face with the punitive system.
As for talking about the integration of migrants into society, it seems a little strange to talk about particular difficulties here, as the majority of the migrants in Russia come from countries of the former USSR. They speak Russian and have a lot of things in common with Russians both in the past and the present.
However, in Russian society there is a high level of xenophobia and migrant-phobia, much of which is provoked by things said in the press by the state authorities themselves. It often seems as though it is somehow advantageous for unscrupulous officials, sometimes even very high-ranking ones, to maintain a status quo whereby migrants without rights, forced to stay illegally, work for peanuts, sometimes even for free, guaranteeing excess profit for their employers. Migrants are kept in a state of fear through the press and extremist groups and as such are not forced to come to terms with their slave-like situation. Officers from the law enforcement agencies, do not notice any violations, instead collect debts from illegal migrants and their employers, and even help suppress anyone who strikes. Meanwhile, the majority of society is a little infected by migrant-phobia and not ready to defend the rights of migrants and demand that they are able to enjoy the rights afforded to them by law in the Russian Federation.

Thus, on a platform of migrant-phobia, a widespread and stable corrupt system of using slave labour has been constructed.

In the 1950s the USA managed to achieve significant results in the fight against xenophobia and racism. This experience, fixed in law by a body of legislative acts, is extremely important material for us to study.

According to the American immigration barrister, Boris Palant, hundreds of thousands of people from the former USSR live illegally on the territory of the USA. This is the fifth largest illegal Diaspora after the Mexicans, the Chinese, the Indians and Filipinos.

How do American specialists measure the qualities of different Diasporas and their ability to integrate into American society? What level of integration should we expect and what should we aim for? How does the need for integration relate to the opportunity for the existence of a multi-cultural society? In what ways can you fight xenophobia? We would like to discuss all of these questions with our colleagues from the USA.

4. The asylum system. Cases of individual and mass arrivals of asylum seekers.
One of the most important and relatively difficult issues in terms of migration policy is the creation of a reliable asylum system.
Despite a few improvements in this field, there is nothing yet to boast about in Russia.
The table below shows that the number of people who have been granted asylum in the RF is paltry.

Table 1. Number of people recognised as refugees and registered with the FMS at the end of the year.

Year

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

Number of refugees

239359

128360

79727

26065

17902

13790

8725

614

458

405

452

713

762

Out of whom those in the RSO- Alanii

28086

26210

24124

19650

15150

11534

6688

229

110

101

Table 2. Those granted temporary asylum at the end of 2009.

Year	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Temporary asylum	1202	1056	1020	1180	1613	3425

Practically no-one is granted refugee status, so many despairing refugees do not even try to get it. This means that the number of those applying for asylum is significantly lower than the number of those who really need it.
Frequent rejections of applications to extend temporary asylum without any real basis also help to distort the picture of the volume and structure of forced migration in the Russian Federation.
There are several positive tendencies, however, on the whole the policy of the migration agencies towards refugees remains harsh, and maintains a system of repressive and ungrounded decisions.
Its characteristics:
- refugee status and temporary asylum in Russia are not extended for people, people are recommended to return to their homeland, where the situation has apparently normalised, often without any investigation at all into the real situation in their country of origin;
- being on the territory of the Russian Federation does not make the situation of refugees from countries with totalitarian regimes, such as Uzbekistan or North Korea, safe, because the migration agencies and the agencies of interior affairs take decisions to extradite them and the special services of their countries of origin work on Russian territory unimpeded;
- whilst changes in the approach to determining refugee status have clearly started with the FMS of Russia and are shown in the increase in the number of those who are granted status as well as in the issuing of documents confirming that asylum seekers have an application that is being judged on its merits that is valid for a minimum of 3 months, these initiatives have so far not been taken up by all of the territorial branches of the FMS and have only really affected the situation of those in Moscow and the Moscow region;
- Russian judges presiding over cases of granting or extending refugee status or temporary asylum, rarely change the decisions of the migration service.
It should be said that temporary asylum is granted far more generously than refugee status. When granting temporary asylum the state does not take on any responsibilities to provide social security or employment for its holder. And the status is granted for only one year.
However, the criteria for granting temporary asylum have also been eroded. In some regions it is granted to those who have close links with the Russian Federation, for example, a wife or husband or children who are Russian citizens. In other regions family links are not taken into account.

At this point I would like to point out that in Russia and the USA there is a different understanding of what constitutes a family. In the USA a family is made up of husband and wife and their children up to the age of 21. In Russian law the understanding is wider and is not so strictly defined. There is a reason for this: elderly relatives, grandmothers and grandfathers, and even uncles and aunts in our conditions cannot live apart from those members of the family who are able to work. For this reason they need to be included in its make-up. As in any patriarchal society, links between the generations are very strong and last a lifetime. This kind of difference has lead to several tragic situations during American programmes of resettlement from Russia for Baku Armenians and Meskhetian Turks. When one 80-year old grandmother turned out to be Russian, she was not included in the resettlement programme. The family was faced with the difficult choice of leaving the old woman to the will of fate or to sacrifice the future of their children and stay without housing or work, almost dying from hunger. We know of several cases when elderly relatives left behind have not lived for more than a few months after the family left.

It would be useful to discuss the criteria for granting refugee status, the correlation of legislative acts in this field and the creation in both countries of a more flexible system of asylum.

5. The Education and Training of Staff Working with Migrants. Getting to know the culture of countries of origin of migrants and asylum seekers.

The official that migrants first come into contact with, whether it is a refugee, an immigrant or a foreign worker, plays a huge role in his or her life. Officials recognise that the fate of others is in their hands. Far from all of them, unfortunately, are able to rationally manage the power that has been given them. According to our observations, arbitrary acts by officials are equally characteristic of the bureaucratic systems of both our countries. At the same time, it should be noted that this is not a characteristic of all national systems working with migrants.
The presence in the USA of a developed and powerful system of migrant reception and of asylum, does not spare migrants from the danger of falling into the hands of a petty tyrant who takes out their own unhappiness with life on them, and sometimes even their own sick imagination.
Although we have a mass of examples of the daily rudeness of not just Russian officials but judges as well (for example, why would anyone ask the wife of an applicant: “What did you marry this Asian for?” Or say to a barrister: “So now you’re bringing negroes to me?”), we would like to bring up one example from our experience of working on the US resettlement programme for Baku Armenians. Our applicant and her 15 year old daughter had already had their applications approved and had had the medical examination. Suddenly they were both called back to the US Embassy, where they were told by an official, that he did not believe that they were related, that the daughter was not 15 but more than 20, and that the mother had brought in another young woman to work her as a prostitute. We entered into one-on-one combat with American bureaucracy as we had known the daughter since she was born and had no doubts at all about her relationship with her mother. It took four years to find out the reasons for the official’s suspicions and refute them. In this time the homeless women managed to fall out, the daughter suffered her own personal drama, the mother had a stroke. Now she is in America and she writes that she is happy there. However, this happiness cost her dearly as she has lost contact with her daughter.
The migration agencies of Russia and the USA (at the level of the embassy structures in Moscow at any rate) also have a similar way of giving negative replies to application for asylum. When our migration services reject an application for asylum, they give the applicant a piece of paper, with one sentence on it: “your application has been refused because your situation does not comply with Article 1.1 of the Law of the Russian Federation “On Refugees”. There is rarely any motivation given and only after pressure from non-governmental organisations providing the applicant with a barrister, who cannot argue the negative decision in court due to the complete lack of information on it.
Rejections from the US Embassy of asylum applications do not sound much better: “Your application has been rejected for one or several of the following reasons……” What follows is a list of the possible reasons for the rejection, which the unfortunate person whose application has been refused, studies carefully, hopelessly trying to understand, which of the list apply to him or her.

From our observations there is another similarity between the asylum systems of our two countries: the practically insurmountable first decision of the official who conducts the interview. I would even say that the supposition of infallibility is stronger in the USA than in Russia. It is no stretch for those working with the Embassy in this field to foresee the result of a particular case, if the situation of the applicant is known as well as the official who is conducting the interview. It seems that the system is built on the supposition of infallibility of the official.
We also often come across cases when the interviewer does not understand or does not take into account the cultural particulars of the background of the applicant. Studying the particulars of the culture of the people staff from the migration services work with is an extremely important part of their training, not just for the officials themselves, but also for members of any non-governmental organisations who are involved in the work. We often do not have this kind of training and we need help from specialists in this field.
We have had to empirically establish information on Afghan applicants, who do not record dates of even the most important events of their lives, for example, their date of birth. They are not able to pull out those moments from their past, which support their right to apply for refugee status, speaking more often about today and mixing up the sequence of events. As a result the staff of the migration services simply do not believe what they are saying. We have recently been working with many Africans whose cultural background we know nothing about. Their situation is awful because their main language of communication is French, which has been completely forgotten in Russia, and because we know little about the situation in their countries.
I cannot help but point out that this type of lack of understanding can often be seen amongst American migration officials too, when they evaluate what they have heard from Russian or citizens of other former Soviet states, who seek asylum in the USA.

Training staff from the migration services and judges who specialise in migration cases, teaching them broad cultural notions, developing their skills to learn the elements of legislation and tradition of countries of origin of migrants and refugees and the ability to find the necessary country of origin information – this is a vital part of any civilised migration policy. Co-operation in this field would also be useful for our two countries.

6. The responsibility of the Russian Federation and the USA for policies leading to more flows of refugees. (Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq)
The final problem I would like to touch upon is the responsibility of the two countries, the USA and Russia, for migration processes in the world.
During the war in Chechnya, Russia took first place in the world as a country of origin of asylum seekers. First place then went to Iraq, with the start of the war there.
It is clear that refugee flows have been a consequence of the internal policy of the Russian Federation and the external policy of the USA.
The responsibility of the leading powers for the consequences of their policy, the fight against terrorism, the political mechanisms allowed as part of this fight – this is a discussion that is outside of the framework of the topic at hand. However, it is a discussion that our countries should have. Perhaps the theme of responsibility should take first place in our societies’ dialogue. The resolution of questions such as this cannot be farmed out to the politicians and representatives of the authorities by society. It is civil society who should call upon them to do this, a civil society that in recent years has managed to become more and more unified, overcoming borders, cultural and confessional differences.

Nigeria-Cameroon By Road Adventure

2010-05-16T06:47:00.001Z

May 15, 2010 10:15 AM

Trying to get to Cameroon from Nigeria

Posted by Anjali Nayar Calabar, Nigeria - There's something very gratifying about just picking something off a menu at random in a new country.

I'd heard both great and terrible things about Nigerian food, so I figured I should indulge. Edikang Ikong and Semovita. That should do the trick, I thought.

It turned out to be some sort of pumpkin leaf soup accompanied by a stiff porridge made from wheat semolina. I learned quickly that Nigerian soups are full of surprises. As you wade in with your hand, you are never quite sure what you will pull out: a full crayfish, chunks of chicken or smoked fish. In my Edikang Ikong I found a strange rubbery square that popped out between my fingers and skidded across the table. When I finally nabbed it and took I bite, it crackled. Ah, good old fatty cow skin.

It was my first meal in a while; making my way to Cameroon was more complicated than I expected. The Cameroonian consulate in Lagos was shut because the consular conveniently went on vacation. I tried to call first, but listed embassy phone numbers and addresses are rarely up-to-date in this part of the world. You basically have to troll around until you find someone who knows the place.

I was told that to get a visa I would have to fly to Calabar, which was once a major port in the Atlantic slave trade. The city is in the south-eastern part of the country, and a four-hour boat ride away from the Cameroonian border. But of course, I couldn't book the ticket online with a Visa card.

Hoping to skip a bit of the run-around, I decided to wing and showed up at the airport listed by the airline company online. Naturally it was the wrong airport.

A few taxi rides later, I found the place, deflated my ball (with the inner ink tube of a ball-point pen) and scrambled through security. A guy in a flashy suit and pointy cowboy shoes behind me got on board with a slew of needles and other pointy objects, binoculars around his neck.

"I'm a famous pastor," he stated, as if it was some sort of diplomatic passport.

Without further ado, he was welcomed on-board: "welcome pastor, thank you pastor."

Very reassuring.

Anjali's trip across Africa

View Anjali Nayar - Destination: South Africa in a larger map

A few hours later in Calabar, I had dropped my passport off for a visa. A very nice official said he would make sure I got it back the same day as long as I supported the Cameroonian national side, The Indomitable Lions, during the World Cup.

"Of course," I assured him.

Now, I just needed to find a boat.

I jumped in a shared taxi to the beach. The taxi driver had on bug-eye sunglasses and an orange African print shirt emblazoned with the face of his state governor. He was in a heated argument with a woman in the back seat, who didn't have change for her fare (around 35 cents). To prevent the driver from driving off with her 500 Naira bill (around $3.50), the woman grabbed my bag as collateral. Jerry fought back with a slew of words in pigeon English so loud that the Nigerian hip hop music playing over the radio seemed like an undertone.

"What's your name?" I asked, during a break in his rant.

"Jerry," he answered abruptly.

I immediately liked him.

We sped through the wide colonial roads of Calabar (or Calamari, as my father referred to it on the phone) in Jerry's broken-down blue cab with a faded Manchester United sticker on the windshield.

At the beach, Jerry jumped out of the car and led me through the masses of testosterone. The port was filled with a bunch of gruff, minimally-clothed men, resting after a day of hard manual labour.

It's amazing how local the ferry services are: no schedule online, no telephone number. Half of the people working at the port weren't even aware there was a passenger boat. Some said it left on Monday, some on Tuesday, others on Wednesday. "You're too late -- it left yesterday," another woman advised.

After a few wrong turns, we found the boat's one-room office behind a police post. There was n one there. Outside, a man named Stephen was resting shirtless in a lawn chair.

"This is the place," he told me. "But come back tomorrow to buy the ticket."

I begged him to reserve a ticket for me. "Even if a million people come here, please save me one ticket," I said. If I missed the boat, I'd be stranded in Calabar for another three days until the next boat.

Steven chuckled. "I'll save you three," he said.

A day later, I had a Cameroonian visa, a ticket to the ferry and very little sleep - it turned out my hotel room was adjacent to the rowdiest bar in town.

Lessons learned in crossing borders

The day of the boat, Jerry picked me up at the crack of dawn in a sombre white t-shirt, no sunglasses. The port was already packed with passengers in various immigration lines. I joined the queue and was pushed out by various experienced passengers. Every time I turned my head, another person snuck in front.

When I got to the immigration office, my passport made the rounds until someone found something in the booklet to interrogate me about. The officer, like two thirds of the officials there, was dressed in street clothes. I originally took him for another passenger. His name was Al Haji, hard to forget since he wrote it in my notebook.

"Show me your entry stamp," he said.

"It's on the immigration page, isn't it?" I lied. "I don't know," I said, flipping through my passport. "What does it look like?"

I knew full well the entry stamp was on the last page of my passport. My visa was valid for three months, but when I entered the country by bus, and the woman asked how long I would be staying in the country, and I said, "I don't know, maybe a week?" It was the wrong answer because the woman wrote "one week" in my passport. I knew it might be a problem exiting the country.

"It's here on the last page - you have overstayed by six days," Al Haji pointed out. "You should have extended your visa."

"My visa was valid for three months," I said casually. "The woman stamped my passport as I was crossing the border and I didn't know she only gave me a week."

Immigration officers can smell fear. I stayed calm.

"You didn't check it after all this time?" he pried.

I laughed, shaking my head.

"You should take it like your handbag - you have to check it," Al Haji scolded.

"You have taught me something," I said, with a smile.

"Your passport is also too full. Any country can deny you entry because there is no place to stamp," he said, relenting a bit.

"Ah, you have taught me two things today," I smiled. "Thank you."

"You will give me your address so I can be writing you all the time," he said, finally with a smile. "Now you take mine," he said, writing his details out semi-legibly. It was a show of solidarity.

Five border crossings, zero bribes paid. That's like winning the lottery.

Next up: Part II of the journey to Cameroon: A boat ride through the infamous Niger Delta to Cameroon and meeting my first con artist.

As always, follow me on Twitter.

*************

Canadian journalist Anjali Nayar is travelling across Africa by train, bus and foot (and when necessary by plane), and will arrive in South Africa just before the World Cup. Along the way, Anjali will tell the continent's stories through its favourite sport: soccer.

For the trip, Anjali is bringing only the essentials on her back (camera, flip video, computer) and in her hand - a soccer ball. Every day, Anjali will play soccer, whether she's on the beaches of Accra or stuck in one of Lagos' impenetrable traffic jams. Sometimes she'll play with children in the sprawling slums and refugee camps, other times she'll play with adults in the rich diplomatic quarters of major cities.

Through her Destination: South Africa blog, Anjali hopes CBCSports.ca readers will discover Africa and what the World Cup and the game of soccer means to the continent.

Cameroonian detained for smuggling Khmer gold to Thailand

2010-04-12T20:26:00.001Z

Cameroonian detained for smuggling Khmer gold to Thailand
วันศุกร์ ที่ 09 เม.ย. 2553
Photo

SA KAEO, April 9 (TNA) – A Cameroon man was abruptly detained with smuggled gold by Thai officials at the Aranyaprathet district immigration checkpoint after having crossed the border from Poi Pet in Cambodia to Thai territory.

Arrested while carrying wheeled baggage, the man was asked to be searched, as said by officials, for he was deemed suspicious.

Grains of gold weighing some 1,250 grammes were found packed in a plastic bag hidden in the suitcase without legal documentation permitting the importing of gold.

Milol Francis, 35, confessed to the Thai authorities he had travelled to Cambodia and bought the precious metal, which he said had been smuggled by various gold mines in Cambodia and later sold in Phnom Penh.

Milol said he had bought the gold for US$2,000 in order to resell it in Cameroon. Thai officials said the gold was seized and legal action will be taken against the suspect. (TNA)

The Egypt to Israel Migrants Track by African Migrants

2010-02-03T10:38:00.004-01:00

Cameroonian Man Wounded By Egyptian bullet as he tries to Enter Israel.

Tuesday February 02, 2010 10:23 by IMEMC & Agencies

Egyptian security sources reported Monday that a young Ethiopian man was shot and wounded by Egyptian Border Police fire, and another man was arrested while trying to infiltrate Israel through an area south of Kerem Shalom (Karem Abu Salem) Crossing.

The source added that border policemen noticed two African immigrants trying to cross through an opening in the barbed-wires near border marker #13, south of the crossing.

The Egyptian border police claimed that the two were repeatedly ordered to stop, and that the policemen had to open fire at them after they ignored the warnings.

One of the immigrants was shot in his left thigh and suffered cuts and bruises after falling on the barbed wire. The two were identified as Najos Edrees and Zaro Mahrai, both 20.

On Sunday, an Ethiopian immigrant was shot and killed by Egyptian fire, while an immigrant from Cameron was shot in his thigh while trying to cross the barbed wire in an attempt to illegally enter Israel seeking work.

The incident took place near marker #11, five kilometers away from the Rafah Border Terminal.

Also on Sunday, the Egyptian Border Police arrested eight African immigrants (six Eritreans and two Ethiopians) near marker #50, in the Sinai desert.

Spank Me Says UK Registrar to Cameroonian Girls - I Give You Diplome

2010-02-03T10:31:00.002-01:00

Karl Woodgett offered bogus degrees in return for spanking sessions

Simon de Bruxelles

A university registrar offered bogus degrees in return for spanking sessions in a hotel, a court was told yesterday.

Karl Woodgett, 37, former registrar at the University of Surrey and the University of Bath, already had a lucrative sideline selling degrees to African women when he came up with a way of satisfying his sexual desires at the same time.

He told the women that his name was Dave and that he could offer them a degree in return for their help with a “pain management study”. The spanking sessions with two women from Cameroon were videotaped.

Woodgett pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make false instruments, namely university degrees, and two counts of possessing articles for the use of fraud, namely two blank degree certificates from the University of Bath. He was given a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for a year, and ordered to complete 200 hours of community work.

The court was told that he began to falsify degree certificates for relatives of his Cameroonean former wife Delphine Kah, 31, while working at the University of Surrey. She also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make false documents and was given a four-month prison sentence, suspended for a year.

James Ward, prosecuting for the UK Border Agency, told Bristol Crown Court: “He did not want Kah for sex but to indulge his spanking fetish with her because she had a black bottom.”

Woodgett set prices ranging from £500 for a 2.2 undergraduate degree to £1,000 for a Master’s with distinction. Mr Ward said: “This was the start of a mail-order business run along the lines of a fast-food takeaway, where customers recorded their orders with a number.”

Woodgett used a colleague’s password to insert the names of bogus candidates into a degree database for approval by senior officials at the University of Bath’s senate meetings. He then obtained blank degree certificates by claiming he was conducting a printing review.

In 2008 he persuaded two Cameroonean women from Bath, Elsie Neh and Mbone Kemba, to participate in a “pain management study”. He filmed their spanking and caning sessions, which were consensual, and paid the women for their time. He suggested rewarding them with bogus university degree certificates that were later found on his computer. Mr Ward said: “He took Elsie to a hotel in Bath where various things took place of a sexual nature which he told her were for carrying out research.”

Judge David Ticehurst told Woodgett he was guilty of a clear breach of trust.

“It goes to the root of what universities are about, and if they have administrators such as you who are prepared to falsify documents then the whole point of that purpose is undermined.

“You have already suffered immense personal loss as a result of your actions. You have lost your job, career, professional reputation and your marriage.”

Detective Constable Steve Magee, of the UK Border Agency’s immigration crime team, described Woodgett’s crimes as a conspiracy to defraud UK immigration.

He said: “This was a serious attempt by a corrupt individual, and his ex-wife, to abuse his position at two prestigious universities.

“We believe we stopped this scam in its tracks before people could cheat their way to a qualification they didn’t deserve. We are also confident that a conspiracy to defraud the UK’s immigration system was stopped.”

Miss Africa USA 2010: No Doubt to it, Cameroon Girls Na The Most Beautiful :P

2010-01-27T06:49:00.003-01:00

Miss Africa USA 2010: Contestant Tatiana Fetgo from Cameroon

Tatiana Fetgo from Cameroon: If I had a cooking show I will cook Ndole.

By Miss Africa USA 2010

School/Institution: Virginia Commonwealth University

Major/minor: Psychology

Giving back:
AWEDP (African Women's Education/Development partnership): Currently providing my assistance, in establishing this new organization, and participating in any on going projects.

Barnabas Project: This is an after school program for children, aiming to provide support to the African Community in Richmond city.

RIS (Refugee and Immigration Services in Richmond VA): I serve as a mentor to refugees from Africa, helping them adjust to their new American life.

Rhema Orphanage In Ombe Cameroon: I have helped raised funds and assisted with providing food and clothes to this orphanage of my choice.

Five-Year Aspirational Plan: In five years I see myself continuing with my volunteer services with other organizations. Working on my PHD in Psychology, while raising funds to open "You Are Not Forgotten Center"; a trauma based center for street kids and orphans. This will be a place for healing, and hopefully adoption for many.

Country you are representing: Cameroon.

Platform: "You Are Not Forgotten" My Goal is to open a rehabilitation center for orphans and street kids who have experienced trauma, with hope for future adoption.

Contestant Tatiana Fetgo from Cameroon.

UGPulse: Oprah emotionally calling it quits - Marketing strategy or is that reading too much into it?"

I love Oprah and respect her for all the work she has done so far. I believe that they comes a time when as human we realize that we have done all we can do. Oprah is a very clever woman; I do not envision her staying at home enjoying her revenues. She has mentioned that she will be working on other projects which include having her own network. So is this a marketing strategy? I don't believe so; she is showing that at times you must call it quits to allow the younger generation to have a shot as well.

UGPulse: If you watched the new incredible movie, Avatar, what moved you most in the movie and what positive or negative message did you take home from watching this movie?

Initially I was not interested in the movie. However in the course of watching it and not taking it so literally, I began to understand the metaphor behind the movie. This movie showed a nation with perseverance and faith! Reminded me of Africa, despite all obstacles African nations face they always have a smile on their face and faith in their heart. The movie reiterated how selfish human beings can be. Once a nation more powerful set their eyes on a less powerful nation for natural resource purposes, they are willing to destroy lives in other to build theirs. This movie gave me a perceptive of how slavery and colonization all began.

UGPulse: If Miss Africa USA had a cooking segment, what would you cook to represent your country and walk through the process of cooking involved in preparing your chosen dish?

I love cooking! Growing up I did not think I had it in me but having to leave my native country and not having my mother around to cook for me, I had to learn to return to my roots by learning how to cook African food. If I had a cooking show I will cook Ndole. Because I m in the USA I will utilize ingredients from the US;
For the ingredients you will need:

Frozen or fresh or canned greens, spinach or collard green etc… I mix mine
Blanched or white peanuts
Meat (duck leg, chicken)
Oil
Cubes
Salt
Hot pepper (optional)
Yellow plantains

Start by heating the oil in cooking ware, cut onions and add to oil. Blend the blanched peanuts; add the blended peanut in the oil. Stir occasionally so it will not burn. Finely chop the greens and rinse them with warm water. Once the peanuts have cooked for about 25 minutes add the meat, wait another five to ten minutes and add the greens. For taste add salt, cubes and hot pepper. Eat with boiled or fried plantains.

UGPulse: What do men say is the sexiest thing about you?

On the physical aspect; my smile. Although the physical appearance does not define one's personality, the way one presents herself plays a major role in most cases. My ability to care for others more than myself; I m a humble, God fearing, ambitious and selfless individual. My bilingual background in French and English has bestow on me a distinguished accent, which has also been said to be the sexiest thing about me.

Contestant Tatiana Fetgo from Cameroon.

Fresh asylum claim for Cameroon woman

2010-01-17T09:40:00.000-01:00

Fresh asylum claim for Cameroon woman

Date published: 13/01/2010

Lydia Besong, the writer and human rights activist threatened with deportation from the UK, is preparing a fresh claim for asylum in the UK.

Mrs Besong and her husband Bernard came to the UK in December 2006.

They lived in Rochdale for three years and their widespread support included the Rev Graham Lindley and parishioners at St Ann’s Church in Belfield, Rochdale.

Their asylum claim is based on their activities with the Southern Cameroon National Council, a peaceful political organisation which campaigns for the rights of the English-speaking minority of Cameroon. In Cameroon, both Lydia and Bernard suffered beatings, torture and imprisonment as a result of their involvement with the SCNC and Lydia was raped by a uniformed prison guard.

Mrs Besong was released from detention last Friday after the UK Border agency decided to consider a fresh claim for asylum.

She had been detained at Dallas Court reporting centre in Salford on 10 December and was taken to Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire after being told she would be deported to Cameroon on 21 December. Her husband Bernard Batey, also 38, was due to be deported at the same time.

But, with only 72 hours to go, a High Court judge in Manchester granted an injunction preventing the couple’s deportation until new evidence was considered. The UK Border Agency has now agreed that there is evidence for a fresh claim and Mrs Besong has been released.

The couple have been backed by Rochdale MP Paul Rowen who urged Border and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas to take another look at the case. Mr Rowen said he had reviewed the case himself and was still of the opinion that there was “a real and substantial danger to Ms Besong and Mr Batey should they be returned to Cameroon”.

Mr Rowen said: “I am delighted that Lydia has now been released. However, new restrictions mean that both she and Bernard have to report weekly to Dallas Court in Salford. When their asylum claim was refused, all support – including housing – was withdrawn from them so I am currently going through the process of re-applying for that support. I know that they are currently staying with friends in Chorlton Manchester but I have written to NASS as they wish to move back to their previous address in Rochdale.

“I have spoken to their solicitor and I will be fully backing their new appeal for asylum. Both Lydia and Bernard have made a great contribution to Rochdale and the wider region since moving here in 2006 and this can be seen from the numbers of people backing their campaign.”

Lydia and Bernard Besong said in a joint statement: “We would like to thank Paul and all our supporters for the marvellous work they have done and for the letters, emails and faxes they sent to the Home Office backing our campaign.”

The couple’s campaign is also being backed by WAST, RAPAR, Manchester writers, and English PEN, the charity which campaigns for writers and playwrights internationally.

Success Stories: For a Widow, an Apartment; for a Refugee, His Family

2009-12-30T20:37:00.000-01:00

Success Stories: For a Widow, an Apartment; for a Refugee, His Family

Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times

Patrice Mbekeli, a political refugee from Cameroon, reunited in September with his wife, Angele Ndjogo, and four children.

Published: December 31, 2009

In daily articles that run from November to January, the Neediest Cases fund-raising campaign provides a window into the lives of the people it serves. Sometimes a small amount of money provided by the fund can avert a larger disaster; sometimes it can do little more than cushion the sharp edges of struggle. Occasionally, it can change lives.

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This is the 98th Neediest Cases fund-raising campaign.

The agencies supported by the Neediest Cases Fund explain how readers' donations bring stability to people's lives in times of crisis.

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To find out more about the Neediest Cases Fund, visit nytimes.com/neediest. To make a donation, visit nycharities.org/neediest. We also invite you to follow us on Twitter.

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The Neediest Cases | Generations of Giving

The Neediest Cases: Getting Off Welfare, and Getting Her Son to College (December 29, 2009)

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Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times

Marie Hinkel, now settled in White Plains, said that without the Neediest Cases Fund, she would still be in financial trouble.

Here are two cases from past campaigns that show how timely assistance from the seven agencies supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund has made a lasting difference.

Though it had been 20 years since Marie Hinkel, 80, had lived in White Plains, when she returned in February, it seemed as if she had never left.

“I can’t go on the street without running into someone I know,” she said one afternoon, sitting in her living room.

The move — to the one-bedroom apartment in a 12-story housing complex for older people — has other benefits, she said. A church close by serves free meals daily; her fellow tenants are friendly.

Many, like herself, are widowed, with little family and a love of cats. (She has two, Frisky, 17, and Muffy, 5.).

“There’s not one person here that I don’t like,” Mrs. Hinkel continued. “Even going to the mailbox, there’s always someone there, offering candies, chocolates, cookies — I don’t eat that stuff anymore because of my cholesterol,” she said, admitting that she sometimes cheats.

But it is the monthly rent, $665, that gives her the greatest satisfaction. “I can’t spend much money,” she said. Her Social Security benefits and the interest from money from the sale of her old apartment in Port Chester, N.Y., are her only income, she said.

Before the sale, she often worried about how she would feed herself and that she would be homeless. “If I wasn’t able to sell my apartment, I don’t know where I’d be,” she said.

Mrs. Hinkel’s predicament was featured in The New York Times in November 2008.

Her husband, Martin, had died at 78 in 2007. His declining health put her $15,000 in debt. Though she didn’t have a mortgage, she was struggling to keep up with her utilities and $752 in maintenance.

Selling her apartment seemed the only answer to her financial distress. But the building’s co-op board turned all the offers down, she said. “It took three or four months for them to go through the paperwork,” she said. “They’d say no and never told me why.”

As time passed, she became more worried.

She turned to a friend, Judy Fink, the director of geriatric services at the Westchester Jewish Community Services, a beneficiary of UJA-Federation of New York, which is one of the seven agencies supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. Ms. Fink helped Mrs. Hinkel apply for a reverse mortgage, which took eight months to process. Meanwhile, Ms. Fink relieved some of Mrs. Hinkel’s financial stress by pulling $550 from the Neediest Cases Fund to cover her maintenance charges.

Near the end of 2008, another offer — an all-cash deal for $100,000 — came in and was quickly approved, to Ms. Hinkel’s relief, for it allowed her to move to White Plains and into the senior housing complex.

“It saved my life,” Mrs. Hinkel said. “I love it here.”

•

Waiting outside the international arrivals area at John F. Kennedy Airport one day in September 2009, Patrice Mbekeli couldn’t help being anxious. His wife and four children were joining him in New York. He had not seen them since he fled Cameroon in 2007 to escape years of persecution for refusing to support the government.

The reunion was never assured, and at times seemed elusive, said Mr. Mbekeli, interviewed recently by phone from Texas, where he lives now.

After arriving in America, he faced hardship before and after being granted political asylum, including unemployment and homelessness.

In June 2008, he contacted Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, which was among a list of agencies he was given with his political asylum papers. “I was a mathematics teacher for Catholic schools in Cameroon,” he said, explaining why he chose to call.

Catholic Charities helped him enroll in English classes and a training course to become a home health aide, to apply for food stamps and Medicaid and to find housing. Catholic Charities, one of the seven agencies supported by the Neediest Cases Fund, also drew $490 from the fund to pay off part of the $1,390 he owed his immigration lawyer for securing documents necessary for his family to join him in America.

After the details of Mr. Mbekeli’s struggle were written about in The New York Times last year, a reader, Wallace Cooke Jr., a former New York City police officer and a real estate investor, asked Catholic Charities to arrange a meeting with Mr. Mbekeli.

“I knew I wanted to offer him a job right on the spot,” said Mr. Cooke, interviewed recently by phone.

Mr. Mbekeli accepted the job, to maintain a 114-unit residential property that Mr. Cooke had recently bought in Odessa, Tex. The offer included a plane ticket and housing.

“It took him some time to get adjusted,” Mr. Cooke said. “But he has done very well.”

While Mr. Mbekeli learned skills like plumbing and landscaping during the day, at night he found a second job at Wal-Mart. Within months, Mr. Mbekeli was able to save $7,000 — enough to pay for his family’s travel in September, after their visas were approved.

“We just fell in the arms of each other,” said Mr. Mbekeli, describing their reunion. For a few moments they could hardly speak; then the emotional silence erupted into laughter, he said. Ms. Mbekeli picked up their 2-year-old, Camerica, conceived two months before Mr. Mbekeli left Cameroon, and placed her in his arms.

“It was like it was in my dreams every night,” he said. “It was joyous.”

Asylum in Estonia tripled in 2009

2009-12-28T12:11:00.000-01:00

Number of people seeking asylum in Estonia tripled in 2009

28.12.2009, 10:21

While in earlier two years, Estonia had about 15 asylum seekers a year, the number this year is already 40.

Eesti Päevaleht daily writes that although in comparison with tens of thousands of asylum-seekers in Scandinavia this is still nothing, Estonian authorities see it as a sign.

"Whether we like it or not, but Estonia has been discovered by illegal immigration," says Erkki Koort, deputy general secretary of the ministry of interior, adding that incidents like border patrols finding a group of Afghans wondering in the woods near Koidula border checkpoint or taking them off a Latvian bus to Tallinn are becoming increasingly common. "We managed to foil attempts to create a southeast route for entering Estonia. As a result, the majority of illegal aliens now arrive Estonia from Latvia."

According to Koort, Estonia is still regarded by asylum-seekers as a gateway to Finland or Sweden. "We recently got an application from an illegal immigrant who believed that he was already in Finland. When he was told that it was Estonia, he withdrew his application.

"I like it in Estonia", says Antony Nemalraj who escaped from war-torn Sri Lanka and obtained a refugee status in Estonia. He says that in 2007 he bought a forged Malaysian passport and was organized to a trip to Russia and then to Estonia. Although his original plan was to go to Europe, he decided to remain in Estonia. Nemalraj lives and works in Pärnu as a chef and speaks a little Estonian.

A similar trend is seen in Finland. While in 2007, there were only 1,500 asylum seekers in Finland, their number had increased to 5,300 by end of 2009. This is because Sweden and Norway have already introduced new restrictions for asylum seekers, but Finland is still considering it.

Finnish authorities believe that once they have introduced stricter measures, the pressure on Estonian immigration service will also increase.

Recruited to chase a dream In the US

2009-12-28T04:43:00.001-01:00

Recruited to chase a dream

Young ballplayers from Africa feel poorly used as they are bounced from school to school; though, fearing deportation, many keep quiet in hopes they can have a better life in the US

Thon Luony warmed up before a game in Miami recently. Trying to remain in the country on a student visa, the Sudanese man enrolled at a community college in Florida. It’s his fourth school in three years. (Rhona Wise for The Boston Globe)

By Bob Hohler Globe Staff / December 27, 2009

When the dream makers found them, one boy was living barefoot in an Ethiopian refugee camp, the other languishing on the streets of an émigré enclave in Australia.

Both boys were Sudanese. And both were very tall.

Play basketball in America, the men urged them, and seize your dreams: education, housing, food, and clothing, all expenses paid. Maybe even a shot at the National Basketball Association.

The two refugees, like dozens of athletic African youths shepherded to US shores by basketball recruiters associated with American nonprofit charities, arrived with little more than the shirts on their backs and starry visions of new lives in a land of plenty.

Instead, Thon Luony and Mathiang Muo tumbled into a group some are calling the new Lost Boys of Sudan - young Afri can basketball prospects bounced by their sponsors from state to state and school to school, sometimes substandard schools where basketball is the main object and academics are sketchy. Some, like Luony, fear deportation if they protest. Many wind up feeling manipulated and betrayed, but also wary of losing the support of those who promised to help them.

A Globe examination of the recruitment and treatment of African schoolboy ballplayers found many such stories. Last year, for example, six Sudanese refugees were sent from Australia to Laurinburg Institute, a financially imperiled basketball mill in North Carolina, where they complained of receiving too little food. Months later, all but two of the youths were returned to Australia, after the National Collegiate Athletic Association barred US colleges from accepting Laurinburg’s academic credits for student athletes.

Some do find success, much as their sponsors predicted. The best prospects among the refugee recruits are shopped to the top prep and college basketball programs, and two Sudanese have, in the past decade, reached the NBA. But many others, like Muo and Luony, are left feeling poorly used and scrambling for help.

“They treat us like slaves,’’ Luony said at a rural school in Mississippi where he found temporary refuge. “It happens all the time to kids from Africa, and a lot of us don’t know any better. It’s very frightening.’’

The high-handed practices of some sponsoring groups and schools may not be illegal, but they can further traumatize emotionally vulnerable youths and violate the spirit of the student visa program, according to refugee specialists. Sudanese youths, particularly members of the vast Dinka and Nuer tribes, are especially susceptible to basketball recruiters because they rank among the world’s tallest men.

“It’s pure exploitation,’’ said Ken Isaacs, a director of Friends of the Sudanese, a Massachusetts aid group.

Some call for a watchdog agency to govern the largely unregulated system.

“You need to develop standards for how to treat the kids and establish a commission to oversee the system,’’ said Mark Crandall, founder of Hoops 4 Hope, which helps youths in southern Africa by teaching them life skills through basketball.Continued...

Cameroonian SCNC Assylum Seekers Risking Deportation in the UK

2009-12-17T20:08:00.001-01:00

Asylum seeker faces threat of deportation

by Helen Johnson
December 16, 2009

FEAR ... Bernard Oben Batey and Lydia Ebok Besong say they fear for their lives if deported back to Cameroon.

A POLITICAL asylum seeker who gained the support of the community in Rochdale after fleeing her native Cameroon in fear of her life looks set to be deported by the end of the month.

Lydia Besong says she was tortured and raped because of her political activities in Cameroon and is frightened of the consequences if she is forced to return.

The 38-year-old teacher, who lives with her husband Bernard Oben Batey in Rochdale Road, Firgrove, has been fighting to stay in the UK for the past three years.

Last Tuesday however, she was detained after reporting to a Salford immigration centre and has since been transferred to Yarls Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire.

She is due to be deported on Monday 21 December, unless the couple's lawyers, and Paul Rowen MP are able to intervene.

The pair's case for asylum was rejected after a judge said he did not believe that documents presented by the couple were genuine.

But they insist they were targeted for political activities and say they have provided letters backing them up from senior members of the Southern Cameroon National Council party, the political group they are involved in, which campaigns for the English-speaking minority but has been declared illegal by the Cameroon government.

During their time in Rochdale the couple have gained the support of Mr Rowen, as well as Sir Cyril Smith, who wrote to Jacqui Smith in support of them.

Mr Rowen, said: "I am fully backing both Bernard and Lydia as I believe they have a genuine case for political asylum and I don't say that about every case I see. Over the last few weeks I have been advising their solicitors but no action seems to have been taken."

Bernard and Lydia have attended St Ann's Church in Belfield since coming to the UK and are supported by the former and present vicars.

Lydia has also gained the support of playwrights groups and writers after she wrote a play about her experiences as an asylum seeker, which was recently performed at Manchester's Zion Theatre.

The writing group English Pen is also behind her and a vigil was held in Manchester on Saturday calling for her release.

Robert Sharp, from the charity which campaigns for writers and playwrights internationally, described Lydia's deportation as a blow to freedom of speech.

He said: "It is astonishing that the UK plans to deport someone who has been seeking refuge from a government that attacked her just for exercising her right to freedom of expression."

Among others giving support are Manchester writer Cath Staincliffe, creator of TV's Blue Murder series starring Caroline Quentin.

Cameroonian Passports On The Loose for Visas - Belize

2009-12-03T08:43:00.000-01:00

Nigerians Busted with Counterfeit Passports
posted (December 1, 2009)

Today, a pair of Nigerians were taken to court and charged with possession of six Cameroon passports that authorities suspect were going to be used in some kind of immigration scam. Francis Njimgoy and Prince Arzutory – both 30 years old – were charged with 6 counts of unlawful possession of passports when they appeared in Belize City Magistrate’s Court today.

On November 27th, police found them with 6 passports with the names of Cameroon nationals in them. Francis, who gave his occupation as a football player pleaded guilty while prince, a taxi driver, pleaded not guilty. But Magistrate Albert Hoare didn’t accept the guilty please because Francis explained that he had the passports because he had taken them to the Immigration Department in Belmopan to get student visas for the holders of the passports.

But Francis did get to plead guilty to another charge and that was for overstaying his time granted on his visitor’s permit for which he was fine done thousand dollars. His associate prince is detained and is expected to be offered bail tomorrow.

Imagine if Sub Saharan Africa benefited from African Americans

2009-11-25T04:02:00.002-01:00

Imagine if Sub Saharan Africa benefited from African Americans

By Charles Sogbesan

The Oktoberfest is definitely for the gormandizer, whether it lasts for 17 days or 18 days, depending on if it starts on the 1st or 2nd of October. The 2 weeks festival, an important part of the Bavarian culture attracts about 6 million people both nationally and internationally, annually. As if that was not compelling enough, to appreciate it, is not to have a nutritional therapy during the course of the festival. If you are bashful, it is definitely for you, if you plan on being “on the wagon”, it is not for you.
The non stop over indulgence in Reiberdastachi (Potato Pancakes), Kaasspootzn (Cheese Noodles), Wurstl (Sausages), Obatzda (Buttered Spiced cheese), Hendl (Chicken), Rotkraut (Red Cabbage), and all other Bavarian delicacies your stomach can handle, is not for the modest. This is definitely is a festival of “the more the merrier”. But you would think because of its Bavarian origin, it is only celebrated in Germany.
Yet from Argentina to Brazil to the United States to Chile to Ireland to Canada, you will find Oktoberfest simultaneously going on right about the same time, a testament to German presence in those countries, a testament to emigration. What is quite compelling for me is the immigration, emigration dynamics. Observing the host countries that at some point or the other, at some interesting points in history have had the phenomena of other cultures cast upon their own cultures and thus allowed those emigrants shape them consequentially as better and greater countries.
It is no wonder, that some of the biggest Oktoberfest celebrations (Outside of Germany) in the United States are in the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, 2 states which have huge German presence.
Cinco de Mayo (5th of May) is another of these note worthy holidays that have significance for many Americans of Mexican Heritage. Originally a Regional holiday in Mexico, observed only in the Mexican state of Puebla to commemorate an unlikely Mexican army defeat over the French in the battle of Puebla on the same day of 1862,
It has become a significant day of pride and heritage for the Americans of Mexican heritage, though like Oktoberfest, enjoyed by all. As you will find Mexicans celebrating Cinco de Mayo in the United States, you will concurrently find such celebrations in Canada and various South American countries with significant Mexican presence. Like Columbus Day for the Italians, St Patrick’s day for the Irish and so forth
To see the richness in this diversity, and the greatness of countries with significant immigrant populations, managed well, is to have an appreciation of emigrants and host countries benefiting from each other in the best possible ways.
I have observed that countries that tend to have success in managing their diversity very well, seem to share one thing in common; they tend to be great countries economically, technologically, culturally and socially.
I not only observed the most obvious candidates, the USA (with its torturous journey and travails), Brazil, South Africa, Singapore, but also Canada, Portugal, the UAE, Kenya and Senegal (with its French citizens) . The circumstances that brought about the diversity not withstanding, there are these consistent themes that, the better managed a country’s diversity is and the more diverse they are, the greater they are. I am of course mindful of the uniqueness of Japan and a few homogenous Nordic countries, which however have these luxuries of having steady, evolving and uninterrupted amaranthine civilizations.
I used the Oktoberfest example earlier, because it is non speculative for me. The most empirical examples of cross cultural successes will be to look at glaring examples of how former immigrants whether 1 or 2 generations coming, have seriously impacted their host communities. I ask myself these questions, what life course would have become the Eisenhower family, had they stayed in Karlsbrunn? Their son would later help define the 2nd world war and lead the United States. What life course would have become Albert Einstein in Germany?
Would Michaelle Jean have become something as momentous as the Governor General of the great country of Canada? I doubt, not while “Papa Doc” was busy torturing her philosopher father in Haiti. We know about Obama, but I have to ask would the Luo have had a chance to be say for instance become a run-of-the-mill University Lecturer under Kenyatta?
There will a tendency to modify this colloquy as a “Brain Drain” conversation, I will resist deliberately, but this will be a conversation for another day. To encounter Cinco de Mayo however is to understand also the Greatness of America because of Cesar Estrada Chavez.
Learning about Columbus Day (Native Americans excluded) is to understand the greatness of the US of A because of Enrico Fermi, Lee Iacocca, and Martin Scorsese.
To understand the new greatness of South Africa is to understand Yossel Mashel Slovo, a Lithuanian transplant. To accept the greatness of Singapore is to appreciate the strength and greatness of Lee Kuan Yew, the noteworthy leader of Singapore, a 4th generation Chinese. The same goes for our brothers (and sisters) ancestors we sold into slavery, Miles, Martin, Ali, Oprah, Tubman, Ben Carson, I could go on. They, with their altered archival dynamic will be a topic way beyond my learned expanse, but I have one question to ask, how come Africa refuses to recognize or utilize its African Americans? Not, Africans in America, but African Americans. I mean to benefit, like Russia benefits from its Russian Americans, Portugal from Brazilians, British from Australians, British from New Zealand, and China from Macao.
As I decided to proceed further, it now becomes quite glaring, one of the reasons African cant plan for this, is Africans are immigrants themselves, still leaving for Germany,Russia,Ukraine, Canada, US of A, Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Dubai. Damn it! The problems are still there, yes those problems that you already know about (not the famine, drought or genocide), the chaos of Africa, its mismanagement, blah blah blah, oh no, not today!
Slowly, but surely, I start to day dream ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
The reasons Idi Amin mismanaged its Asians are still prevalent, yes Museveni has tried (By African standards), yet Uganda by and large refuses to learn from history. Kenya became the whore of Africa, with the relegation of its own citizenry to the expense of its Asians. The reasons Nigeria mismanaged its Ghanaians are still commonplace. The reasons Ivory Coast mismanaged itself and thus its French citizens are very much discernible
The conclusion seems all elementary. If we can’t manage ourselves, how can we manage others with us?
But would it not be nice if we as Sub-Saharan got over how the colonizers whooped our behinds with their Gatlin guns, superior ammunition and knowledge of the seas. If we got over the fact that we were lumped together like my father used to say “Sardines” without regard to culture, tribal, ethnic or historical consequences. Would it not be nice if we actually had a sense of shame for selling our brothers and sisters to the strange looking people on horses from the north and big ships from the South? Oh, I’m sorry that is just too abstruse, we are just plain confused, incompetent, astigmatic and of course lacking in self identity that is simple.
Because if we were not, we will be benefiting from the vast capacity of our kin in America, (African Americans) who have made more strides in 40 years than any of us have made in 50 years since most African countries became independent. A stride that has produced a son of (For sentimental reasons) Africa, we would take pride in that. Don’t be fooled though, Obama is African American (A product of America) If he was African (A product of Africa) we would have destroyed his dreams a long time ago.
An Irish American has Ireland, A Black Canadian has Jamaica or USA or Barbados etc An Italian American has Italy, A Turkish German has Turkey, The Hong Kong Chinese has China or the United Kingdom. The Mexican American has Mexico. The French Belgian has France, the Austrian has Germany and vice Versa. Should I go on?
What does the African American have? Africa? What does that mean?
Have any African in America (from 30 years ago) ever met an African American (from 400 years ago) American who doesn’t want to go to “Africa”? Not Kenya, not Uganda, not Zambia, not Gambia, not Sierra Leone, not Ghana, not Mozambique, not Cameroon, AFRICA!
They say Africa! Why?
Just imagine the potentials, what it would mean for us and them, for all Sub-Saharan Africans and their host countries.
If we used something (I’ll make it uncomplicated) as simple as say DNA verification of tribal affiliation. Wow!
I could not help but day dream about the potentials, I remember when my brother Forest Whittaker and Danny Glover through DNA verification found out they were Igbo and were ceremonially made Chiefs, basal but compelling.
Like the Australians and Canadians and British and French and Germans, who assign quota systems to us for an opportunity to come to their lands? Taking the best that we had, still taking them.
Us, assigning quota systems and bringing back the best of our bests (their bests) from 400 years ago to now, to come not to AFRICA!, but to Kenya to Mali to Conakry to Timbuktu to Angola. HOME!
Think of the rightness, the righteous clamor, of course you can but we can’t, we are still eternally screwed, some son the soils are still leaving in droves vying the Sahara route just to enter Morocco then Italy, an occasional amnesty. Imagine the chaos trying to cater to our long lost brethrens, when we can’t take care our own!
It sure will be nice

Source: Nigerians In America

Finland Studento line done bust November 2009

2009-11-21T17:26:00.002-01:00

Many West African students submit forged documents to study in Finland

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Only one-third of those West Africans who had been selected to study in Finnish educational institutions last spring and in early autumn were granted a residence permit.
”In fact, as much as 70 per cent of the Cameroonians and Ghanaians and 60 per cent of the Nigerians gaining selection to Finnish educational institutions were denied a residence permit”, stated a press release issued by the Finnish Immigration Service.
Most commonly, the failure to secure a permit was caused by forged documents or insufficient income.
Forgeries of a number of documents were encountered, including false IDs, study and work certificates, as well as forged bank statements and health insurance documents.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs suspected already at the end of August that the HAMK University of Applied Sciences in Hämeenlinna had not sufficiently examined the qualifications and motives of the 130 African students recruited for the school in an additional application process in the late summer.
In the course of last summer, other Finnish educational institutes also received large numbers of applications from West African countries.

According to the Finnish Immigration Service, another reason for the decision to deny a residence permit was that the applicants had inadequate language skills.
The prerequisites for a student’s residence permit include having valid health insurance coverage and a minimum of EUR 500 per month, or EUR 6,000 per year, available for the duration of the student’s residence in Finland.

This year marked the first time that Finnish educational institutions obligated their students to pass an international language test.
In 2009, the Finnish Immigration Service has substantially increased its efforts in investigating the residence permit applications of African students.
When forged documents are presented with an application, the authorities cannot ascertain the applicant’s real motives for moving to Finland, the Finnish Immigration Service argues.
Presentation of forgeries is considered an attempt at illegal entry.

Previously in HS International Edition:
Foreign Ministry suspects some West African study applicants may have used forged certificates (25.8.2009)
Suspected document forgery centre uncovered in Helsinki student flat (4.8.2008)

Links:
Finnish Immigration Service press release 19.11.2009
Ministry for Foreign Affairs
HAMK University of Applied Sciences

"Qu’est-ce Qu’être Français?" and French Identity

2009-11-19T07:43:00.001-01:00

"Qu’est-ce Qu’être Français?" and French Identity

Eric Pape from http://www.newsweek.com/

Angry young French minorities in dead-end banlieues have, in moments of frustration, expressed themselves crudely. Some set thousands of cars and hundreds of buildings on fire amid weeks of confrontations with riot police in 2005, leaving Paris to decipher the smoke signals. In calmer times, some of those young men offer coarse, half-joking justifications for their troublemaking along the lines of, "I'll screw France until she loves me." All bravado and misogyny aside, French-Cameroonian author Gaston Kelman suggests that those kids are simply demanding that their country truly recognize them as French--despite their darker skin or exotic names.

Kelman makes this provocative assertion in his contribution to a collection of 19 personal, analytic, historic, and philosophic essays that respond to the book's title question: qu'est-ce qu'être Français? (what is it to be French?). The collection--authored by intellectuals, lawyers, politicians, authors, activists, and writers--is being released in late November to mark the fourth anniversary of the Paris riots.

National identity is touchy political terrain in France. On the campaign trail in 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy linked national identity to immigration and integration when he decided to create the Ministry of "Immigration, Integration, and National Identity." The idea paid electoral dividends with nostalgic white rural voters tempted by France's popular far right, essentially guaranteeing Sarkozy's election. President Sarkozy later put the ministry (where Kelman acts as an adviser) in charge of the high-profile expulsions of noncitizens. Some have been shipped off to repressive African states and, more recently, to wartime Afghanistan. Needless to say, this goes against a key element of France's historic identity as a land of refuge--and troubles many people, including some who work closely with Sarkozy.

While many of the book's essayists have direct links to the president's party or his government, their definitions of "Frenchness" tend to be strikingly inclusive. Most writers do offer pride in cliché French areas of achievement (the arts, philosophy, human rights, etc.), but they also point out France's many failures to live up to liberté, égalité, fraternité. Jurist and conservative-party politician Jeannette Bougrab--whose North African father fought for France in World War II and then insisted that his children fully assimilate--recalls the stinging racism of an influential French politician. Speaking before other politicians, he told Bougrab that she could not truly be from France because "the blood that runs in your veins isn't French."

Seen as a whole, Qu'est-ce qu'être Français? amounts to a deft effort to separate patriotism from nationalism, and highlights the rich cultural fabric of France's modern identity. (It also serves President Sarkozy's efforts to lure a large swath of fringe voters back toward his mainstream party for years to come.)

The irony is that people wrestled with the question of French identity prior to the existence of France. The book's introduction cites Julius Caesar's thoughts on les Gaulois. He considered them to be stylish, vain, versatile, and unpredictable showoffs, while noting their "need to shine" and their engagement in "unheard-of fearless acts" that would be seen and known near and far. The Roman emperor's assessment applies to France's president, as well as to many of the swaggering kids in the nation's troubled ghettos. The book's deeper message, of course, is that those kids are as French as anyone.

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In Abidjan, informal soccer academies are booming. In return for placing boys in such schools, slum-dwelling mums sell their belongings, and sometimes even themselves, to unscrupulous coaches.

"My visa expired after 30 days and the club said they had no interest in me after my injury, but I came to Paris and stayed on, hoping for another trial.

"The people who are feeding them this poison must be stopped. It is a slave trade that pulls in children as young as ten.

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"Qu’est-ce Qu’être Français?" and French Identity

"Qu’est-ce Qu’être Français?" and French IdentityEric Pape from http://www.newsweek.com/

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Jun 02, 2010

"Qu’est-ce Qu’être Français?" and French Identity

Eric Pape from http://www.newsweek.com/