UN Agencies Urge U.S. To Continue 'Long Tradition' Of Welcoming Refugees

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An Iraqi refugee girl who fled the Iraqi city of Mosul due to the fighting between government forces' and Islamic State (IS) militants, fills a container with water at a UN-run refugee camp in Syria's Hasakeh Province.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have called on U.S. President Donald Trump to continue his country's "long tradition" of offering asylum to people fleeing war and persecution.

The appeal came in a joint statement from UNHCR and IOM issued in reaction to Trump's new executive order barring Syrian refugees from the United States and suspending visits from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

Trump said the steps were part of new measures to "keep radical Islamic terrorists" out of the United States.

"The needs of refugees and migrants worldwide have never been greater and the U.S. resettlement program is one of the most important in the world," the two Geneva-based UN agencies said in their joint January 28 statement.

The UN agencies added that the U.S. policy of welcoming refugees "has saved the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world who have in turn enriched and strengthened their new societies."

The agencies said they hoped "that the U.S. will continue its strong leadership role and long tradition of protecting those who are fleeing conflict and persecution."

Some 25,000 refugees were resettled in the United States between October and year-end under the UNHCR's program for the most vulnerable, the agency said last week.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP

Sources - rferl.org --

Gay waiter received a homophobic message telling him he ‘needs Jesus’ instead of a tip

Kyle Benjamin Daniel Griffith/Facebook

-- A gay waiter in Kentucky had a shock at work recently when a customer left a homophobic message in place of a tip.

Kyle Griffith, who works at a Buffalo Wild Wings, was serving a woman who appeared to be content with his service.

However, Griffith was shocked and upset to discover that the customer had left the message “sorry I don’t tip f*ggots” and “#UNeedJesus” on the receipt.

But the waiter decided not to let the customer get away scot free and took to Facebook to spread awareness about the prejudices that people in the LGBT community have to deal with on a daily basis.

“It just crushed me that someone could say something like that,” the waiter told local radio station WDRB.

The post which Griffith shared on Facebook went viral, but was later reported to Facebook as “offensive” and is now hidden. The customer who left the hurtful message saw Griffith’s post, and she reportedly commented that it was a joke.

“She did apologise and said that it was a joke and that it shouldn’t have been a joke and that she felt bad for it,” Griffith explained. “It’s not something you should joke about. My sexual preference at all shouldn’t be something someone should joke about.”

After the post was deleted, Griffith wrote on Facebook once more to clarify that he was trying “to show some awareness for my gay community, and what we deal with on a daily basis.”

“I didn’t share this to spread the hate she so carelessly displayed. I shared it in hopes to show the hatred in the world we still live in, and to open at least an eye to the world’s problems.”

The waiter wrote that the customer “doesn’t deserve to be threatened or hurt by anyone. This hate is what fuelled her to write this!”

Buffalo Wild Wings said in a statement: “We feel strongly that our restaurant environment needs to be respectful in order to provide the experience that our guests and team members expect and deserve.”

Sources - pinknews.co.uk --

Trump signs executive order banning Syrian refugees

Trump said the measures would prevent 'terrorist' attacks [Carlos Barria/Reuters]

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order suspending the US refugee programme for 120 days, specifically barring Syrian refugees until further notice.

Trump signed the order at the Pentagon, saying the moves would help protect Americans from "terrorist" attacks.

"I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. Don't want them here," Trump said earlier on Friday.

"We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people," he said.

Civil rights groups condemned the measures as discriminatory.

"Trump's latest executive order is likely to hurt the people most in need: those fleeing violence and terrorism - and on Holocaust Remembrance Day, no less," said Grace Meng, senior US researcher at Human Rights Watch.

"The decision to drastically curtail the refugee programme will abandon tens of thousands to the risk of persecution or worse and cede American leadership on a vitally important issue," Meng added.

The order suspends the Syrian refugee programme until further notice, and will eventually give priority to minority religious groups fleeing persecution. Trump said in an interview with a Christian news outlet the exception would help Syrian Christians fleeing the civil war.

His order had been expected to include a directive about setting up "safe zones" for Syrian refugees inside the country, but no such language was included.

The measure limits entry for at least 90 days from Syria and other Muslim-majority countries, but did not list the countries by name.

The state department said the three-month ban in the directive applied to Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen - all Muslim-majority nations.

Al Jazeera's Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Tehran, said: "[Iranians] are shocked and astonished that this has taken place. There's more than one million Iranians living in the US. A lot of them have extended family, or their children, or their parents still in Iran."

Ardeshir Namavar, a US green card holder currently in Tehran, told Al Jazeera: "We feel really terrible about the news. I bought my ticket [to the US] and have a flight in 10 days; now we don't know what we are going to do. All of my family are in the US including my mother and father. They are American citizens. I had planned to study there, now everything has changed."

The order said all immigration programmes should include questions to "evaluate the applicant's likelihood of becoming a positively contributing member of society".
'Extreme vetting'

Jennifer Sime, the senior vice president of US programmes at the International Rescue Committee, an NGO that works with refugees, told Al Jazeera: "I think it's important to understand that there is already a robust vetting process in place.  It was reviewed a few days ago and new things were added to enhance the vetting process."

She added that refugees were already the "single most vetted population coming into the US".

On the exception in the order that favours Syrian Christian refugees, Sime said: "The first thing to remember is that this programme [was] based on the principle of non-discrimination, so it's not about choosing Muslims or Christians. Refugees are selected based on need, urgency and basically their cases, not based on political affiliation and religion."

Trump's order cuts the number of refugees the US plans to accept this budget year by more than half, to 50,000 people from around the world.

During the last budget year, the US accepted 84,995 refugees, including 12,587 people from Syria. President Barack Obama had set the current refugee limit at 110,000.

During the Obama administration, vetting for refugees included in-person interviews overseas, where they provided biographical details about themselves, including their families, friendships, social or political activities, employment, phone numbers, email accounts and more.

They also provided biometric information, including fingerprints. Syrians were subject to additional, classified controls that administration officials at the time declined to describe, and processing for that group could routinely take years to complete.

Following Trump's signing of the order, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a US Muslim advocacy and civil rights group, said it would file a "federal lawsuit on behalf of more than 20 individuals challenging the 'Muslim ban'".

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

Man kicks Muslim woman yelling ‘Trump will get rid of you all’ at JFK Airport

The man allegedly shouted ‘Trump will get rid of you’ to the woman, who wears a hijab (Picture: Getty)

A man kicked and hurled abuse at a Muslim woman airline employee at New York’s John F Kennedy Airport.

He yelled new US president Donald Trump ‘will get rid of all of you’, according to authorities.

Robin Rhodes, of Worchester, Massachusetts, had arrived from Aruba and was waiting for a connecting flight to his home state on Wednesday night, when he approached Delta employee Rabeeya Khan, who wears a hijab, while she was in her office.

Queen’s District attorney Richard Brown said Rhodes came up to the door and launched a profanity-laced tirade, asking the woman if she was praying, before punching the door, which hit the back of Ms Khan’s chair.

Ms Khan asked Rhodes what she had done to him and he reportedly replied: ‘You did nothing.’

He then swore at her and kicked her in the leg, Mr Brown said.

When another person tried to calm him down, Mr Brown said Rhodes moved away from the door and Ms Khan fled the office.

But Rhodes followed her, got down on his knees and began to bow down, imitating a Muslim praying, shouted obscenities and said, ‘Trump is here now. He will get rid of all of you. You can ask Germany, Belgium and France about these kind of people. You see what happens.’

At the time of his arrest, Rhodes allegedly told police: ‘I guess I am going to jail for disorderly conduct.

‘I couldn’t tell if it was a man or woman because their back was to me and they had something covering their head.’

Rhodes was charged with assault, unlawful imprisonment, menacing and harassment as hate crimes.

‘The bigotry and hatred that the defendant is accused of manifesting and acting upon have no place in a civilised society – especially in Queens County, the most culturally diverse county in the nation,’ Mr Brown said.

‘Crimes of hate will never be tolerated here and when they do regrettably occur, those responsible will be brought to justice.’

Sources - metro.co.uk

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Last Edited on 2017-01-27