Sub Saharan Africa plans to move to Portland Maine
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RJB
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Another picture of him.
Too late. Danke's post can't be unseen.
Danke
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Danke
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No, I hacked your computer.
Origanalist
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I predicted you would say that. I even made myself a bet, and won.
Swordsmyth
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Danke
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you're so clever.
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The Next Influx: The Entire World's Poor and Dispossessed
https://cis.org/Bensman/Next-Influx-Entire-Worlds-Poor-and-Dispossessed
Tens of Thousands of "Exotics" and "Extra-Continentals" from around the Globe Moving Through Panama
By Todd Bensman on July 1, 2019
Like the proverbial "bulge in the belly of the snake," unusually high numbers of non-Latino migrants, obviously not from Central America, are now reportedly passing from Colombia through Panama on their way to the U.S. southern border. Their numbers range to the tens of thousands, whose vanguards we have already seen at the U.S. Southwest Border in recent months: Cameroonians, Ghanaians, Congolese, Haitians, Cubans, and some from the Middle East.
Word of their successful entries into the United States this year clearly reached home countries because now a swell numbering as many as 35,000 is on an infamous migrant passage through which migrants have long funneled from South America to North America: the Darien Gap.
I am told this by two eye-witnesses who have just returned from the Colombia-Panama region on either side of the Gap. One of them is Panama-based author and freelance journalist Chuck Holton, who just visited the Colombian side in the frontier border town of Turbo, which is notorious as a migrant staging area for U.S.-bound migrants to be smuggled through the Darien Gap passage into Panama. The other source is Diane Edrington, a Mississippi-based nurse practitioner who has worked for years as a Panama Missions volunteer and who just returned from camps I visited in December on the Panama side of the Darien Gap.
Neither Colombia nor Panama routinely collect and publicly release data regarding migrant flows through their territories, which American homeland authorities often refer to as "exotics" or "extra-continentals" because they are from outside the Western Hemisphere.
But Holton and Edrington separately told me in recent phone and email interviews that a surge is underway the likes of which neither has ever seen and which obviously surpasses what I witnessed in December. Both saw massive numbers of Africans overwhelming government camps and smuggling infrastructure as they push through to repeat the successes at the U.S. border of those who have gone before them. Government sources, such as local military commanders, a Colombian harbor master, and migrant camp overseers told them many thousands have gone through in recent weeks and are in the pipeline on both sides of the Darien Gap passage. Holton and Edrington did not hear any of this from afar; they were on the ground, among the migrants.
Holton told me he interviewed many migrants on the Colombian side who uniformly told him they decided to go to America, claim asylum, and take advantage of the disarray and laws about which they've all heard, from media reporting and those who already made it, that guarantee they will get to live and work for years in the United States, and probably permanently.
"'Trump wants to keep us out, but he can’t do it,'" Holton said he was repeatedly told in Turbo, Colombia as African migrants were preparing to board boats to the jungle trails for 10-day, smuggler-led wilderness treks into Panama. "They were very clear about that. 'If I can get in now, I'm going to get while the getting’s good.'"
Holton said everyone knew to go to American "sanctuary cities," where local authorities won’t cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"They have some level of understanding of what a sanctuary city is. 'If we can get to one of those they won’t mess with us; They won’t get us out.'"
The migrants he interviewed also were well aware of the time it takes for their asylum claims to be processed in a severely backlogged American system and that this was a major factor in deciding to leave home. (Migrating for improved lifestyle or economic reasons is not among the factors covered by U.S. asylum law).
"A lot of these guys obviously do not qualify for asylum," Holton told me. "When they talk to me, they don’t have a problem telling me it's for economic benefits, to get a better job, to have a better life."
No matter, Holton said. By claiming asylum, "They know they’ll have to let them into the U.S. and that they can stay for at least three years" before any ruling on their claims comes back. "They’re very clear on that."
Holton said government sources on both sides of the gap estimated that 35,000 were in the pipeline. The majority appear to be Cameroonians, Congolese and Ghanaians, the largest numbers of those migrants he has ever seen and who now appear to outnumber the traditional fare of Haitians and Cubans. Every migrant he interviewed said they'd flown into visa-free Ecuador and caught buses or rides to the Colombia-Panama frontier, where they'll hook up with Darien Gap smugglers. He met and saw many from India and spoke to Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, which U.S. homeland security regards as "special interest aliens" who could pose terrorism threats.
The harbor master at Turbo told Holton the growth in traffic of Africans and Middle Easterners was rapid and surprising, and close to overwhelming the town’s ability to move them. Holton said he saw no one from the Middle East but did see and talk to some Pakistanis who had come in after landing in Brazil.
While the Turbo harbor master may have expressed surprise at this migration surge, Holton is not. Media throughout Latin America constantly reports on the most minute details of how and why migrants are able to slip through the American border gauntlet, certainly usable as an instruction manual. For years, Holton said he’s seen CNN running "these infomericals" explaining the process of getting into the United States. "It provides lists of cities that will welcome you with open arms, things like that,” said Holton, who lives in Panama and travels the region extensively.
For an idea of what’s happening on the Panama side, consider this anecdote: Just this past December, I visited the Darien Province where the northbound migrants exit the jungle and are caught and placed in camps. One of the camps I visited, known as Las Penitas held about 100 or so migrants on the day I visited. A Panamanian military police commander in nearby Yavisa told me his troops were collecting about 700 migrants a week off the Darien Gap trails. Now the numbers are up to three times that and escalating fast out of the gap.
Diane Edrington of Panama Missions emailed me from the camp on June 17 after 10 days on the ground to report that 1,300 had completely overwhelmed the place. She went on to say that Panamanian authorities had reopened other camps to handle the overflow. The nearby Lajas Blancas camp had to be reopened and was holding 2,000 more migrants, and another previously closed camp in Yavisa was holding 1,500.
Edrington has been volunteering in the camps for years.
"They’d been coming, but now they’ve reached a point in Panama where they’re overwhelmed. It seems like there are more countries represented. There are a lot of Africans now."
After my own trip to Panama and Costa Rica, I disclosed the existence of a formal bilateral policy by which both countries systematically transport migrants coming off the Darien Gap through their own territories and on to Nicaragua, where the smugglers can pick them up and keep them moving to the U.S. border.
Controlled Flow would likely spark controversy in the United States if anyone knew about it. The way it works is that Panama feeds, houses, shelters, and medically treats the migrants it collects out of the Darien jungle, then puts them on buses and hands them off to the Costa Ricans, who likewise move them to Nicaragua’s border. In this way, neither country gets stuck for long with large numbers of unwanted migrants, even though this just passes the hot potato problem to the U.S. southern border.
But now, according to Edrington and Holton, the policy is out of control due to the overwhelming pressure of the new influx. Part of the problem, Holton said, is that Costa Rica refuses to take more than the usual 200-300 migrants per week, leaving them pooling up in Panama, which is growing increasingly frustrated.
"They're really backing up in Panama, so something’s really going to have to break," Holton said. "Panama doesn’t want them. Panama has spent millions of dollars this year that they really don’t have to spend on that."
The policy implications of this new higher traffic coming at the border is at the very least two-fold.
During the Democrat presidential debates, candidates put forth as a primary solution to the Central American illegal immigration crisis at the southern border a "Marshall Plan," ala the economic rehabilitation of Europe after World War II, by which Americans would invest billions to build the economies of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. The idea, according to candidates like San Antonio’s Julian Castro, is that a Marshall Plan would reduce the economic push factors driving hundreds of thousands of migrants to the southern border.
The new influx on its way to the American border puts this idea to a harsh logic fallacy test.
If a Marshall Plan is the ideal solution for mass migration influxes from wherever, what then about Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Haiti, Cuba and any other country whose population suddenly decide to transfer over the American border? How about a Marshall Plan for the entire world of impoverished nations? These questions should be raised when this particular influx hits the border in earnest.
Secondly, the new influx also must raise security questions when it starts to wash over the border. Migrants from the Middle East and Muslim-majority nations where terrorist organizations operate are in this extra-continental flow and often arrive with no verifiable identification. That’s a national security vulnerability that must be adequately acknowledged and dealt with, especially when one considers reporting about this reputed ISIS plot to send operatives over the U.S.-Mexico border and the recent apprehension in Nicaragua of two Iraqis and two Egyptians reputed to be affiliated with ISIS.
I've already raised the issue that migrants who reach our territory from the Congo require special security vetting, since we don't know whether they may be the persecutors or the persecuted in a country brimming with ISIS jihadists and marauding tribal militias that work hard to outdo each other's atrocities. Likewise, I've explained why Bangladeshis coming off the Darien pose a unique security issue due to what’s going on in that country.
Lastly, American lawmakers will need to consider the broader question of how to turn off this flow at its Panamanian and Costa Rican spigot, wide open now due to the Controlled Flow policy. One way, as I've also suggested among this list of eight policy recommendations, is for the United States to help Panama pay for a nonstop airlift of repatriation flights to homelands all over the world.
https://cis.org/Bensman/Next-Influx-Entire-Worlds-Poor-and-Dispossessed
Tens of Thousands of "Exotics" and "Extra-Continentals" from around the Globe Moving Through Panama
By Todd Bensman on July 1, 2019
Like the proverbial "bulge in the belly of the snake," unusually high numbers of non-Latino migrants, obviously not from Central America, are now reportedly passing from Colombia through Panama on their way to the U.S. southern border. Their numbers range to the tens of thousands, whose vanguards we have already seen at the U.S. Southwest Border in recent months: Cameroonians, Ghanaians, Congolese, Haitians, Cubans, and some from the Middle East.
Word of their successful entries into the United States this year clearly reached home countries because now a swell numbering as many as 35,000 is on an infamous migrant passage through which migrants have long funneled from South America to North America: the Darien Gap.
I am told this by two eye-witnesses who have just returned from the Colombia-Panama region on either side of the Gap. One of them is Panama-based author and freelance journalist Chuck Holton, who just visited the Colombian side in the frontier border town of Turbo, which is notorious as a migrant staging area for U.S.-bound migrants to be smuggled through the Darien Gap passage into Panama. The other source is Diane Edrington, a Mississippi-based nurse practitioner who has worked for years as a Panama Missions volunteer and who just returned from camps I visited in December on the Panama side of the Darien Gap.
Neither Colombia nor Panama routinely collect and publicly release data regarding migrant flows through their territories, which American homeland authorities often refer to as "exotics" or "extra-continentals" because they are from outside the Western Hemisphere.
But Holton and Edrington separately told me in recent phone and email interviews that a surge is underway the likes of which neither has ever seen and which obviously surpasses what I witnessed in December. Both saw massive numbers of Africans overwhelming government camps and smuggling infrastructure as they push through to repeat the successes at the U.S. border of those who have gone before them. Government sources, such as local military commanders, a Colombian harbor master, and migrant camp overseers told them many thousands have gone through in recent weeks and are in the pipeline on both sides of the Darien Gap passage. Holton and Edrington did not hear any of this from afar; they were on the ground, among the migrants.
Holton told me he interviewed many migrants on the Colombian side who uniformly told him they decided to go to America, claim asylum, and take advantage of the disarray and laws about which they've all heard, from media reporting and those who already made it, that guarantee they will get to live and work for years in the United States, and probably permanently.
"'Trump wants to keep us out, but he can’t do it,'" Holton said he was repeatedly told in Turbo, Colombia as African migrants were preparing to board boats to the jungle trails for 10-day, smuggler-led wilderness treks into Panama. "They were very clear about that. 'If I can get in now, I'm going to get while the getting’s good.'"
Holton said everyone knew to go to American "sanctuary cities," where local authorities won’t cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"They have some level of understanding of what a sanctuary city is. 'If we can get to one of those they won’t mess with us; They won’t get us out.'"
The migrants he interviewed also were well aware of the time it takes for their asylum claims to be processed in a severely backlogged American system and that this was a major factor in deciding to leave home. (Migrating for improved lifestyle or economic reasons is not among the factors covered by U.S. asylum law).
"A lot of these guys obviously do not qualify for asylum," Holton told me. "When they talk to me, they don’t have a problem telling me it's for economic benefits, to get a better job, to have a better life."
No matter, Holton said. By claiming asylum, "They know they’ll have to let them into the U.S. and that they can stay for at least three years" before any ruling on their claims comes back. "They’re very clear on that."
Holton said government sources on both sides of the gap estimated that 35,000 were in the pipeline. The majority appear to be Cameroonians, Congolese and Ghanaians, the largest numbers of those migrants he has ever seen and who now appear to outnumber the traditional fare of Haitians and Cubans. Every migrant he interviewed said they'd flown into visa-free Ecuador and caught buses or rides to the Colombia-Panama frontier, where they'll hook up with Darien Gap smugglers. He met and saw many from India and spoke to Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, which U.S. homeland security regards as "special interest aliens" who could pose terrorism threats.
The harbor master at Turbo told Holton the growth in traffic of Africans and Middle Easterners was rapid and surprising, and close to overwhelming the town’s ability to move them. Holton said he saw no one from the Middle East but did see and talk to some Pakistanis who had come in after landing in Brazil.
While the Turbo harbor master may have expressed surprise at this migration surge, Holton is not. Media throughout Latin America constantly reports on the most minute details of how and why migrants are able to slip through the American border gauntlet, certainly usable as an instruction manual. For years, Holton said he’s seen CNN running "these infomericals" explaining the process of getting into the United States. "It provides lists of cities that will welcome you with open arms, things like that,” said Holton, who lives in Panama and travels the region extensively.
For an idea of what’s happening on the Panama side, consider this anecdote: Just this past December, I visited the Darien Province where the northbound migrants exit the jungle and are caught and placed in camps. One of the camps I visited, known as Las Penitas held about 100 or so migrants on the day I visited. A Panamanian military police commander in nearby Yavisa told me his troops were collecting about 700 migrants a week off the Darien Gap trails. Now the numbers are up to three times that and escalating fast out of the gap.
Diane Edrington of Panama Missions emailed me from the camp on June 17 after 10 days on the ground to report that 1,300 had completely overwhelmed the place. She went on to say that Panamanian authorities had reopened other camps to handle the overflow. The nearby Lajas Blancas camp had to be reopened and was holding 2,000 more migrants, and another previously closed camp in Yavisa was holding 1,500.
Edrington has been volunteering in the camps for years.
"They’d been coming, but now they’ve reached a point in Panama where they’re overwhelmed. It seems like there are more countries represented. There are a lot of Africans now."
After my own trip to Panama and Costa Rica, I disclosed the existence of a formal bilateral policy by which both countries systematically transport migrants coming off the Darien Gap through their own territories and on to Nicaragua, where the smugglers can pick them up and keep them moving to the U.S. border.
Controlled Flow would likely spark controversy in the United States if anyone knew about it. The way it works is that Panama feeds, houses, shelters, and medically treats the migrants it collects out of the Darien jungle, then puts them on buses and hands them off to the Costa Ricans, who likewise move them to Nicaragua’s border. In this way, neither country gets stuck for long with large numbers of unwanted migrants, even though this just passes the hot potato problem to the U.S. southern border.
But now, according to Edrington and Holton, the policy is out of control due to the overwhelming pressure of the new influx. Part of the problem, Holton said, is that Costa Rica refuses to take more than the usual 200-300 migrants per week, leaving them pooling up in Panama, which is growing increasingly frustrated.
"They're really backing up in Panama, so something’s really going to have to break," Holton said. "Panama doesn’t want them. Panama has spent millions of dollars this year that they really don’t have to spend on that."
The policy implications of this new higher traffic coming at the border is at the very least two-fold.
During the Democrat presidential debates, candidates put forth as a primary solution to the Central American illegal immigration crisis at the southern border a "Marshall Plan," ala the economic rehabilitation of Europe after World War II, by which Americans would invest billions to build the economies of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. The idea, according to candidates like San Antonio’s Julian Castro, is that a Marshall Plan would reduce the economic push factors driving hundreds of thousands of migrants to the southern border.
The new influx on its way to the American border puts this idea to a harsh logic fallacy test.
If a Marshall Plan is the ideal solution for mass migration influxes from wherever, what then about Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Haiti, Cuba and any other country whose population suddenly decide to transfer over the American border? How about a Marshall Plan for the entire world of impoverished nations? These questions should be raised when this particular influx hits the border in earnest.
Secondly, the new influx also must raise security questions when it starts to wash over the border. Migrants from the Middle East and Muslim-majority nations where terrorist organizations operate are in this extra-continental flow and often arrive with no verifiable identification. That’s a national security vulnerability that must be adequately acknowledged and dealt with, especially when one considers reporting about this reputed ISIS plot to send operatives over the U.S.-Mexico border and the recent apprehension in Nicaragua of two Iraqis and two Egyptians reputed to be affiliated with ISIS.
I've already raised the issue that migrants who reach our territory from the Congo require special security vetting, since we don't know whether they may be the persecutors or the persecuted in a country brimming with ISIS jihadists and marauding tribal militias that work hard to outdo each other's atrocities. Likewise, I've explained why Bangladeshis coming off the Darien pose a unique security issue due to what’s going on in that country.
Lastly, American lawmakers will need to consider the broader question of how to turn off this flow at its Panamanian and Costa Rican spigot, wide open now due to the Controlled Flow policy. One way, as I've also suggested among this list of eight policy recommendations, is for the United States to help Panama pay for a nonstop airlift of repatriation flights to homelands all over the world.
I'd say war in Central America and/or South America.
Trump says to Panama "you must stop those subsaharans. If you do not, we're at war with you. We're not planning on killing you, but we're going to go down there to Panama, open up big military bases, catch those subsaharans, figure out exactly who is giving them those hundreds they have, and then send them home, or quarantine them. Keep them out of the US.
We've killed millions of middle easterners over there for years. A tiny number of those middle easterners presented any threat to the US. But we were there on the other side of the world, killing them If we're at war with a country, we can kill millions and no one cares. Declare war against the countries that we need to, and go in and fix the border invasion whereever we want, in a country we're at war with, allowing the US to kill whoever they want without anyone complaining. We already have been at war with Panama, because Noreiga was a coke dealer. If these subsaharans are coming in through South America, it would be easy to stop them coming through Panama, being real narrow and all. Get them at the canal. Throw money at Panama. They'll be happy. Declare war on everyone we need to.
And take everyone home from the Middle East at the same time.
It shouldn't be that easy for these exotics to cross that Panama canal. There are 3 or 4 bridges over it.
Put Cruise Ships To Africa In The Panama Canal. US Government buys the cruise ships that the cruise companies don't want any more, and just moves people from the panama canal to different ports. Any kind of boat. Everyone coming up from South America has to cross the Panama Canal, put boats right there to take them home.
Swordsmyth
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health, as well as New York City and state and local governments began preparing for a possible Ebola outbreak shortly before the current Congolese migrant invasion on our southern border, as the Congo migrants journeyed from Africa to the United States.
The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department partnered with the CDC and the Kentucky Department of Health beginning in February to monitor people traveling to and from the Ebola outbreak region on the African continent, with the local department acting on guidance provided by the federal and state government bodies.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is a branch of the National Institutes of Health, sponsored a clinical trial beginning in late January at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio to test Ebola vaccines.
More at: https://bigleaguepolitics.com/cdc-f...a-preparations-before-congo-migrant-invasion/
The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department partnered with the CDC and the Kentucky Department of Health beginning in February to monitor people traveling to and from the Ebola outbreak region on the African continent, with the local department acting on guidance provided by the federal and state government bodies.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is a branch of the National Institutes of Health, sponsored a clinical trial beginning in late January at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio to test Ebola vaccines.
More at: https://bigleaguepolitics.com/cdc-f...a-preparations-before-congo-migrant-invasion/
Anti Federalist
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U.S. dream pulls African migrants in record numbers across Latin America
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...rd-numbers-across-latin-america-idUSKCN1U01A4
Daina Beth Solomon
TAPACHULA, Mexico (Reuters) - Marilyne Tatang, 23, crossed nine borders in two months to reach Mexico from the West African nation of Cameroon, fleeing political violence after police torched her house, she said.
She plans to soon take a bus north for four days and then cross a tenth border, into the United States. She is not alone - a record number of fellow Africans are flying to South America and then traversing thousands of miles of highway and a treacherous tropical rainforest to reach the United States.
Tatang, who is eight months pregnant, took a raft across a river into Mexico on June 8, a day after Mexico struck a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump to do more to control the biggest flows of migrants heading north to the U.S. border in more than a decade.
The migrants vying for entry at the U.S. southern border are mainly Central Americans. But growing numbers from a handful of African countries are joining them, prompting calls from Trump and Mexico for other countries in Latin America to do their part to slow the overall flood of migrants.
As more Africans learn from relatives and friends who have made the trip that crossing Latin America to the United States is tough but not impossible, more are making the journey, and in turn are helping others follow in their footsteps, migration experts say.
Trump’s threats to clamp down on migrants have ricocheted around the globe, paradoxically spurring some to exploit what they see as a narrowing window of opportunity, said Michelle Mittelstadt, communications director for the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank.
“This message is being heard not just in Central America, but in other parts of the world,” she said.
Data from Mexico’s interior ministry suggests that migration from Africa this year will break records.
The number of Africans registered by Mexican authorities tripled in the first four months of 2019 compared with the same period a year ago, reaching about 1,900 people, mostly from Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which remains deeply unstable years after the end of a bloody regional conflict with its neighbors that led to the deaths of millions of people.
‘THEY WOULD HAVE KILLED ME’
Tatang, a grade school teacher, said she left northwest Cameroon due to worsening violence in the English-speaking region, where separatists are battling the mostly French-speaking government for autonomy.
“It was so bad that they burned the house where I was living ... they would have killed me,” she said, referring to government forces who tried to capture her.
At first, Tatang planned only to cross the border into Nigeria. Then she heard that some people had made it to the United States.
“Someone would say, ‘You can do this,’” she said. ‘So I asked if it was possible for someone like me too, because I’m pregnant. They said, ‘Do this, do that.’”
Tatang begged her family for money for the journey, which she said so far has cost $5,000.
She said her route began with a flight to Ecuador, where Cameroonians don’t need visas. Tatang went by bus and on foot through Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala until reaching Mexico.
She was still deciding what to do once she got to Mexico’s northern border city of Tijuana, she said, cradling her belly while seated on a concrete bench outside migration offices in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula.
“I will just ask,” she said. “I can’t say, ‘When I get there, I will do this.’ I don’t know. I’ve never been there.”
Reuters spoke recently with five migrants in Tapachula who were from Cameroon, DRC and Angola. Several said they traveled to Brazil as a jumping-off point.
They were a small sampling of the hundreds of people - including Haitians, Cubans, Indians and Bangladeshis - clustered outside migration offices.
Political volatility in Cameroon and the DRC in recent years has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
People from the DRC made up the third largest group of new refugees globally last year with about 123,000 people, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency, while Cameroon’s internally displaced population grew by 447,000 people.
The number of undocumented African migrants found by authorities in Mexico quadrupled compared to five years ago, reaching nearly 3,000 people in 2018.
Most obtain a visa that allows them free passage through Mexico for 20 days, after which they cross into the United States and ask for asylum.
Few choose to seek asylum in Mexico, in part because they don’t speak Spanish. Tatang said the language barrier was especially frustrating because she speaks only English, making communication difficult both with Mexican migration officials and even other Africans, such as migrants from DRC who speak primarily French.
Those who reach the United States often send advice back home, helping make the journey easier for others, said Florence Kim, spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration in West and Central Africa.
Like their Central American migrant counterparts, some Africans are also showing up with families hoping for easier entries than as individuals, said Mittelstadt of the Migration Policy Institute.
U.S. data shows a huge spike in the number of families from countries other than Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras at the U.S. southern border. Between last October and May 16,000 members of families were registered, up from 1,000 for the whole of 2018, according to an analysis by the MPI.
REGIONAL APPROACH
The grueling Latin America trek forces migrants to spend at least a week trudging across swampland and hiking through mountainous rainforests in the lawless Darien Gap that is the only link between Panama and Colombia.
Still, the route has a key advantage: Countries in the region typically do not deport migrants from other continents due in part to the steep costs and lack of repatriation agreements with their home countries.
That relaxed attitude could change, however.
Under a deal struck with United States last month, Mexico may start a process later this month to become a safe third country, making asylum seekers apply for refuge in Mexico and not the United States.
To lessen the load on Mexico, Mexico and the United States plan to put pressure on Central American nations to do more to prevent asylum seekers, including African migrants, from moving north.
For the moment, however, more Africans can be expected to attempt the journey, said IOM’s Kim.
“They want to do something with their life. They feel they lack a future in their country,” she said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...rd-numbers-across-latin-america-idUSKCN1U01A4
Daina Beth Solomon
TAPACHULA, Mexico (Reuters) - Marilyne Tatang, 23, crossed nine borders in two months to reach Mexico from the West African nation of Cameroon, fleeing political violence after police torched her house, she said.
She plans to soon take a bus north for four days and then cross a tenth border, into the United States. She is not alone - a record number of fellow Africans are flying to South America and then traversing thousands of miles of highway and a treacherous tropical rainforest to reach the United States.
Tatang, who is eight months pregnant, took a raft across a river into Mexico on June 8, a day after Mexico struck a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump to do more to control the biggest flows of migrants heading north to the U.S. border in more than a decade.
The migrants vying for entry at the U.S. southern border are mainly Central Americans. But growing numbers from a handful of African countries are joining them, prompting calls from Trump and Mexico for other countries in Latin America to do their part to slow the overall flood of migrants.
As more Africans learn from relatives and friends who have made the trip that crossing Latin America to the United States is tough but not impossible, more are making the journey, and in turn are helping others follow in their footsteps, migration experts say.
Trump’s threats to clamp down on migrants have ricocheted around the globe, paradoxically spurring some to exploit what they see as a narrowing window of opportunity, said Michelle Mittelstadt, communications director for the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank.
“This message is being heard not just in Central America, but in other parts of the world,” she said.
Data from Mexico’s interior ministry suggests that migration from Africa this year will break records.
The number of Africans registered by Mexican authorities tripled in the first four months of 2019 compared with the same period a year ago, reaching about 1,900 people, mostly from Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which remains deeply unstable years after the end of a bloody regional conflict with its neighbors that led to the deaths of millions of people.
‘THEY WOULD HAVE KILLED ME’
Tatang, a grade school teacher, said she left northwest Cameroon due to worsening violence in the English-speaking region, where separatists are battling the mostly French-speaking government for autonomy.
“It was so bad that they burned the house where I was living ... they would have killed me,” she said, referring to government forces who tried to capture her.
At first, Tatang planned only to cross the border into Nigeria. Then she heard that some people had made it to the United States.
“Someone would say, ‘You can do this,’” she said. ‘So I asked if it was possible for someone like me too, because I’m pregnant. They said, ‘Do this, do that.’”
Tatang begged her family for money for the journey, which she said so far has cost $5,000.
She said her route began with a flight to Ecuador, where Cameroonians don’t need visas. Tatang went by bus and on foot through Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala until reaching Mexico.
She was still deciding what to do once she got to Mexico’s northern border city of Tijuana, she said, cradling her belly while seated on a concrete bench outside migration offices in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula.
“I will just ask,” she said. “I can’t say, ‘When I get there, I will do this.’ I don’t know. I’ve never been there.”
Reuters spoke recently with five migrants in Tapachula who were from Cameroon, DRC and Angola. Several said they traveled to Brazil as a jumping-off point.
They were a small sampling of the hundreds of people - including Haitians, Cubans, Indians and Bangladeshis - clustered outside migration offices.
Political volatility in Cameroon and the DRC in recent years has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
People from the DRC made up the third largest group of new refugees globally last year with about 123,000 people, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency, while Cameroon’s internally displaced population grew by 447,000 people.
The number of undocumented African migrants found by authorities in Mexico quadrupled compared to five years ago, reaching nearly 3,000 people in 2018.
Most obtain a visa that allows them free passage through Mexico for 20 days, after which they cross into the United States and ask for asylum.
Few choose to seek asylum in Mexico, in part because they don’t speak Spanish. Tatang said the language barrier was especially frustrating because she speaks only English, making communication difficult both with Mexican migration officials and even other Africans, such as migrants from DRC who speak primarily French.
Those who reach the United States often send advice back home, helping make the journey easier for others, said Florence Kim, spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration in West and Central Africa.
Like their Central American migrant counterparts, some Africans are also showing up with families hoping for easier entries than as individuals, said Mittelstadt of the Migration Policy Institute.
U.S. data shows a huge spike in the number of families from countries other than Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras at the U.S. southern border. Between last October and May 16,000 members of families were registered, up from 1,000 for the whole of 2018, according to an analysis by the MPI.
REGIONAL APPROACH
The grueling Latin America trek forces migrants to spend at least a week trudging across swampland and hiking through mountainous rainforests in the lawless Darien Gap that is the only link between Panama and Colombia.
Still, the route has a key advantage: Countries in the region typically do not deport migrants from other continents due in part to the steep costs and lack of repatriation agreements with their home countries.
That relaxed attitude could change, however.
Under a deal struck with United States last month, Mexico may start a process later this month to become a safe third country, making asylum seekers apply for refuge in Mexico and not the United States.
To lessen the load on Mexico, Mexico and the United States plan to put pressure on Central American nations to do more to prevent asylum seekers, including African migrants, from moving north.
For the moment, however, more Africans can be expected to attempt the journey, said IOM’s Kim.
“They want to do something with their life. They feel they lack a future in their country,” she said.
Swordsmyth
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World Health Organization (WHO) officials released new staggering numbers this week on the death toll from central Africa's latest deadly Ebola virus outbreak.
Confirmed deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo have risen to 1,536 since the outbreak began there a little under a year ago. And by July 7, a total of 2,418 what are deemed confirmed and probable cases have been reported, Bloomberg said, citing the WHO's latest report on the outbreak.
“While the number of new cases continues to ease in former hot spots, such as Butembo, Katwa and Mandima health zones, there has been an increase in cases in Beni and a high incidence continues in parts of Mabalako health zone,” according to the report.
"The Ministry of Health (MoH) and other national authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, WHO, and partners are implementing several outbreak control interventions together with teams in the surrounding provinces, who are taking measures to ensure that they are response-ready," the report continued.
Compounding the Ebola crisis further is the simultaneous accelerating measles outbreak raging through the country, resulting an an urgent measles vaccination campaign in Ebola-hit regions. A stunning almost 2,000 people have died from the preventable disease in the DRC this year, the vast majority children under five.
“The combined threat of Ebola and measles for the thousands of families living in overcrowded and unsanitary displacement camps is unprecedented,” Unicef DRC spokesman Edouard Beigbeder told The Guardian. “We have a small window to prevent a potentially massive loss of life.”
More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019...ola-cases-congo-alongside-2000-measles-deaths
Confirmed deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo have risen to 1,536 since the outbreak began there a little under a year ago. And by July 7, a total of 2,418 what are deemed confirmed and probable cases have been reported, Bloomberg said, citing the WHO's latest report on the outbreak.
“While the number of new cases continues to ease in former hot spots, such as Butembo, Katwa and Mandima health zones, there has been an increase in cases in Beni and a high incidence continues in parts of Mabalako health zone,” according to the report.
The report further noted that in parts of the DRC the "Ebola outbreak continues this past week with a similar transmission intensity," suggesting while it's still largely contained within the country's borders, the outbreak is still going strong despite emergency interventions. "The Ministry of Health (MoH) and other national authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, WHO, and partners are implementing several outbreak control interventions together with teams in the surrounding provinces, who are taking measures to ensure that they are response-ready," the report continued.
Compounding the Ebola crisis further is the simultaneous accelerating measles outbreak raging through the country, resulting an an urgent measles vaccination campaign in Ebola-hit regions. A stunning almost 2,000 people have died from the preventable disease in the DRC this year, the vast majority children under five.
“The combined threat of Ebola and measles for the thousands of families living in overcrowded and unsanitary displacement camps is unprecedented,” Unicef DRC spokesman Edouard Beigbeder told The Guardian. “We have a small window to prevent a potentially massive loss of life.”
More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019...ola-cases-congo-alongside-2000-measles-deaths
Swordsmyth
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The nonprofit Greenville Health System in South Carolina recently published a job posting for an Emergency Preparedness Program Manager whose qualifications should include familiarity with “Ebola grants.” The ad is still posted on the Greenville Health System website with the posting date July 8, 2019. Greenville’s private health system now joins a variety of federal, state and city government agencies quietly preparing for Ebola — including the CDC and New York City, which started preparing for an Ebola outbreak as migrants from the disease-ridden Congo made their way to the U.S. southern border. Texas is now home to a “surge” of Congo migrants who crossed the border, with more migrants on their way. The global tracker Ebola Outbreak Map made another catch:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health, as well as New York City and state and local governments began preparing for a possible Ebola outbreak shortly before the current Congolese migrant invasion on our southern border, as the Congo migrants journeyed from Africa to the United States.
The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department partnered with the CDC and the Kentucky Department of Health beginning in February to monitor people traveling to and from the Ebola outbreak region on the African continent, with the local department acting on guidance provided by the federal and state government bodies.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is a branch of the National Institutes of Health, sponsored a clinical trial beginning in late January at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio to test Ebola vaccines.
More at: https://bigleaguepolitics.com/more-...dc-nyc-quietly-brace-for-congo-migrant-surge/
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health, as well as New York City and state and local governments began preparing for a possible Ebola outbreak shortly before the current Congolese migrant invasion on our southern border, as the Congo migrants journeyed from Africa to the United States.
The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department partnered with the CDC and the Kentucky Department of Health beginning in February to monitor people traveling to and from the Ebola outbreak region on the African continent, with the local department acting on guidance provided by the federal and state government bodies.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is a branch of the National Institutes of Health, sponsored a clinical trial beginning in late January at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio to test Ebola vaccines.
More at: https://bigleaguepolitics.com/more-...dc-nyc-quietly-brace-for-congo-migrant-surge/
Anti Federalist
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So yeah, lets ship more of them invading illegally right into my back yard.
WHO declares international emergency over DRC Ebola outbreak
https://www.newscientist.com/articl...ernational-emergency-over-drc-ebola-outbreak/
HEALTH 18 July 2019
JOHN WESSELS/AFP/Getty
By Ruby Prosser Scully
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been declared a global emergency, with the World Health Organization (WHO) calling for international support to stop its spread.
This is only the fifth event to be labelled a “public health emergency of international concern” by the organisation. The move follows the death of a pastor in Goma, a city of almost 2 million people that borders Rwanda and is a hub of international travel.
Experts convened by the WHO were concerned that this, alongside the virus spreading to new locations and flare-ups in areas where the outbreak was previously under control, could herald a growing epidemic.
Despite efforts to contain the outbreak over the past year, the crisis has grown and is now responsible for the deaths of around 1700 people, and another 2500 possible infections.
This is the second biggest Ebola outbreak on record, behind the outbreak in West Africa in 2014.
Critics have been calling on the WHO to declare it an international emergency since the beginning of the year, and Adam Kamradt-Scott at the University of Sydney, Australia, says the announcement is “long overdue”.
Stringent measures
While it is unclear why the WHO opted not to declare the outbreak an international emergency until now, one reason may have been to avoid overreactions by international governments. The 2014 outbreak in West Africa led to travel bans, trade restrictions and the closure of border crossings, which hurt local economies and made it more challenging for healthcare workers to operate.
In a statement, Robert Steffen, chair of the emergency committee convened by the WHO, stressed that governments shouldn’t react in the same way, saying it “would have a negative impact on the response and on the lives and livelihoods of people in the region”.
The committee said that such measures were made “out of fear and have no basis in science”.
Kamradt-Scott says it is important that the international community steps up efforts to control the spread of the virus.
So far, around 160,000 people have received a vaccine made by Merck that seems to be 97 per cent effective. But the Wellcome Trust, a health charity, recently warned that supplies could run out, and urged the use of a second vaccine, made by Johnson & Johnson. The DRC health minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga responded by saying there is no need for another vaccine.
Conflict zones
Containing the crisis has been made more challenging by conflict. Healthcare workers responding to cases occurring in conflict zones have been attacked and murdered.
Distrust and scepticism about the virus and vaccines are also hampering public health efforts.
Kamradt-Scott says the public health response needs to learn the lessons from the 2014 outbreak in West Africa and use a social and diplomatic approach, as well as a medical one.
“This is an outbreak that’s occurring in an area of conflict, so the only way you can help address the outbreak is if you address the conflict,” he says.
WHO declares international emergency over DRC Ebola outbreak
https://www.newscientist.com/articl...ernational-emergency-over-drc-ebola-outbreak/
HEALTH 18 July 2019
JOHN WESSELS/AFP/Getty
By Ruby Prosser Scully
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been declared a global emergency, with the World Health Organization (WHO) calling for international support to stop its spread.
This is only the fifth event to be labelled a “public health emergency of international concern” by the organisation. The move follows the death of a pastor in Goma, a city of almost 2 million people that borders Rwanda and is a hub of international travel.
Experts convened by the WHO were concerned that this, alongside the virus spreading to new locations and flare-ups in areas where the outbreak was previously under control, could herald a growing epidemic.
Despite efforts to contain the outbreak over the past year, the crisis has grown and is now responsible for the deaths of around 1700 people, and another 2500 possible infections.
This is the second biggest Ebola outbreak on record, behind the outbreak in West Africa in 2014.
Critics have been calling on the WHO to declare it an international emergency since the beginning of the year, and Adam Kamradt-Scott at the University of Sydney, Australia, says the announcement is “long overdue”.
Stringent measures
While it is unclear why the WHO opted not to declare the outbreak an international emergency until now, one reason may have been to avoid overreactions by international governments. The 2014 outbreak in West Africa led to travel bans, trade restrictions and the closure of border crossings, which hurt local economies and made it more challenging for healthcare workers to operate.
In a statement, Robert Steffen, chair of the emergency committee convened by the WHO, stressed that governments shouldn’t react in the same way, saying it “would have a negative impact on the response and on the lives and livelihoods of people in the region”.
The committee said that such measures were made “out of fear and have no basis in science”.
Kamradt-Scott says it is important that the international community steps up efforts to control the spread of the virus.
So far, around 160,000 people have received a vaccine made by Merck that seems to be 97 per cent effective. But the Wellcome Trust, a health charity, recently warned that supplies could run out, and urged the use of a second vaccine, made by Johnson & Johnson. The DRC health minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga responded by saying there is no need for another vaccine.
Conflict zones
Containing the crisis has been made more challenging by conflict. Healthcare workers responding to cases occurring in conflict zones have been attacked and murdered.
Distrust and scepticism about the virus and vaccines are also hampering public health efforts.
Kamradt-Scott says the public health response needs to learn the lessons from the 2014 outbreak in West Africa and use a social and diplomatic approach, as well as a medical one.
“This is an outbreak that’s occurring in an area of conflict, so the only way you can help address the outbreak is if you address the conflict,” he says.
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