The argument is using the Syrians as an example is that all are not claiming refuge in the 1st safe country they arrive in i.e. Greece, Turkey and even Cyprus.
One could argue Greece is safe but economically a basket case. Why are they travelling through 5 to 7 safe countries before making a claim?
We know the reason why and thats why some countries are just waving them through as they know they won't make a claim in their country.
How many Somalians are now leaving the USA and heading for Canada and making refugee claims here? The US are not entertaining their claims so they are now crossing illegally into Canada.

Didn't anyone watch the video :-(

I gave it a few minutes but it didn't load. Is it a snowball fight?

It took a while and, yes, it's a snowball fight.

The problem with raising the drawbridge and insisting Syrians stay close to home:

Video: Starving Syrians in besieged town of Madaya are reduced to eating cats and dogs - Telegraph

Warning: graphic images.

Yes. Very good.

According to Die Welt the Cologne police are now reporting the majority of the Criminals involved in the New years Eve attacks were freshly arrived Syrian Asylum seekers.

Übergriffe in Köln: Polizisten kontrollierten vor allem Syrer - DIE WELT

Of course people don't make refugee claims in the first safe country they reach if that country is poor and is in a borderless union with richer countries. Almost no one will claim asylum in Greece if the other choice is Germany. The fault there is not that the refugees want to make the best of things but that the procedures are behind the times and do not consider supranational entities such as the EU.

I can't say I know how non-refugee Somalians come to be in the US, nor anything about their claims in Canada. In the typical case, how does a Somalian refugee claimant end up in a border town?

In 30 years in DHSS/DSS/DWP I've experienced refugees, asylum seekers, displaced persons, whatever, right through from Iranian Students with funding interruptions from the revolution in the 70s, to Former Yugoslav Republic groups, Somalis, Sudanese, Ethiopians, Kurds, Montserratians after the volcano erupted......

Let's just say that in my experience many Somalis were extremely resourceful in getting what they want and displayed very different traits to all the others.

In what way resourceful?

erm... not tremendously concerned with the moral and/or legal status of the means of acquisition?

I'm being diplomatic.



They made it very difficult to sympathise with their plight.

No kidding, Gents. Was hoping for a specific example. But don't worry, I can guess, I do occasionally have a peek at the Daily Mail.

Over the last few years the Manitoba border crossing town of Emerson about 700 kms north west of Minneapolis has seen an increase of failed Somalian refugee claimants in the USA heading towards Canada to make a refugee claim.
Under the current Safe Third Country Act they cannot make these claims at a Port of Entry (Emerson) so cross illegally into Canada and then wait to be picked up or surrender to the Police.

Two Somalian refugees reach Winnipeg after swimming down the Red | SLNN
Tom Denton of Hospitality House said, on average, about 50 refugees sneak across the border near Emerson every month.

He said that's 10 times higher than a year ago.

"Last year, I think we had something like 55 or 56 people in a year, and now that many are coming up a month," he said. "There's been quite an increase in the flow.

See PM.

Who needs the mail when you have first hand knowledge