As the Obama administration institutes a “surge” aimed at meeting its goal – currently way off-target – of admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees this fiscal year, the Associated Press has cited an official at the U.S. Embassy in Amman as saying that the time taken to process each admission is being cut to three months.
“While the resettlement process usually takes 18 to 24 months, under the surge operation this will be reduced to three months, [regional refugee coordinator Gina] Kassem said,” the AP reported Wednesday.
With the fiscal year now more than half over, the number of Syrian refugees admitted as of Wednesday stands at 1,353, according to State Department Refugee Processing Center data.
In order to meet the 10,000 target by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, the AP report said that around 600 Syrian refugees were being interviewed daily at a “resettlement surge center” which was opened in Amman last February.
“The U.N. Refugee Agency prioritizes the most vulnerable cases for resettlement, and then refers them to the U.S. to review, Kassem said. She said that priority is given to high-risk groups such as victims of torture and gender based violence and unaccompanied minors,” the AP reported.
Queries sent to the U.S. Embassy in Amman requesting clarity on the reported three-month processing time did not receive a response by press time.
Throughout the debate over the potential security implications of President Obama’s plan to bring 10,000 Syrian refugees into the U.S. in FY2016, the administration has stressed that the application process – which includes....
In Haiti, people work for peanuts. Slave wages. Less than $5 per day, but they supply the U.S. with tons of affordable clothing from big-name brands like Levi’s, Hanes and Polo. Haiti’s big advantage, compared to Asia, is their proximity to us, and thousands of Haitians are employed in the textile industry in part because of that. When Haiti passed a wage raise from $.24 per hour to $.61 per hour, American companies were predictably outraged.
U.S. companies, especially the clothing manufacturers, outsource their manufacturing to places like Haiti specifically because they can get away with paying slave wages. They would only support a minimum wage increase to $.31 per hour, and decided to get the U.S. Department of State involved to try and pressure Haiti’s government to keep the wage raise down.
This took place in 2011, and Hillary Clinton was the Secretary of State. Our corporations were successful, and Haitians continued to work for worse slave wages than they otherwise would have, all so U.S. corporations could take home higher profits.
At the time, the U.S. Embassy said that the wage increase didn’t...
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Be Proud.
Be Courageous.
Terrorists are using the migration crisis to enter Europe and plot atrocities across the continent, the European Union’s own border agency has admitted.
In a report which lays bare the concerns about the EU’s porous borders, Frontex conceded that it does not know the true number of migrants who have crossed into the continent and has no way of tracking them.
Frontex said that EU member states had reported a record 1.82 million illegal border crossings last year, six times higher than the previous record set in 2014.
However, it admitted that the number of illegal crossings is an underestimation because so many migrants have “continued their journey without being detected”.
It warned that a “staggering number” of EU citizens have travelled to Syria to fight with Isil and that they are now posing as refugees to gain entry to...
The latest news from Disney is that Bob Iger's heir apparent, Thomas Staggs, is leaving the company.
Staggs was promoted to the number-two position at Disney a year ago. In the video accompanying a New York Times article, Times reporter James Stewart wonders what happened over the past year to make Iger change his mind: "Something happened."
Yes, something happened. Staggs has done more to tarnish the Disney brand than anyone in the company's history. In his previous job, Staggs was the head of Disney Resorts.
Staggs' blockheadedness has brought Disney unwanted news coverage.
Staggs' ineptitude has brought Disney lawsuits.
Staggs' incompetence has brought Disney congressional hearings.
How could Disney possibly make a dunderhead of this magnitude its CEO after such malfeasance?
LOS ANGELES — Thomas O. Staggs, the favored contender to lead Disneyafter Robert A. Iger’s retirement, unexpectedly announced his departure on Monday, throwing succession at the world’s largest entertainment company into disarray.
Mr. Staggs, who became the Walt Disney Company’s No. 2 executive last year, beating out another candidate, will step down as chief operating officer on May 6. Disney said that Mr. Staggs, 55, would remain an employee until the fall, serving as “special adviser” to Mr. Iger, who is the company’s chief executive and chairman. In a statement, Mr. Iger called Mr. Staggs “a great friend and trusted colleague.”
Disney has a history of bumpy transitions of power. And last year, when Mr. Staggs was elevated to chief operating officer from theme park chairman, Disney insisted that it was not a coronation. Disney acknowledged, however, that the promotion made him Mr. Iger’s handpicked heir, pending the board’s approval. Mr. Iger, 65, said in 2014 that he would step down in June 2018, a two-year extension from a previously announced retirement.
After the promotion, as Mr. Staggs came under intense scrutiny by Disney’s board, it became clear that at least some board members were not convinced he had the skills required to maintain Disney’s creative momentum. While Mr. Staggs has extensive financial experience, his résumé is light when it comes to the successful creation of movies and television shows. (For his part, Mr. Iger ran ABC early in his career.)
An early personnel misstep did not help Mr. Staggs. He pushed for...
