Canada to take in 20,000 Afghan refugees targeted by Taliban

MSN – AFP, 14 August 2021 

Internally displaced Afghan families, who fled from the country's north due to fighting
between Taliban and Afghan security forces, take shelter in the courtyard of the
mosquw in Karbul on August 13, 2021.

Canada said Friday it will take in up to 20,000 Afghan refugees, including women leaders, government workers and others facing threats from the Taliban, as insurgents advanced across the country seizing major cities.

"The situation in Afghanistan is heartbreaking and Canada will not stand idly by," Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino told a news conference. 

The refugees will include "particularly vulnerable" Afghans still in the country or who've already fled to neighboring states, which in addition to female leaders and government employees also comprises human rights defenders, persecuted minorities and journalists. 

Several plane-loads of asylum seekers have already departed with the first one landing Friday in Toronto, Mendicino said. 

As the Taliban advances on the capital Kabul, officials said Canadian special forces form part of a contingency plans to airlift Canadian embassy staff, but details were not provided due to the sensitive nature of the security operation. 

Earlier Friday, many countries including Spain, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands announced the withdrawal of staff from their respective embassies. 

Canada has said it is monitoring the situation in Afghanistan "very closely" and working with its allies on the ground. 

"Protecting the Canadian Embassy and our staff is our top priority," said Foreign Minister Marc Garneau. 

On Twitter, he said that Canada "owes Afghans a debt of gratitude and we will continue our efforts to bring them to safety."

Kimia Alizadeh: Iran's top female athlete defects

DW, 12 January 2020

Iran's only female Olympic medallist, Kimia Alizadeh, has said she has left the country permanently following accusations of mistreatment and sexism against officials. The 21-year-old is reportedly in the Netherlands.

Kimia Alizadeh | 2016 Rio Olympics - Taekwondo (Reuters/I. Kato)

Amid rising unrest in Iran following the accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian plane and simmering tensions with the USA, Iran's only female Olympic medallist, Taekwondo athlete Kimia Alizadeh, has announced that she has defected.

In an Instagram post on Sunday, the 21-year-old said she didn't want to be a part of "hypocrisy, lies, injustice and flattery" as "one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran".

"I wore whatever they told me and repeated whatever they ordered. Every sentence they ordered I repeated. None of us matter for them, we are just tools," she added.

Alizadeh, who made history when she won bronze in Taekwondo at the Rio Olympics as an 18-year-old, is believed to be training in the Netherlands, according to Iran's ISNA news agency.

She has claimed in the past that the Islamic Republic has used her as a propaganda tool and accused Iranian officials of sexism and mistreatment.

The ISNA agency reported that Alizadeh is hoping to still compete at the Tokyo Olympics later this year, but not under the Iranian flag.

Iranian students demonstrated following a tribute for victims of
Wednesday's plane crash (AFP Photo/Atta KENARE)

Related Article:

Iran agrees de-escalation 'only solution' to solve crisis with US

Report alleges ethical abuses at UN agency for Palestinians

Yahoo – AFP, Joe Dyke, July 29, 2019

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said it is cooperating fully
with the investigation into allegations of mismanagement and abuses of authority
at the highest level of the agency (AFP Photo/MOHAMMED ABED)

Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - An internal ethics report has alleged mismanagement and abuses of authority at the highest levels of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees even as the organisation faced an unprecedented crisis after US funding cuts.

The allegations included in the confidential report by the agency's ethics department are now being scrutinised by UN investigators.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said it is cooperating fully with the investigation and that it cannot comment in detail because the probe is ongoing.

AFP has obtained a copy of the report which describes "credible and corroborated" allegations of serious ethical abuses, including involving UNRWA's top official, Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl.

It says the allegations include senior management engaging in "sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority, for personal gain, to suppress legitimate dissent, and to otherwise achieve their personal objectives."

One senior official named in the report has left the organisation due to "inappropriate behaviour" linked to the investigation, UNRWA said, while another has resigned for what the agency called "personal reasons."

UNRWA said in response to AFP questions that it "is probably among the most scrutinised UN agencies in view of the nature of the conflict and complex and politicised environment it is working in."

"Over the past 18 months, UNRWA has faced immense financial and political pressure, but its entire staff body has steered it, serving 5.4 million Palestine refugees through the most unprecedented financial crisis in its near 70 years of history," it said.

The report was sent to the United Nations secretary general in December and UN investigators have since visited UNRWA's offices in Jerusalem and Amman, collecting information related to the allegations, sources familiar with the matter said.

Krahenbuhl said in a statement to AFP that "if the current investigation... were to present findings that require corrective measures or other management actions, we will not hesitate to take them."

'Nepotism'

UNRWA was set up in the years after more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled their lands during the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel.

It provides vital schooling and medical services to millions of impoverished refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and the Palestinian territories.

It employs around 30,000 people, mostly Palestinians, and its UN mandate is set to be debated later this year.

The report paints a picture of a small number of mostly foreign senior leaders centralising power and influence while disregarding UN checks and balances.

Pierre Krahenbuhl, Commissioner General for the United Nations Relief and 

Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (AFP Photo/THOMAS COEX)

Krahenbuhl himself is alleged to have been romantically involved with a colleague who was appointed in 2015 to a newly created role of senior advisor to the commissioner-general after an "extreme fast-track" process, the report says.

This enabled her to join him on business class flights across the globe, the report claims.

In 2018 the United States suspended and later cut all funding for UNRWA, causing a financial crisis that threatened to see its schools and hospitals closed.

US President Donald Trump's administration, along with Israel, accuses UNRWA of perpetuating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The agency disputes that and says the services it provides would otherwise not be available to Palestinians.

Trump's Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt said Monday that he was "extremely concerned" about allegations against UNRWA and demanded a full UN probe.

"UNRWA's model is broken/unsustainable & based on an endless expanding # of beneficiaries," he wrote on Twitter.

After the crisis began, Krahenbuhl established a fund-raising unit outside of the traditional mechanisms but it "reportedly raised only modest amounts," the report says.

At the same time, it enabled him to continue travelling with his partner, it says.

Separately, a Krahenbuhl deputy is accused of manipulating the system to find a well-paid job for her husband during the 2018 financial crisis.

Her management style is alleged to have included bullying, cutting those she disliked out of decision-making and avoiding checks and balances, it says.

The deputy left UNRWA last Thursday for what the agency said was "personal reasons".

She could not be reached for comment.

Another senior official is described in the report as bullying staff and acting like a "gangster" and a "thug".

UNRWA said the official was recently "separated from the agency as a result of inappropriate behaviour" linked to the investigation.

He could not be reached for comment.

'Warnings ignored'

A senior UNRWA staffer was fired in early July after what she said was several years of trying to raise ethical concerns.

UNRWA said she was "separated" following a different investigation unrelated to the internal report, calling it a "stand-alone case of misconduct".

She claimed she was fired for retaliation and is appealing.

Documents seen by AFP show multiple times she raised concerns over potential mismanagement, including employees allegedly being promoted beyond their qualifications and supposed nepotism.

She told AFP she met directly with Krahenbuhl, but nothing was done.

"Most of the time it felt like working for a private company not the United Nations where we are supposed to comply with strict rules and regulations", she said.

Canada grants asylum to woman who sheltered Snowden in Hong Kong

Yahoo – AFP, March 25, 2019

Former US National Security Agency contractor and whistle-blower Edward
Snowden speaking on March 15, 2019 via video link from Russia (AFP Photo/
FREDERICK FLORIN)

Canada has granted asylum to a woman who helped Edward Snowden hide in Hong Kong after his leaks exposed US global surveillance programs, a refugee rights association said Monday.

Vanessa Rodel and her 7-year-old daughter Keana were scheduled to arrive in Toronto later Monday on a flight from Hong Kong, the non-profit organization For the Refugees said.

Rodel was among a group of people who sheltered Snowden, a former CIA employee and US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, putting him up in her apartment in 2013 while he was in Hong Kong on the run from US authorities.

His leaks of highly classified documents revealed the existence of global surveillance programs run by the NSA in cooperation with partners Australia, Britain and Canada.

Snowden, who now lives in Russia, was charged in June 2013 in the United States with espionage and stealing state secrets.

Canada granted Rodel, a Philippines national, and her daughter asylum in January but it was kept secret for security reasons, according to For the Refugees.

Five other people who helped Snowden have also requested asylum but remain in Hong Kong awaiting a response, according to the daily National Post.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declined to comment, saying it would be inappropriate to do so in "a situation regarding a specific case."

But Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland implicitly confirmed the report, telling reporters she had not personally intervened in the process.

Asked during a Washington visit whether the granting of asylum might harm US-Canadian relations, Freeland told reporters that Ottawa based its decision on case-by-case considerations, not "geopolitical relations."

A spokesperson for Canada's immigration ministry also declined to comment except to say that in "exceptional circumstances" requests for asylum can be accelerated.

Radio Canada said Rodel was under pressure from Hong Kong authorities and faced a risk of deportation to the Philippines.

US senator says Saudi crown prince must be 'dealt with' over Khashoggi murder

Yahoo – AFP, January 19, 2019

Graham said the US will issue a 'definitive' statement that the Saudi crown
prince knew about the murder (AFP Photo/Adem ALTAN)

Ankara (AFP) - A key US senator on Saturday said the Saudi crown prince was responsible for Jamal Khashoggi's murder and must be "dealt with", as he threatened new sanctions.

Republican Lindsey Graham, an influential ally of President Donald Trump, has previously said that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was complicit in the grisly killing of Washington Post contributor Khashoggi in October.

"I have concluded that the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States cannot move forward until MBS has been dealt with," Graham said, using the initials for the crown prince.

Graham also threatened new sanctions against those suspected of involvement in the murder during a press conference in Ankara.

Western countries including the US, France and Canada have placed sanctions on nearly 20 Saudi nationals as the case has tarnished Riyadh's international reputation.

"We will start sanctioning those involved in the killing of Mr Khashoggi. We'll make a definitive statement that MBS knew about it and is responsible for it and come up with a series of sanctions," the South Carolina lawmaker said.

Turkey says Khashoggi was killed by a team of 15 Saudis who strangled him during a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to obtain paperwork ahead of his upcoming marriage.

The remains of the insider turned critic of the kingdom have yet to be found, three months after this murder.

Riyadh has denied any claims of the crown prince's involvement but the case has caused strains with Washington.

Earlier this month the trial of 11 accused opened in Saudi Arabia with the attorney general seeking the death penalty for five defendants.

Graham acknowledged that he had been "enthusiastic" in his support of Prince Mohammed but accepted he had been "wrong".

"What has transpired in the last couple of years is unnerving to say the least," he said.

Graham said the sanctions were intended to send the message that the murder was "not what you do if you're an ally of the United States".

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was excluded from a list of 17 people
hit with US sanctions over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but two
top aides were on it (AFP Photo/FAYEZ NURELDINE)

Related Article:

Khashoggi murder: US hits 17 Saudis with sanctions

King tours Saudi as Khashoggi crisis rages abroad

Saudi teen refugee, now in Canada, wants to fight for other women

Saudi teenager Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun (R) is seen here arriving at Pearson 

International airport in Toronto on January 12, 2019 -- to her left is Saba Abbas

from COSTI immigrant services (AFP Photo/Lars Hagberg)

Saudi asylum seeker flying from Bangkok to Canada: Thai official

Yahoo – AFP, January 11, 2019

Saudi teen Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun was stopped by authorities at the
Thai capital's main airport (AFP Photo/Handout)

Bangkok (AFP) - An 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled her family seeking asylum in Australia will fly to Canada late Friday, the head of Thai immigration police said, in a surprise twist to a saga partly played out over Twitter.

Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun was granted refugee status by the UN days ago after arriving in Bangkok over the weekend and amassing a large Twitter following as she made desperate pleas for help from the airport.

Australia was assessing a request to resettle her but hours after the young woman tweeted that she had "some good news and some bad news" earlier Friday Thai authorities said she was set to board a flight to Canada instead.

"She will fly at 11:15 pm tonight (1615 GMT)," Thai immigration chief Surachate Hakparn told AFP.

The woman's social media-driven fight for freedom was watched closely around the world after she arrived in Bangkok via Kuwait and barricaded herself in a hotel room posting live updates about her status.

Saudi teen Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun was stopped by authorities at the Thai 

capital's main airport (AFP Photo/Handout)

She quickly amassed tens of thousands of followers with a #SaveRahaf hashtag that went viral and saw her delivered into the hands of the UN refugee agency in lightning speed compared to other asylum cases.

Rahaf said she was subjected to physical and psychological abuse at the hands of her family in Saudi Arabia and was once locked in her room for six months for cutting her hair.

Rights groups also say she was at risk for renouncing Islam.

Her father travelled to Thailand and denied mistreating her but she refused to see him during his trip.

Rahaf's quest also prompted online vitriol and death threats that made her deactivate her Twitter account after posting her last update.

#UPDATE A young Saudi woman who caused an international sensation as she sought asylum abroad while in Bangkok arrived in Toronto Saturday where she was welcomed with open arms https://t.co/1sL4emOLmJ #RahafMohammed pic.twitter.com/oSu0JYXCDL

— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 12, 2019

Related Article:

Saudi woman held at Bangkok airport says fears death if repatriated

UN General Assembly ratifies migrant pact

Yahoo – AFP, December 19, 2018

The UN General Assembly formally ratified the UN Global Compact for Safe,
Orderly and Regular Migration -- here, a group of Central American migrants hover
near the US-Mexico border, mulling whether to try to cross (AFP Photo/Guillermo Arias)

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The UN General Assembly on Wednesday formally ratified a UN deal on migration by a large majority -- but without the support of the United States and a string of other countries.

A total of 152 countries voted in favor of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which was agreed upon earlier this month by 165 UN members at a meeting in Morocco.

Twelve countries abstained while five nations voted against it -- the United States, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Israel.

Billed as the first international document on managing migration, it lays out 23 objectives to open up legal migration and discourage illegal border crossings, as the number of people on the move globally has surged to more than almost 260 million, or 3.4 percent of the world' population.

More than 80 percent of those moving between countries do so legally, but more 60,000 people have died trying to cross border illicitly since 2000, according to UN figures.

Rows over the accord have erupted in several European Union nations, sparking the collapse of Belgium's coalition government and pushing Slovakia's foreign minister to tender his resignation.

From the United States to Europe and beyond, right-wing and populist leaders have taken increasingly draconian measures to shut out migrants in recent years.

According to diplomats, the United States had sought up to the last minute to convince other countries not to support the pact.

The agreement is not legally binding, which has raised concerns among NGOs and human rights advocates that its provisions may not be fully implemented.

In Europe -- where a wave of migration from the Middle East and North Africa in 2015 bolstered far-right politicians -- a dozen states either opposed the pact or abstained.

Hungary once again denounced the pact as a "serious mistake" and raised the specter of a fresh influx of migrants, while Brazil's far-right president-elect Jair Bolsonaro said migrants had made parts of France "unlivable" and announced he would withdraw from the pact.

Support 'safe' migration

But UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned at the summit last week in Morocco for world leaders to sign off on the text that "we must not succumb to fear and false narratives."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also sought to quell fears at the meeting, saying the aim of the agreement was to prevent, rather than encourage, illegal migration.

"This is about safe, orderly and regular migration -- it says (this) clearly in the title," she said.

Despite the nationalist furor that forced Belgium's prime minister to tender his resignation Tuesday, Brussels voted for the pact at the General Assembly.

The pact includes a series of principles -- including the defense of human rights, recognition of the sovereignty of nations -- as well as a list of collaborative tools, such as sharing information and expertise and integrating migrants.

It stipulates that the detention of migrants should only be a last resort in tackling the global problem.

Amnesty International, a human rights group that supported the pact, said the countries that refused to endorse it -- including the United States, Australia, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Austria -- had been responsible for the "worst abuses against migrants in recent years."

Jolie urges UN Security Council to solve Syria war

Yahoo – AFP, January 28, 2018

United Nations refugee agency special envoy Angelina Jolie holds a press conference
during a visit to Jordan's Zaatari camp for Syrian refugees on January 28, 2018
(AFP Photo/Khalil MAZRAAWI)

Zaatari refugee camp (Jordan) (AFP) - UN goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie urged the UN Security Council to "find a way" to solve Syria's nearly eight-year war during a tour Sunday of a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan.

"It is heartbreaking to return to Jordan and witness the levels of hardship and trauma among the Syrian refugees as this war enters its eighth year," the Hollywood star said at the Zaatari camp.

Jolie, a special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said Syria's neighbours Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq now host around 5.5 million refugees from the conflict.

"They really are an example to the world at a time that solidarity with the refugees is in short supply," she told reporters after meeting with families living in the camp which is home to about 80,000 people.

"Humanitarian aid is not a long term solution," she said, urging Security Council members to take action and solve the war which broke out in March 2011.

"This is a crisis that has been out of control for years. UNHCR does not have the funds to provide in full even the most basic necessities," she said.

The UNHCR response for the Syria conflict was "only 50 percent funded" last year and only seven percent since the start of 2018, she said.

Jolie, who was on her fifth trip to Jordan, said "it is soul-destroying" for Syrian refugees "to be made this dependent".

"So I would urge the Security Council members to come to the region, to visit the camps and the urban refugees, and find a way to finally bring the full weight of the UN and international community to bear to solve this conflict," she told reporters.

"My message to the international community today... please do more to help meet the needs of desperate Syrian families, and the countries hosting them.

"But above all please provide the leadership and strength needed to negotiate a principled end to this senseless war, without sacrificing the dignity and human rights of Syrian families. That is non-negotiable," she said.

The UN refugee agency says it has registered more than 650,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan since the conflict in Syria began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.

However, Amman says it is hosting 1.3 million Syrian refugees, and has repeatedly called for more assistance to do so

Angela Merkel, Germany's 'eternal chancellor'

Yahoo – AFP, Frank ZELLER, September 24, 2017

Dubbed "the eternal chancellor", Angela Merkel is widely expected to win reelection
when Germany votes on Sunday (AFP Photo/TOBIAS SCHWARZ)

Berlin (AFP) - Angela Merkel has been derided as Europe's "austerity queen", cheered as a saviour by refugees and hailed as the new "leader of the free world".

But as the pastor's daughter raised behind the Iron Curtain just won a fourth term at the helm of Europe's biggest economy, many Germans simply call her the "eternal chancellor".

Related Searches

Angela Merkel BiographyAngela Merkel Young

"Mutti" (Mummy) Merkel, with her pragmatic, modest and reassuringly bland style, has perfected the art of staying in power in a wealthy, ageing nation that tends to favour continuity over change.

In the turbulent times of Trump, Brexit and multiple global crises, the 63-year-old has become the bedrock in a country concerned with maintaining its enviable growth and employment rates.

If there is one conviction Merkel holds dear, it is a lesson from her upbringing in communist East Germany -- a firm belief that Germany and Europe must stay competitive and debt-free in a rapidly changing global economy.

Germans have thanked her by keeping her in power ever since she became their youngest and first female chancellor in 2005, a contemporary of long-gone leaders George W. Bush, Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac.

Seemingly devoid of vanity and indifferent to the trappings of power, she lives in a Berlin flat with her media-shy scientist husband Joachim Sauer, shops in a local supermarket and spends holidays hiking in the Alps.

When international newspapers, after Trump's surprise victory last year, declared Merkel the new torch-bearer of liberal democracy, she waved off the accolade as "grotesque and absurd".

Angela Merkel was both hailed and derided for her bold decision in 

2015 to open Germany's borders to more than a million asylum 

seekers, with TIME Magazine crowning her its person of the 

year (AFP Photo/HO)

'Sphinx, diva, queen'

Though frequently criticised for sitting out tough challenges, Merkel has punctuated her reign with bold and surprising decisions -- from scrapping nuclear power after the 2011 Fukushima disaster to opening German borders to more than a million asylum seekers since 2015.

The migrant influx cost her dearly, both with voters and EU neighbours, and led many to predict her demise.

But as the number of new arrivals eased off and her government pushed through tougher asylum policies, her poll ratings edged back up to pre-crisis levels.

So strong is her support that German media reports tend to ridicule her centre-left challengers as luckless operators on political suicide missions, destined to be roadkill as the Merkel juggernaut powers forward.

Merkel herself usually refuses to mention her rivals by name or engage in spirited political dialogue, which lent a slightly dreamy atmosphere to the election campaigns and infuriated her shadow-boxing opponents.

Martin Schulz, her temperamental challenger, lashed out in June, labelling Merkel's apparent tactic of keeping politics as unexciting as possible "an attack on democracy" -- a comment that earned him stern rebukes from legions of the chancellor's supporters.

But many political commentators also charge that Merkel has plunged Germany into an apolitical slumber while seeming to grow ever more remote.

Der Spiegel's Alexander Osang recently labelled her the "woman in amber", as impenetrable "as a sphinx, diva or queen", whose speeches were akin to "mass hypnosis".

Growing up in a police state taught Angela Merkel to hide her true thoughts

behind a poker face, biographers say (AFP Photo/Tobias SCHWARZ)

'Merkelvellian'

Merkel was born Angela Dorothea Kasner in 1954 in the port city of Hamburg.

Weeks later her father, a leftist Lutheran clergyman, moved the family to a small town in the communist East at a time when most people were headed the other way.

Biographers say life in a police state taught Merkel to hide her true thoughts behind a poker face.

Like most students, she joined the state's socialist youth movement but rejected an offer to inform for the Stasi secret police while also staying clear of risky pro-democracy activism.

A top student, she excelled in Russian, which would later help her keep up the dialogue with President Vladimir Putin, who was a KGB officer in Dresden when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

During that momentous upheaval, Merkel joined the nascent Democratic Awakening group, which later merged with the Christian Democrats (CDU) of then-chancellor Helmut Kohl, who fondly if patronisingly dubbed Merkel his "girl".

But Merkel's mentor was not the last politician to underestimate her and pay the price.

When Kohl became embroiled in a campaign finance scandal in 1999, Merkel openly urged her party to drop the self-declared "old warhorse".

The move, which has been described as "Merkelvellian", kicked off her meteoric rise.

As an outsider, she remade the CDU, anchoring it in the political centre by pushing progressive social policies, abolishing compulsory military service and scrapping nuclear power.

She emerged as Europe's go-to leader during the debt crisis, though she was derided as a puritanical "austerity queen" in the worst-hit southern countries.

As she starts her fourth term, there is no challenger in sight, but plenty of challenges ahead for Merkel, whom New Yorker magazine just labelled "the most powerful woman in a world filled with unstable men".

Angela Merkel, Germany's "eternal chancellor" wins fourth term https://t.co/IiAnJ1HQmf #BTW2017 pic.twitter.com/Pk5qJxYUGu

— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 24, 2017

Irish PM tells Trump: St. Patrick was 'an immigrant'

Yahoo – AFP, March 17, 2017

US President Donald Trump receives a traditional bowl of shamrock from Irish Prime
Minister Enda Kenny at the White House on March 16, 2017 (AFP Photo/SAUL LOEB)

Washington (AFP) - Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny caused a stir at the White House on the eve of Saint Patrick's day Friday, pointedly telling President Donald Trump that the festival is in honor of an immigrant.

Before a sea of green-clad revelers in the East Room of the White House Thursday night, Kenny made a pointed reference to controversies over Trump's immigration policies, as the president looked on.

"It's fitting that we gather here each year to celebrate St. Patrick and his legacy. He, too, of course, was an immigrant," Kenny said.

The saint is believed to have been born somewhere in Britain.

"And though he is, of course, the patron saint of Ireland, for many people around the globe, he is also a symbol of, indeed, the patron of immigrants," Kenny said.

Around 35 million Americans claim Irish ancestry, ensuring that successive presidents have put on a green tie and greeted the Irish prime minister -- or Taoiseach -- to the White House on or around Saint Patrick's day.

Trump praised Ireland as "a truly great country" and the Irish as "tough." "I know a lot about the Irish -- they fight. They're tough," he joked.

This year Saint Patrick's falls on the day that Trump's ban on refugees and migrants from six majority Muslim countries was due to have gone into effect.

The ban was halted by a federal judge, but Trump has vowed to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

Kenny, amid controversy in Ireland over whether he should have met Trump at all, pressed his point further.

"The Irish have contributed to the economic, social, political and cultural life of this great country over the last 200 years," Kenny said.

The Irish "came to America because, deprived of liberty, deprived of opportunity, of safety, of even food itself, the Irish believed, four decades before Lady Liberty lifted her lamp, we were the 'wretched refuse on the teeming shore','" Kenny said.

"We believed in the shelter of America, and the compassion of America, and the opportunity of America. We came, and we became Americans."

For migrants, Canada is haven, not Trump's America

Yahoo – AFP, Catherine TRIOMPHE, March 3, 2017

Police officers look on as a family from Turkey illegally crosses the US-Canada
border just before dawn on February 28, 2017 near Hemmingford, Quebec
(AFP Photo/Geoff Robins)

Champlain (United States) (AFP) - A taxi stops in the small town of Champlain. Loaded down with belongings, a family with two children gets out and hurries to the road's end at a stream marking the US-Canada border.

"We are coming all the way from Jersey City," says the father, Mohammed Ahmed. The city near New York is more than 300 miles (500 kilometers) to the south.

Talking while walking, he and his wife explain how they left Pakistan 11 months ago after getting death threats.

"We came to the US to ask for asylum," he said. But with new President Donald Trump's anti-immigrant policy "we are very much scared from deportation."

Across the New York state border in Quebec, two Canadian police officers warn them they will all be arrested for entering Canada illegally.

"It is all right," said the father. "We just need to cross the border."

He crosses the stream, shows his passport, and turns back to help their three-year-old daughter, then his wife who is carrying their three-month-old baby in a pouch, cross the rock-filled water.

Conditions for making the crossing are good: It's cold but the sun is shining, and last week's snow has melted away.

A few minutes later the family finds itself, visibly relieved, in Canada.

A man from Colombia is arrested by Canadian police illegally crossing the 

US-Canada border with his family near Hemmingford, Quebec, on

February 28, 2017 (AFP Photo/Geoff Robins)

The Canadian police bring them to the official border post of Lacolle, about 10 minutes away, where they will be questioned and their asylum request will be registered.

If all goes well, the family will then head to Montreal, 40 miles (65 kilometers) north.

This week, in less than two days, more than 70 people have crossed the stream into Canada, according to a tally by AFP and local police -- among them Haitian families, Colombians and many Muslims.

A Syrian family, who lived in the United States for 18 months and whose oldest daughter was to finish high school in June, left in a hurry after Trump banned entry of nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries, including Syria, for 90 days and barred entry by Syrian refugees indefinitely.

'Constant' migrant flow

Trump's January 27 order, just a week after he took office, has been blocked by the courts, but his administration is working to amend it to address the legal objections.

Melissa Beshaw, a grandmother who lives in a small house about 165 feet (50 meters) from the stream on the US side, said that "since Trump has been in office, it's constant... It's traffic all the time."

"I used to get out and look" to see what was going on, she said. "I don't anymore because I know."

Some migrants arrive by car to Plattsburgh, the last stop in New York state before the border. For the final 25 miles to the stream, they take a taxi, which costs them between $200 and $300, said Denise Quinte, an employee at a motel near where the cars stop.

Since early February, the motel has seen "10 to 25 people a week," she said, often heading to the border at dawn, leaving behind some belongings.

Others come directly by car from New York City and neighboring states such as Massachusetts and New Jersey.

For migrants, Canada is haven, not Trump's America, as they seek new life across the border https://t.co/yjbFuu2j0u pic.twitter.com/dNGaQ9KlJb

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 3, 2017

The numbers of migrants is a trickle compared to the thousands who cross the Mediterranean each month to reach Europe.

While Canadian authorities don't directly link the flow to Trump administration policies, they acknowledge that the number of migrants from the United States has increased since January, especially through the Quebec border.

The trend is striking, because until now the United States has seemed welcoming to foreigners.

The banks of the border stream bear the litter of hasty crossings: water bottles, lost gloves and hats, an abandoned stroller, fragments of boarding passes -- several from Arab companies -- and even a cellphone.

A discarded plastic bag reveals the journey of a Sudanese couple. Inside, two soggy pages, in poor English, explain how Asma Elyas and her husband Ayman fled Sudan to avoid the female circumcision of their daughter who was born in 2014.

After several months in Saudi Arabia, they flew to Washington on September 7, 2016, two months before Trump's election.

A document shows that they agreed in late September to pay a law firm in neighboring Virginia $3,500 to handle their asylum request. Several pamphlets and a Virginia maternity booklet indicate the woman was pregnant.

These personal effects do not explain why the Sudanese couple left the US for Canada. But a Quebec police officer is sure he knows the reason: "The arrivals truly began" with Trump's immigration crackdown in late January, he said.

"Now, there are a lot of people. As if it took time for that to sink in."