Jihadist’s view of Western asylum/refugee system

by philg

Guantánamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi contains the Jihadist’s view of the Western asylum/refugee/immigration system.

Mr. Slahi managed to emigrate from Mauritania to Germany and live there for a decade, except for trips to Afghanistan to wage jihad. He then “followed a college friend’s recommendation and applied for landed immigrant status in Canada, and in November 1999 he moved to Montreal.”

How was Canada?

I didn’t like this life in Canada, I couldn’t enjoy my freedom and being watched is not very good. I hated Canada and I said the work is very hard here. I took off on Friday, 21 January 2000; I took a flight from Montreal to Brussels, then to Dakar.

[He had been watched due to his association with acquaintances of Ahmed Ressam. Instead of deporting suspected terrorists who aren’t citizens, Canada, like the U.S., invests tax dollars in surveillance to see what they will do next.]

During the stop in Brussels, Mr. Slahi ponders what it would be like to be Belgian:

The [Brussels] airport was small, neat, and clean, with restaurants, duty-free shops, phone booths, Internet PCs, a mosque, a church, a synagogue, and a psych consulting bureau for atheists. I checked out all the God’s houses, and was impressed. I thought, This country could be a place I’d want to live. Why don’t I just go and ask for asylum? I’d have no problem; I speak the language and have adequate qualifications to get a job in the heart of Europe. I had actually been in Brussels, and I liked the multicultural life and the multiple faces of the city.

Maybe Cyprus will be a good location? (during a fuel stop on the way to a Jordanian prison/interrogation center)

I am lucky because I’m breaking the law by transiting through a country without a transit visa, and I’ll be arrested and put in jail. In the prison, I’ll apply for asylum and stay in this paradise. The Jordanians can’t say anything because they are guilty of trying to smuggle me. The longer the plane waits, the better my chances are to be arrested.

11 thoughts on “Jihadist’s view of Western asylum/refugee system”

  1. I don’t know why we don’t make it a policy to expel any person that does not have at least permanent residency at the first sign of trouble (unless we need them for something)

  3. “There are a lot of Americans and presumably Canadians who get paid as a result of keeping untrusted immigrants around.”

    If I didn’t know better, that sounds borderline cynical. As if government would tolerate a risky visitor merely to keep risky visitor minders employed. No way.

  5. billg, if there were no asinine laws that make immigrant workers beholden to the whims of their employers they would quickly revert to the habits of the local workforce, and there would be no incentive in hiring them rather than locals. In fact non speaking the local language at all, or well enough, might make people prefer local workers.

    Case in point. In the UK people working in the building industry are famously lazy, incompetent, unreliable and overpriced. When former Soviet countries joined the EU, a lot of people moved (chiefly from Poland) in the EU. For a couple of years easter european workers provided labour that was reliable, competent and affordable. But then they realised that Britons are unable to complain for poor work and that the local workers where working less hard and getting more money. result? now all workers, irrespective of nationality do a terrible overpriced job in a unreliable way.

  6. I do not work for any intelligence agency, but I do see that argument of keeping friends close and enemies closer. Is it easier and cheaper to get intel abroad or nationally?

  7. Federico: > the UK people … are overpriced

    Hey Fred, if you want to pat Polish wages then move to Poland and enjoy the Polish lifestyle. If you, however, want to enjoy the benefits of living I the UK, then expect to pay UK rates for goods and services.

  8. billg rest assured nobody in the building industry is on the minimum wage and there is plenty of fat to trim if one decides to do so to be more competitive — there are plenty of other jobs that are economically viable despite paying less. In addition there is also plenty of cash (as in actual cash) moving hands in the building industry, which might, or not, be reported to HMRC.

  9. billg, irrespective of the price, the decrease in quality of the work and the loss of reliability also need also explaining.

  11. Phil, you sample Jihadist’s view of the Western asylum/ refugee/ immigration system wasn’t very clear or telling, which is why we’re having this discussion about something else (and, BTW. the book you link to had been unavailable in Amazon right from the start, unless you meant either of its 2 differently priced Kindle editions, which I won’t procure).

    As for building trades anecdotes: an architect that I know, with several smaller dwellings to his credit (mainly of type secluded villas), told me that the 2 houses that he built for himself—one 25+ years ago, another quite recently; i.e. where builders knew that he was both the contractor AND competent to judge their workflow—were both 40% cheaper than originally tendered, and finished within budget and on time. Asked if I’d stand a chance of a similar outcome, he responded with “only if I factor in a couple of ulcers” (which he also had to “experience”).
    A cousin of mine who converted a barn in Italy into a 2-story home/ artist’s studio (3 permanent dwellers) told me “NEVER AGAIN.”
    A couple who undertook to modernize their 1970s villa to the nines are a couple no more, and the guy told me later that the whole process felt like his already high-maintenance wife spiraling out of control in pursuit of just the right color of tiles for the kitchen etc. (he kept the house by buying her off; she used the money to open a boutique restaurant in a cellar in a tony neighborhood, and went bust after a couple of years).

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