% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.





ISIS is thinking strategically–why not use social destabilization as a weapon? Europe is staggering under the weight of tens o thousands of refugees, third world, poor countries are even in worse shape; for they don’t have the resouces to deal with the desperate massses landing on their shores, nor can they handle their own angry, desperate citizens.

It’s a brillian tactic, using refugees as a weapon, destabilization dozens of countries.IS is leveraging refugees, like Wall Street banksters leverage assets.

Syrian refugee Khassan was reunited with his family after a year thanks to Sweden’s refugee policy [Yermi Brenner/Al Jazeera]

Stockholm, Sweden – It was a cold and snowy winter day, near the peak of the dark Swedish winter, and Khassan had not seen his wife and two children for more than two months.

He was living in refugee accommodation near the capital Stockholm, anxiously waiting for the Swedish Migration Board to process his asylum request.

Worryingly, his family was back in Syria’s war-ravaged city of Aleppo trying to survive, day by day.

“I had hoped to bring my wife and my children with me, but I didn’t have enough money for everyone,” said 29-year-old Khassan, who asked that his full name not be used to protect extended family back home.

Khassan had left his home in Aleppo two months earlier. He paid $22,000 to a human smuggler who provided escort across the Syrian-Turkish border, a fake passport, and plane tickets to Stockholm.

The high cost of this relatively safe form of smuggling – as opposed to the deadly Mediterranean Sea crossings – made it too expensive for the entire family to travel.

But Khassan had a plan – apply for asylum in Sweden, and then make use of the Swedish government’s decision to allow recognised refugees from Syria to legally bring their immediate family members to Sweden.

This “Family Reunification” programme – one of few legal paths for Syrian refugees to enter the European Union – enabled Khassan’s wife and kids to flee Aleppo for Stockholm at only the cost of their flights.

Last year, 5,820 Syrians came to Sweden through the family reunification initiative.

The last ones to do so were Khassan’s family, who landed in Sweden on December 31, 2014. Prior to that morning in Stockholm’s international airport, Khassan had not seen his five-year-old daughter and baby boy for more than a year.

“I hugged my wife and then my daughter, and then my son – and then I tried to hold them all together,” Khassan told Al Jazeera about the reunion.

Sometimes now I sit with my wife at night after the children are asleep, and we talk and say ‘is it true?’ Khassan, Syrian refugee

“It is really difficult to describe the emotions I felt inside. You feel like you are born again.”

Open-arms policy

One-third of the nine million Syrians displaced from their homes in the past four years have exited Syria’s borders, staying mostly in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey.

Only five percent of Syrians who fled their country – such as Khassan and his family – left the Middle East.

Sweden’s family reunification programme along with its decision to grant permanent residence to Syrian refugees has turned the Nordic country into a prime destination for Syrians seeking refuge in Europe.

In 2014, about 81,000 asylum seekers came to Sweden, and Syrians constituted the biggest group.

The overall number of asylum applications from Syrians in Sweden last year – 30,667 according to the Swedish Migration Board – was five times higher than in 2012.

“Sometimes now I sit with my wife at night after the children are asleep, and we talk and say: ‘Is it true – are we dreaming or are we really here together?’” Khassan said as he sat in the two-room apartment the family is renting in Stockholm.

He is now studying Swedish full-time and wants to be an insurance salesman – his profession back in Aleppo before the war. source

A politically astute South Florida Congresswoman put it this way:

The Growing Syrian Refugee Crisis Threatens to Destabilize Our Allies Like Israel and Jordan, & Threatens Regional, U.S. National Security Interests, Says Ros-Lehtinen “For the stability and security of the region, and for our own national security interests, we must continue to seek ways to aid these millions who desperately need our help” Sep 19, 2013 Issues: Foreign Affairs

(WASHINGTON) – U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, made the following statement at her Subcommittee hearing on Syria, entitled: “Examining the Syrian Humanitarian Crisis.” Statement by Ros-Lehtinen:

“While much attention and great amounts of deliberation have been focused on the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict and what the proper U.S. response may be, we must also continue to highlight the increasingly dire humanitarian crisis.

Since this conflict began in March 2011, the numbers of those impacted have grown exponentially and are truly shocking and devastating.

Nearly a full one-third of Syria’s population is in dire need of humanitarian assistance and has been displaced by the conflict.

By most estimates, there are now nearly five million Syrians who are now internally displaced persons (IDP).

The vast majority of them are women and children, and the elderly, who end up staying in unofficial shelters, unfinished buildings and makeshift accommodations, making it extremely difficult to get them the basic necessities that they require. SOURCE