Why are they here ? What's wrong with Somalia ?

...Fuck off there yourself and let those who are fleeing the place in fear of their lives come here and settle in peace. Petty minded little biggots like you make me sick. Just remember one day you may need to seek assylum in another country (sooner than you think if I find out where you live). Who would want to take you worm!

Pardon me for not knowing the political situation in a country I have never visited !

Perhaps you Skyver Bill could educate me, when were you last there, why do these women want to leave, what happended to them when they were there, why will it be better for them to live in Britain ?

For your information, pasted below are links to reports from Amnesty International, giving background information on the situation in Somalia, and some general, very common, human rights abuses concerning women asylum seekers and refugees. Also pasted below is a link to an article which highlights the poor decision making process in the UK asylum system, particularly in relation to people from Somalia.

As for the history of Somalia, you’ll have to look for yourself. What I know off the top of my head is that, as with most lands that got on fine for millennia without the “civilising” attention of colonial powers, Somalia was a country created by imperial forces out of many peoples and regions, with independent cultures, languages etc. It has been under the yoke of Britain, France, Italy, Egypt, and Ethiopia, with them all conspiring to grab what they could and sell off bits they didn’t want, until Somalia started to move towards independence in the 1950s, when it ruled by home-grown oppressors who took over the divide and rule power structures of the colonialists.

After independence and a few more power struggles, there was a revolution which claimed retrospectively to be Marxist (and Islamic) and Somalia became another pawn in the cold war game. Pawns in that round of Armageddon-edged imperialism tend to be dealing with the consequences to this day.

Things went a bit crazy in the 1980s, at a time when, curiously enough, the country’s financial debts to the World Bank, the IMF and the US government, in addition to many multilateral creditors, increased unchecked to completely crippling levels. This carried on throughout the 1990s, with the civil war that started in 1991 ruling out even any servicing of the debt, let alone payment. Oh and the US went in and did some very stupid military stuff then pissed off again.

So we've gone from a collection of independent indigenous peoples through colonial imperialism, post-colonial power struggles, cold-war exploitation, neo-liberal global capitalist loan sharks anmd protection rackets, civil war and the rise of regional warlords, serious attacks on the human rights of women and now, and when women seek refuge from all this they appeal to Britain, the main former colonial ruler, and are treated with contempt, forced to live in poverty, then chucked out onto the streets after going through a humiliating, racist and notoriously unjust asylum process.

Thats a wee bit of the reality. But these words cannot hope to describe the fear, the misery, the pain that many refugees have been through, before they are forced to live on the streets of Britain with no right to housing, employment or benefits, and no way to return to their burned-out homes and the graves of their murdered husbands, wives, parents, children, or to live next door to the former soldiers who kept them as sex slaves.

Have a bit of compassion, and have a look around for information on countries and peoples affected by oppression, by war, by poverty and by the xenophobic British government, before you join the racists of the Daily Mail and the hypocrites of New Labour in the scapegoating of refugees.
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Amnesty International Report on Somalia
January 2004
 http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGIOR410012004?open&of=ENG-SOM

Has details of recent history (since 1991) and includes a section:
Violence against women
Female genital mutilation continues to be inflicted on most girls, despite educational campaigns by Somali women's organizations. Members of the Coalition of Grassroots Women's Organizations have also documented rape by faction militias and gunmen in Mogadishu of internally displaced women and girls, most of whom belong to discriminated minorities.

and sections on:
Refugees and internally displaced people

Also this section, which is particularly relevant here:

Amnesty International report on women’s human rights (extract re: refugees and asylum seekers) January 2004

Refugees and asylum-seekers
Women refugees and asylum-seekers often find themselves caught in an inescapable cycle of violence. Fleeing from one dangerous situation, many women are abused during their flight in search of safety. Government officials such as border guards, smugglers, pirates, members of armed groups, even other refugees, have all been known to abuse refugee women in transit. Women and girls are sometimes not even safe from sexual and other exploitation by humanitarian aid workers -- the very people charged with responsibility for the welfare of refugees and the displaced.

In a number of countries, asylum-seekers are detained in regular prisons where they are effectively treated as criminals. AI and other human rights organizations have documented incidents of abuse of women and girl refugees and asylum-seekers in detention and conditions which amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Women have been humiliated, raped, and in some instances driven to attempt suicide or commit acts of self-harm.(22)

When women return to their countries of origin, they may find themselves living alongside the perpetrators of the abuses that forced them to flee. Returning from exile, women and girls may also encounter a new set of problems. The breakdown of community structures and traditional roles that often results from conflict and flight presents new challenges in a post-conflict society.(23)

Reports in 2002 by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), together with Save the Children-UK, documented serious allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation of women and children by humanitarian workers in camps for refugees and displaced people in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Allegations included humanitarian workers deliberately withholding food and services in order to extort sexual favours. In Nepal, it was acknowledged by UNHCR that Bhutanese refugees in camps were found, in at least 18 cases, to have been victims of sexual abuse and exploitation by refugee aid workers. The victims included a seven-year-old girl and a woman with disabilities.


Institute of Race Relations report:
Somali asylum seekers: Home Office gets it wrong two times out of five.
March 2004
Institute of Race Relations report on increase of mistakes in UK asylum decision process, at a time where legal representation and access to justice for people fleeing persecution is being curtailed.
 http://www.irr.org.uk/2004/march/ak000005.html