The Whole Truth and Nothing But The Truth

Michelle Douglas   Parlvu.Parl.GC.CA

"The WE Charity board always understood that speakers were not paid by the charity or the related organization to speak at WE Days. The board made direct inquiries on this issue."

"I don't know the precise nature of what they were paid for, but if it was exclusively to speak on the WE Day stage, that would have surprised me."

"I did not resign as a routine member or as part of a planned board transition. I resigned because I could not do my job, I could not discharge my governance duties."

"Those reports [financial reports] were not shared with the board, despite our requests."

"It was our view that  you cannot fire hundreds of people without very strong, demonstrable evidence, and even then should explore mitigation measures to save jobs. Instead the executive team were dismissing employees with great speed and in large numbers."

"It was clear that there was a breakdown in trust between the funders and me as the board chair."

"I demanded that the executive team produce those [financial] records. The call was abruptly concluded. I resigned because I could not do my job. I could not discharge my governance duties."

Michelle Douglas former Board of Directors WE Charity

"This has been something that may destroy 25 years of work to build a national charity in this country, partially because of mistakes that we made, we acknowledge and we apologize. But frankly, significantly because of inaccurate and false information is circulated to the advantage of various groups."

"It is incredibly unfortunate that in the past 25 days we have seen the integrity of an organization the service by thousands of teachers across this country, and the work of students who have volunteered called into question."

Craig Kielburger, co-founder, WE Charity

Marc and Craig Keilburger, WE Charity cofounders

Finally, the Canadian House of Commons federal finance committee, looking into the issues that have erupted in the past few weeks over a sole-sourced contract valued at close to a billion dollars given to acknowledged personal friends of the prime minister, have heard directly from the two Kielburger brothers, Marc and Craig, their version of events as they unfolded. Basically the two brothers informed parliamentarians questioning them during a four-hour session that the scandal resulted from "misrepresentations" by the media, by critics and politician.

The "labyrinthian" corporate structure of the WE Charity was explained as innocently ill advised; that their for-profit group and their charitable group were interconnected with one raising funds and dispersing it to the other. What is more inexplicable are the other arms, one specific to real estate property ownership and management, another, a shell company whose purpose was ostensibly to protect the assets of the others, but which was the signee for the government's Canada Student Service Grant to WE Charity Foundation that would have given them a $48-billion payment for services rendered.

Audited financial statements indicate that the charity has paid ME to WE over $11 million since 2009, in cash, much of it representing  the purchase of promotional items or travel and leadership training services. ME to WE claims to have donated $21.4 million to its charitable arm in 11 years representing scarcely five percent of WE Charity's total revenue since 2009; of that sum, $8.6 million represented "in-kind" contributions; not money but items like "donated ME to WE Trips hosting donors an dyouth on scholarship; donated printing of educational materials, donations of ME to WE Artisans from women in Kenya". Leaving one to exhale a huge: WOT?!

There is, in addition to the finance committee investigation, two other parliamentary investigations opened into this very peculiar and revealingly unethical event where it has been seen that both the prime minister and the finance minister who both signed off on the contract to WE when they should have recused themselves in recognition of their deep and personal connections to the charity, has occasioned the Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner to launch an enquiry on these suspect connections as well, for each man, the third such ethical breach for both.

WE co-founders Craig Kielburger, left, and Marc Kielburger, right, introduce Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, at WE Day celebrations in Ottawa in 2015. Trudeau and Morneau both have faced criticism for not disclosing their ties to the organization and not recusing themselves when a government contract was awarded to WE. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

The WE Charity has paid for speeches given at their events by the wife of the prime minister, the prime minister's mother Margaret Trudeau, and the brother of the prime minister, to a total of $300,000. On the part of the Finance Minister, Bill Morneau, one daughter has spoken at WE events, another works for the charity and in 2017 the Morneau family accepted travel invitations by WE Charity to Kenya and Ecuador. Mr. Morneau only recalled not having paid back $41,000 for his family's travel and accommodation last week, when he appeared before the finance committee investigation.

The former chair of WE Charity's board of directors also testified before the committee, to the effect that the board was informed quite explicitly that speakers at youth events connected to WE Charity volunteered their time, and did not receive honorariums. Margaret Trudeau, Justin Trudeau's mother alone received $250,000 for 28 speaking engagements between 2016 and 2020. While brother Alexandre was paid $32,000 for eight events at which he spoke. As a Member of Parliament, not yet leader of the Liberal Party Justin Trudeau himself undertook speaking engagements at various charities for hefty speaking fees.

WE Charity's executive, in response to the March lockdown for the global pandemic went into panic mode over the financial impacts of COVID-19, laying off staff in large numbers, to the final tally of 400 personnel. In their defence, the brothers testified that they had paid Margaret Trudeau not for speaking, but for hosting after-parties, attending receptions and holding autograph sessions on the day of the speeches. Jaw-dropping inanity as an explanation, yet put forward as an explanation countering the 'misinformation' that has been so ruinous to their 25-year work in establishing their WE Charity as a Canadian institution of noble enterprise.

Where the brothers explain that their organization, while complex, and eliciting condemnatory comments from critics

  ,their intention all along was to "be of service", sounding suspiciously like Justin Trudeau's constant reminders to his own critics that he "means well". Accounting for the financial links between the profit side and non-profit side of the enterprise in the two separate groups, things do not add up reassuringly, taking into account the amounts received by WE Charity to enable it to pursue its overseas charitable work, leaving vast sums in possession of the for-profit group which then goes on to acquire real estate, a preoccupation inconsistent with charitable enterprises.

The group chose to default on several of the property mortgages held by banks, not because they were unable to raise the money to honour their bank debts, but because the choice was made to retain the funding internally and put off paying the mortgages. "It is certainly slightly unconventional that they would choose to have these revolving debt facilities when they have enough in other securities and assets to simply not be in debt. Of course there's nothing wrong with structuring your finances this way, but it is more typical of a private corporation than a charity", advises one accounting expert.

Which raises the question: when is a charity not a charity? The chair of the WE Charity board of directors made an effort to straighten out these confused events and to establish the answer to that question to her satisfaction. Her enquiries and demands for information ended with a receiver on the other end of the telephone terminating the conversation, following which she was asked to submit her resignation.

The Imperative of Charity as a Religious Duty

"The whole concept of wealth is considered in Islam as a gift from God.  God, who provided it to the person, made a portion of it for the poor, so the poor have a right over one’s wealth.  Zakat reminds Muslims that everything they have belongs to God.  People are given their wealth as a trust from God, and zakat is intended to free Muslims from the love of money.  The money paid in zakat is not something God needs or receives.  He is above any type of dependency.  God, in His boundless mercy, promises rewards for helping those in need with one basic condition that zakat be paid in the name of God; one should not expect or demand any worldly gains from the beneficiaries nor aim at making one’s name as a philanthropist.  The feelings of a beneficiary should not be hurt by making him feel inferior or reminding him of the assistance."

"Money given as zakat can only be used for certain specific things.  Islamic Law stipulates that alms are to be used to support the poor and the needy, to free slaves and debtors, as specifically mentioned in the Quran (9:60).  Zakat, which developed fourteen hundred years ago, functions as a form of social security in a Muslim society."

Islamreligion.com -- The Third Pillar of Islam: Charity 

(India in Jeddah/Twitter)

Saudi Arabia is arguably one of the wealthiest countries on the planet. It is also one of the most stringently religious nations within the Islamic community of nations. Cultural-religious rules and regulations mark this nation as one of fanatical scrupulousness; one-half of its population must cover itself completely in public, to be seen only as a black apparition, a billowing anonymous creature whose face, hands and feet must not be viewed by male eyes.

Symbols of any religion other than Islam are not permitted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Non-Muslims are strictly forbidden to enter the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina. Rules on banking must adhere scrupulously to Sharia law. Woman may not travel without the express permission of their husbands or fathers -- or sons. Woman are not permitted to drive, nor do they have the same rights of inheritance as their male counterparts. 

Should a woman be raped it would most likely be interpreted as her 'fault' for tempting a helpless male. If she cannot present three male witnesses to the rape it never happened other than as consensual sex in which case she will be prosecuted and punished, not her attacker. With all this cultural baggage to tend to, little wonder, one supposes, that the issue of human rights and human dignity and compassion has slipped their notice.

Saudis find menial work below them; their status and dignity would be impaired by physical labour. So they turn to indentured labour done on their behalf, cheaply, with no legal employer-worker rights, by people from India or Bangladesh. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has never seen fit to relieve the stress and strain on countries like Jordan, Lebanon or Turkey of the millions of refugees streaming out of Syria. 

But it has expended countless billions on funding and building mosques and madrasses reflecting the Wahhabist strain of Saudi-approved and -dedicated Islam all over the world, in Europe, South Asia, North Africa, and North America. And it helpfully provides the imams required to preach in those mosques and teach in those madrassas, Wahhabist-style.  It is from Wahhabism that Sunni jihadist groups like al-Qaeda and Islamic State arose.

For the past several years Saudi Arabia has felt the strain of diminished oil prices; indeed it has itself been the fount of those diminished prices affecting oil production and sales the world over hoping to impoverish Iran. Finding their financial resources a trifle strained of late, tens of thousands of Indians working in the country have found themselves unemployed and penniless, unable to fund their return home to India and unable to acquire food for themselves.

Consulate General of India in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, delivering food to starving Indian workers: Twitter

They are, in other words, starving. India has now expressed its intention of evacuating its nationals from Saudi Arabia. After all, Indian citizens working in the Kingdom have for years sent back a substantial portion of their meager wages to their indigent families in India, enriching the country in the process. India provided food for its starving people, and will now airlift those people back to where they will live in poverty among their own where compassion and welfare however hard to come by will appear excessive in comparison to their plight in Saudi Arabia.

Intercepting God's Mercy

"This is a difficult time. [priest Amer Saka] is a man of God, and he relies on God's mercy and he also asks for privacy during these difficult times."
Iryna Revutsky, lawyer

"We are hoping that if anybody was a victim, or had any dealings with Amer Saka, that they contact us."
"The basis of alleged fraud is unique because it is alleged to have taken advantage of refugees who are using federal-run programs."
Police Constable Sandasha Bough, London, Ontario

Catholic priest Amer Saka has been charged with fraud after allegedly taking money from people under the guise of sponsorship for refugees coming to Canada.  (Facebook)

Among parishioners of the Chaldean Catholic community in London, Ontario, some -- mostly first-generation immigrants from the Middle East to Canada -- had turned over life savings in an effort to pay for their relatives who had become refugees from Syria. A considerable amount of money -- hundreds of thousands -- had trustingly been turned over to the priest of St. Joseph's Chaldean Catholic church.

And that man was Amer Saka who once confided to a friend he had ministered at one time in his career to those held prisoner at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. At this more recent juncture in his career where he has been accused of absconding with a great deal of money in trusteeship to be used to sponsor and support refugees to Canada he was seen to be "very distressed ... not in a good way", and would be facing a trial and imprisonment.

After a five-month investigation into allegations of money evaporating, investigators felt they had assembled enough evidence to charge Father Saka with fraud valued at over five thousand and possessing the proceeds of property of objects valued at over five thousand. If only it had been a mere $5,000. The fact is that this man of god made the decision of his own free will to take for his own personal use $500,000 that had rested in a refugee trust fund.

But in the church, the faithful have compassion. Parishioners claim to have forgiven this wayward priest. And Bishop Emanuel Shalete is acting as his surety, taking the disgraced transgressor under his wing, so to speak. Father Saka, in huge distress, was evidently treated in hospital for a medical condition whose nature was not disclosed.

Which is fairly typical for people whose serious malfeasance has shocked and disappointed those who had trusted them, becoming ill enough to admit themselves to hospital for treatment and in the process eliciting compassion. For many the hospital of choice is usually a drug or alcohol treatment centre. For this man it appears to be a casino addiction. Such addictions are viewed by many as illnesses.

Which translates to a man suffering an illness not quite being fully responsible for his misdemeanors and thus worthy of compassion. Enter the Hamilton Roman Catholic Diocese, which has promised to facilitate any sponsorships initiated through Father Saka. All will be well. For the refugees, presumably, for Father Saka perhaps not so much.

Greece In Distress : Migrants Desperate

"This needs to be addressed on a European level. It cannot be stopped. Now they also come during the day, in the afternoon when people are swimming."
"We have made it worse because our system is relaxed."
George Danil, politician, Chios, Greek island

"We give them water and some food but there is not much we can do. Now it's summer, so they can be outside. What happens when it's winter?"
"We are on our own tackling this [influx of foreign migrants]."
Stephanos Voyatzisk mayor, Oinoussa, Greek Island

"How many illegal immigrants can Kos cope with? How many can Greece cope with?"
"[The situation of illegal immigrants is] out of control [with a real risk of bloodshed]."
Giorgios Kyritsis, mayor, Kos, Greek Island

"They come into the town and the port authority doesn't help. I'm sorry, can you not see this person in the sun?"
"They must have sold their life's belongings [Syrians with large cash sums]. But most [of the migrants] have nothing."
Lauretta and Thomas Spiril, residents, Greek holiday island of Kos

Migrants and refugees are pushed as riot police try to maintain an orderly line during a registration procedure at the national stadium. Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

It has been estimated that 98,000 refugees from Africa and the Middle East have arrived in Italy this year alone. This is the result of the 'Arab Spring' turning into the 'Arab Winter'. And while Italy has long been considered the primary point of entry for refugees attempting to reach Europe, Greece has more latterly been targeted as an entry point. The United Nations refugee agency [UNHCR] has stated that Greek islands have seen 124,000 migrants land on their shores, this year.

This summer, the Greek holiday island of Kos has seen over 7,000 illegal immigrants arriving, sailing from Turkey (itself holding over a million Syrian refugees in camps), and invading the island of 30,000 residents. Migrants were taken to a sports stadium for identification in a registration process that swiftly turned into chaos Migrants began chanting "We want our papers", leading police to force the crowd back by spraying white foam, for order.

The mayor of Kos, fearing violence, demanded of the central Greek government that it send ferries from Athens to collect and move the migrants off the island. He insisted that riot police were required to be present to give aid in the island policing. The arrivals of between 600 to 800 migrants daily is more than the island authorities can cope with. The mostly Syrian and Afghan refugees have been arriving all summer, and their presence has strained capacity and patience.

An island close to Kos, Oinoussa, with a population of around 500 of its own, has seen the arrival of 150 people daily. The arrivals have been sheltered in the island's football stadium, within a naval school, and in the church. Some of the migrants have come prepared to establish themselves as they move further on into Europe, and they carry with them large cash sums, of up to $40,000 and more. They are finding their stay on Kos less than ideal.

Syrian refugees pack the stands of the national stadium

Photograph: Yannis Behrakis/Reuters

About a thousand people locked in a sports stadium had no access to water in the tropical heat. Médecins sans Frontières was providing medical care at the stadium: "We have unconscious people coming out of the playground area, being carried by their friends and family, every 15 minutes. It is absolutely out of control. Nobody understands the sense behind it, or if there is any [sense] at all", said Constance Theisen, a MSF team leader, adding that one of the migrants suffered an epileptic seizure.

Migrants and refugees are pushed as riot police try to maintain an orderly line during a registration procedure at the national stadium. Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

At one point within the stadium during the registration process, police used a sonic explosion to attempt to maintain order, leading the MSF team to withdraw for safety reasons. "It was becoming a bit uncontrollable, the situation, and there was a complete lack of coordination. It was just the police there, no UNHCR [the UN’s refugee agency], and no security for [our] team", said Julia Kourafa, a spokeswoman for MSF at the stadium.

The next morning, MSF workers returned to provide medical assistance, but the refugees remained locked within the stadium with supplies of food or water overlooked by Greek authorities. Refugees continued to faint. "This is the first time we’ve seen this in Greece – people locked in a stadium and controlled by riot police. We’re talking about mothers with children and elderly people. They’ve been locked in there after many hours in the sun", protested MSF's Julia Kourafa.

Earning Respect In The Muslim World

"They shouted at us to get out of the car in formal Arabic. They were wearing black masks and were so professional. They knew that two of us were Syrians and they knew who else was in the car. One of them put a gun to my head and threatened me not to tell anyone what I had seen. They put [Mr. Haines and Mr. Motka] in the boot of their car and shot out the tires of our car."
Syrian translator for British aid worker David Haines

The horrible end to David Haines' life represented the culmination of his experience helping people around the world. As a recognition of his selflessness, he spent a year and a half of his life as a hostage, a prisoner of a fanatical Islamist group which held all non-Muslims to be an unforgivable reproach to Islam; repugnant, undeserving of life. The gruesome drama of the Islamic State videoed presentation represented the epitome of disdain for life and for Westerners clinging to life.

"David is a Scot, a little stubborn, but very sturdy and well prepared psychologically and physically. I'm sure he will not have been broken by a year and a half in captivity", was the considered opinion of a former colleague of Mr. Haines, Boris Mijakovac, a psychologist. One can only wonder how Mr. Mijakovac himself would stand up after a year and a half of existence as a pawn of the Islamic State, under no illusion that his country would pay a ransom for his release.

On the other hand, it appears that Mr. Haines held the hope that the charitable humanitarian group for which he was working at the time of his abduction would see to a ransom to have him freed, if for no other reason than to have him, a seasoned aid worker, carry on with his dedication to improving the lives of the desperately oppressed. After all, he had plied his impulse for charity for sixteen years; his experience and capability a valuable commodity among foreign aid groups.

He had been abducted in the company of an Italian colleague, Federico Motka, as they drove toward the Turkish border from a three-day tour to assess potential locations for the establishment of new refugee camps. Their abductors, in fact, were sheltered by Turkey from the Syrian regime's forces determined to destroy the terrorists who busied themselves disrupting the rule of Alawite Shia President al-Assad.

Beaten by his captors, he informed his family through passing a message on by a freed hostage, that he was being well-treated And while Mr. Motka was released after his country paid a ransom of $8.6-million, Mr. Haines languished, yet believing that he would be saved, though not by his country whose policy was not under any circumstances to deal with terrorists.

Mr. Haines must have had ample experience with ruthless Islamists in the past through his work on projects in Libya, South Sudan and Croatia. Engaged in post-war reconstruction projects and organizing mine-clearing, he did the necessary clean-up after the brutalities of conflict. His most current agency was the Nonviolence Peaceforce. None of which in the end, saved Mr. Haines.

'Unreasonably' Charged With Jihad

"The appellant takes the position that the decision to list it as a terrorist entity was unreasonable and that at law there were not reasonable grounds to believe that it should have been listed."
Yavar Hameed, lawyer representing International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy - Canada

The Canadian law in question, according to Mr. Hameed, referring to part of the Anti-Terrorism Act -- brought into law after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania by jihadist Islamist terrorists -- stand in violation of the right to "life, liberty and security of the person" guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, he suggests.

IRFAN-Canada which works out of Muslim regions of the world, raising charitable operating funds within Canada, came under Canada Revenue Agency auditor scrutiny a decade ago. Concerns about its links to Hamas had alerted charities regulators. The charitable group signed an undertaking guaranteeing it was unaware groups it funded were associated with Hamas and it would "no longer put its resources at the disposition of organizations linked to Hamas".

And so, it was permitted under those circumstances, to retain its charitable status. A later audit discovered that between 2004 and 2009 IRFAN-Canada had funded "operating partners that were run by officials of Hamas, openly supported and provided funding to Hamas, or have been listed by various jurisdictions because of their support for Hamas or other terrorist entities."

So much for guarantees. It was revealed through the Charities Branch of the CRA that $15-million had been forwarded on to groups like the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology, controlled by Hamas, and which, despite the misleading and somewhat innocuous title "distributes financial assistance to the families of martyrs."

A relationship continued to be maintained with the Union of the Good which urges Muslims through its president Yusuf Qaradawi to arm themselves for war against Westerners, "corrupt Jews" and "pagan Hindus", also according to the Charities Branch of CRA. The Al-Khidmat Foundation, a branch of Jamaat-i-Islami, representing the political wing of the Pakistani militant group Hizbul Mujahideen, a financier itself of Hamas, received $50,000.

Its well-earned reputation with the CRA for poor record keeping and "deceptive and misleading fundraising" earned it no plaudits. Overtly it led its supporters to believe that its urgently solicited donations were to benefit high-profile disasters, but evidence that the funds were used for such purposes was completely absent.

In 2011 IRFAN-Canada's charity status was revoked, and it has contested that decision to the Federal Court of Appeal in a case that was scheduled to come before the court  tomorrow, but on April 24 the government added IRFAN-Canada to its official list of terrorist groups, effectively outlawing its presence within the country.

A "substantial" amount of evidence was seized last Monday by the RCMP Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams during searches of IRFAN-Canada's Mississauga-based headquarters, as well as at a residence in Montreal. IRFAN-Canada, according to Mr. Hameed's interventionist letter to the Federal Court, had been "incapacitated" by recent events.

Events which had "seriously and irreparably" prejudiced its case against its charity status revocation. Mr. Hameed requested the court to stay the proceedings until such time that he can succeed in having the group removed from the government's terrorist list.

In yet another spectacular demonstration of the ease with which jihadist groups which have infiltrated society manipulate Canada's laws to their advantage.

Canadian Funding of Terrorism

"IRFAN-Canada has knowingly financed Hamas, a listed terrorist entity, for many years. The well-intentioned and charitable Canadians who sought to support humanitarian relief through this organization deserve better."
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney

"[Hamas is a] radical Islamist-nationalist terrorist organization that emerged from the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1987[responsible for several hundred terrorist attacks]."
Public Safety Canada website

"[The federal government has been] making speculative and non-evidence based inferences [about IRFAN's links to Hamas]."
"In a post-9/11 context, no allegation can be more harmful to the well-being of a Canadian-based international humanitarian relief organization than casting aspersions suggesting links to terrorism."
"[IRFAN's] charitable work for predominantly Muslim beneficiaries within the constantly shifting terrain in the conflict-zone of the Middle East does not make (it) a political tool or arm of Hamas.
Court filing, IRFAN lawyers

"There was ample evidence to conclude that IRFAN provided funds to organizations that were part of Hamas' social infrastructure. IRFAN repeatedly misrepresented to the public the nature of its work and its beneficiaries."
Court filing, federal lawyers

www.theaustralian.com

Hamas militants talk during a press conference in Gaza City to mark the ceasefire agreement reached with Israel. Source: AP

Canada's Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams have gone into overdrive, searching the head office of the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy Canada, located in Mississauga, Ontario. They also searched a private residence in Montreal. "We are determined to stop Canadian funds from getting in the hands of terrorist groups", RCMP Assistant Commissioner James Malizia explained.

An extensive review of intelligence information inclusive of information that the organization transferred about $14.6-million to groups associated with Hamas, between 2005 and 2009 led to the decision to add IRFAN as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code. The RCMP had sized "stored media, money and other records" in the wake of a search warrant served in Ontario and Quebec, part of the Project Sapphire operation.

"We continue to work diligently with our partners to investigate and disrupt organizations from misusing charitable donations to fund terrorist activity." Working in Muslim countries, IRFAN-Canada lost its charitable status in 2011 when Canada Revenue Agency identified it as an "integral part" of an international fundraising enterprise supporting Hamas, an offshoot group of the larger global Muslim Brotherhood.

But according to IRFAN's lawyer, Yavar Hameed, the established link between Hamas and the charitable group is "tenuous". No factual evidence has so far been provided by the government to satisfy their contention that funding donated to the charity was funnelled to terrorist activities, as far as he is concerned. The process, he stated, lacks procedural fairness since organizations are not permitted to respond to the charges laid against them.

In their brief to court, IRFAN's lawyers describe the non-profit Canadian relief organization as providing support to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, proffering nutritional, health, psychological and what they identify as basic-needs support in conflict areas there. Insisting that the charitable group has been subjected to "speculative" links to terrorism. Bookkeeping irregularities cited by CRA auditors are those routinely committed by other charities, they claim.

Several months back Liberal leader Justin Trudeau agreed to speak to an Islamic conference in Toronto, sponsored in part by IRFAN-Canada. The controversy that engendered led the relief group to withdraw as a "diamond sponsor" of the event. The decision to brand IRFAN as a terrorist entity, according to Martin Rudner, professor emeritus at Carleton University specializing in terrorism, is "consistent with a global approach to monitor charitable contributions that may contribute to terrorism".

It also represents a very much required due diligence effort on the part of Canada's security and intelligence agencies. Hezbollah, as an example, relies on charities it has connections with to support the families of suicide-bombers. The funding of terrorist activities globally through charities is well enough recognized. Within Canada, donations made to Sri Lankan charitable groups aided the terrorist activities of the Tamil Tigers.

UK: Jihadists as "Charity Workers"

by Samuel Westrop
April 10, 2014 at 4:00 am

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4258/uk-jihadists-charity-workers

The full truth is a bit more chilling, Sharif and his wife are supporters of ISIS, the leading Al-Qaeda-aligned group in Syria. Al Jazeera reports that in areas under ISIS control, "men [have]... been beheaded, their heads mounted on spikes. Children...slaughtered." Other posts found on the couple's Facebook pages include videos glorifying jihadi fighters; praise for late Al Qaeda leaders such as Abdullah Azzam and Anwar Al-Awlaki; and calls for an Islamic state.

The British media continues to label British Islamist volunteers who support jihadist movements in Syria as "charity workers."

In December, the BBC aired a documentary about aid convoys to Syria, but – as reported by Gatestone Institute – neglected to inform viewers of the convoy volunteers' support for jihadi "martyrs," Al Qaeda operatives and extremist preachers.

Although the UK Charity Commission subsequently started an investigation into these charities, the failure of the media to research their interviewees continues to impair efforts to tackle the abuse of British taxpayers' charitable initiatives.

On April 1, Britain's Channel 4 aired an interview with two "charity workers" in Syria – Tauqir Sharif and his wife, Racquell Hayden-Best. Sharif and his wife work with a number of different charities involved with "aid convoys" to Syria, including One Nation, which is also presently funding a Hamas-run charity in Gaza.

Channel 4 did provide a little bit of background, noting that Sharif has:

...a long history of activism – he was one of those aboard the Gaza aid flotilla which was raided by Israeli forces in 2010. He has campaigned to raise awareness about Syria and met the former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg when Mr Begg visited Syria last year. They were due to speak at a live online "webinar" event about the conflict, but it was cancelled after Mr Begg was arrested and charged with Syria-related offences.

The full truth is a bit more chilling: Sharif and his wife are supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), the leading Al Qaeda-aligned group in Syria. ISIS evolved from a group called Al Qaeda in Iraq, which was known for "its butchery and oppression, which included killing Sunni and Shiite civilians with spectacular suicide attacks, bombing Shiite mosques, uploading videos of beheadings on jihadist forums, and forcing local Sunnis to abide by its interpretation of Islamic law."
ISIS is at least as violent as its predecessor. Al Jazeera reports that in areas under ISIS control, "men [have]...been beheaded, their heads mounted on spikes. Children...slaughtered."

Unlike its predecessor, however, ISIS has supplemented its violence with dawa'h programs – a system of social provision, or "soft-power outreach" – in areas under its control. A key component of this dawa'h, the Hudson Institute reports, is providing educational outreach initiatives "as part of its wider strategy to foster a new generation of Syrians in support of its ideological agenda. ... ISIS runs a number of schools in areas where it has consolidated its presence... [and] offers other services to complement their educational outreach, such as their school-bus services in the Aleppo town of al-Bab."

Sharif and his wife appear to be part of this dawa'h effort. As Channel 4 reported, the couple "work with a number of different charities, including a project to build an Islamic school for women and children." Channel 4 failed to report, however, that the logo of the school project, named the Akhwaat Ash Shaam [Sisters of Syria], is the flag of ISIS.


Other Facebook pages established and managed by the couple also prominently display ISIS flags.


Posts found on the couple's Facebook pages include: videos glorifying jihadi fighters; praise for late Al Qaeda leaders such as Abdullah Azzam and Anwar Al-Awlaki; a number of statements denouncing "Yahoodi" [Jewish] oppression of Muslims; openly anti-Semitic posters; and calls for an Islamic state.

Although Channel 4 broadcast the footage of Sharif and his wife, it was Bilal Abdul-Kareem, an "American Muslim activist living in Syria," who filmed the interview itself. In 2009, it was reported that Abdul-Kareem defended the killing spree carried out by Major Nidal Malik Hasan, at Fort Hood in Texas, as an act against an enemy in a state of war.

The British Charity Commission is already struggling to keep track of charities that are moving money and people into Syria. Tackling the possible misuse of charitable initiatives for anti-democratic ideological purposes is made harder if the media continues to portray extremists as champions fighting against all odds.

Legal Rights Group Releases Full Report on Oxfam Ties to Terror Group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

March 26, 2014 

Author:

Joshua Levitt

Tags:

Bashir al Kheiri Dr. Ahmad Maslamani Faysal Khalafallah fogel family Ghassan Knafani Hakim Ma’azan Niaz Awaad itamar Nitsana Darshan-Leitner Oxfam International Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Razeq al-Barghouthi Shurat HaDin Taghreed Jom’a UAWC UHWC Union of Agricultural Workers Committees Union of Health Workers Committees

Cover of Shurat HaDin's report on Oxfam International's links to terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Photo: Shurat HaDin.

Oxfam International is tied to banned terror group PFLP, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, because of its support of two front organizations, according to the Jerusalem-based legal rights group Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center.

In its full report published on Wednesday, Shurat HaDin, directed by lawyer Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, mapped out the connections between UK-based Oxfam and the two charities, the Gaza-based UAWC, Union of Agricultural Workers Committees, and the UHWC, Union of Health Workers Committees. 

The groups’ events honor fallen PFLP “martyrs” and their paid staff include well-known PFLP military leaders, Shurat HaDin said.

Darshan-Leitner announced last month that she was preparing to document the connections, but Oxfam, via a statement to Israeli media, said the allegations were reviewed by an Australian authority in 2012 and were unfounded; Darshan-Leitner said the Australians confused the groups because of their initials.

“We take any such allegations seriously,” Oxfam said in its statement. “However, these same allegations by the Israel Law Center against UAWC were previously investigated thoroughly by the Australian government’s Federal Police and Security Intelligence Organization, and were found to be completely unsubstantiated.”

The Australian investigation in 2012 found that the UAWC was listed in Israel as a humanitarian group, but according to Darshan-Leitner, that organization was different from the UAWC that partners with Oxfam, JNS reported.

In the full brief of the case published on Wednesday, Shurat HaDin spelled out the connections between the front groups and the terror arm and shows how the law puts the Onus on Oxfam to know where its funds end up.

From the report: “A Shurat HaDin investigation indicates that even as Oxfam was attacking Scarlett Johansson and Israel for violating international law, the organization was itself violating both international law and the laws of many sovereign nations. Specifically, Oxfam’s involvement with two Palestinian NGOs — the Union of Health Workers Committees (UHWC) and the Union of Agricultural Workers Committees (UAWC) — violates numerous laws against giving material and financial aid to terrorist organizations.”

“Both the UHWC and the UAWC are well-known for their close connections to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), one of the oldest and most violent Palestinian terrorist organizations in the world,” Shurat HaDin said. “The PFLP is guilty of numerous suicide bombings, airplane hijackings, and assassinations; including some of the most notorious international terror attacks of the 1970s.”

“Our investigation has revealed that the UHWC and UAWC are not merely close to the PFLP but branches of the PFLP, founded, staffed, and operated by this designated terrorist group. It is a crime under international law, as well as US, UK, Israeli, and EU law, to provide material and financial support to terrorist groups, including ostensibly benign subsidiary organizations and branches of terrorist groups. It is our conclusion that Oxfam is currently in direct violation of these laws, and is liable for both criminal and civil penalties as a result.”

“International law makes no distinction between the military wing of a terrorist group and its various front organizations. Funds earmarked for ostensibly benign organizations run by terrorist groups, which often provide social services like education and medical care, can be easily diverted to terror activities, and they often share personnel with their parent organizations.”

“For both political and propaganda reasons, many terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas have operated social service branches since their inception. The PFLP has done the same for decades.”

“Oxfam has strong connections to two of these organizations: The Union of Health Workers Committees (UHWC), which provides medical services; and the Union of Agricultural Workers Committees (UAWC), which deals with land ownership and agricultural issues. The UHWC and the UAWC deny any connections to the PFLP. In the past, however, both have acknowledged that they were founded as part of the PFLP and share personnel with the terrorist group.”

“There is, we believe, conclusive evidence that they remain branches of their parent organization, despite attempts to conceal these ties,” the group said.

Shurat-HaDin described some of the PFLP’s recent crimes, notably from the Shabak (Israeli security services) investigation into the murder of five members of the Fogel family in Itamar, Israel, on March 11, 2011.

“What has come to be known as the Itamar massacre was so brutal—one of the dead was a three-month-old baby—that it was condemned worldwide, including by the Palestinian Authority,” Shurat HaDin said. “The Shabak has since concluded that the murders were not solely committed by the two Palestinians found guilty of the attack. They had, in fact, been planned and organized by members of the PFLP. According to the Shabak report, Hakim Ma’azan Niaz Awaad, who committed the murder with his cousin Amjad, was a PFLP member, as were his father and uncle. Another member was asked to provide weapons for the attack, while yet another hid the killers in his home and helped conceal evidence of the murders. Although the PFLP has not claimed responsibility, many Arab-language media outlets have attributed the attack to the organization.”

“In short, the PFLP is one of the oldest and most active Palestinian terrorist organizations. It is guilty of numerous atrocities and continues its activities to this day. It has been designated as a terrorist organization by the US, the EU, the UK, Israel, and many other countries, which have banned the group’s activities in their respective territories.”

“There is conclusive evidence that both branches of the UHWC operate as branches of the PFLP. Even a cursory Internet search reveals that the website of the Palestinian Shahid Organization — a group that provides assistance to relatives of suicide bombers and other ‘martyrs’ — lists 12 Palestinian organizations in the Gaza Strip that are subordinate to the PFLP, including the UHWC.”
“Most telling is the role played in the UHWC by Dr. Ahmad Maslamani, who served as both head of the PFLP in the West Bank and director of the UHWC in the same area. Upon his death, Maslamani was referred to in the official Palestinian press as both ‘a national warrior in the service of the Popular Front’ and the ‘founding father’ of the UHWC — ‘national warrior’ being a barely-disguised euphemism for ‘terrorist.’”

“PFLP memorial services for former spokesman Ghassan Knafani in 2010 were held at a center owned by the UHWC, at which homage was paid to the memory of dead Palestinian terrorists. A similar event was held at the UHWC Medical Center in Jaballah, during which the PFLP thanked the UHWC for its help in organizing the event.”

“In short, the UHWC is identified with the PFLP by the Palestinian media. Its ‘founding father’ was one of the PFLP’s most important terrorist leaders. The organization has been and is still a partner to the PFLP’s political activities. The UHWC is, in short, a front organization for the PFLP.”

“Numerous websites refer to it as an instrumentality of the PFLP, its leadership is largely composed of senior PFLP operatives, it makes its assets available to the PFLP, and it appears to act in coordination with the PFLP in regard to political activities.”

“An extraordinary number of UAWC leaders have been and still are PFLP members, some of them quite prominent. One of the most important is Bashir al Kheiri (a.k.a. Bashir Khairy), who has served as President of the UAWC Board of Directors since at least 2005. He signed the organization’s President’s Message from 2005-2009 and was reported as still being a director in 2010. He is also a well known and senior member of the PFLP, having served as head of the PFLP Political Bureau in Ramallah. He has a long record of arrests and jail time in Israel for terrorist involvement and was still actively representing the PFLP as recently as January 2012. Kheiri also appears to hold a violently extremist position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On at least one occasion, he has called for the conquest of cities within Israel proper, a position close to that of Hamas and rejected by the Palestinian Authority itself.”

“Three other UAWC directors listed in the 2009 Annual Report have also been identified as members of the PFLP: Razeq al-Barghouthi, the UAWC Treasurer based in Ramallah; as well as Taghreed Jom’a and Faysal Khalafallah in Gaza. In particular, Khalafallah, who died in 2011, has been described as a ’tenacious fighter’ and ‘one of the members of the Special Unit of the device’s military front, and undergoing a number of cycles of military and security selection.’ He was, in other words, a terrorist.”

Shurat HaDin said the PFLP is listed as a banned terrorist group by the EU, under Council Common Position 2001/931/CSFP and Council Decision 2012/333/CFSP, as a designated terrorist entity in the United Kingdom, Oxfam’s country of origin, where the United Kingdom’s Terrorist Asset Freezing Act of 2010, sections 12-15, apply, and is officially designated under U.S. law as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization,” pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.), as amended by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-132).

“Therefore, providing funds and assistance to the UHWC and the UAWC, as subsidiaries of the terrorist organization PFLP, is illegal under international and sovereign law,” Shurat HaDin said. “Since such aid inures to the benefit and interests of the PFLP, it clearly constitutes the type of seemingly innocuous material support described by the US Supreme Court.”

“This makes Oxfam’s involvement with these groups illegal, and renders the organization liable to criminal and civil penalties under EU, UK, Israeli, US, and international law — as well as the law of many other countries. This includes liability for past, present, and future terrorist attacks carried out by the PFLP. Oxfam is also liable for civil and monetary damages to Israeli, European, American, and other citizens victimized by PFLP terrorism.”

“This being the case, Oxfam should immediately cease its aid to branches of the PFLP or be prepared to face the penalties for continuing to do so,” Shurat HaDin said.

In a statement to The Algemeiner, Shurat HaDin said that it is still considering “possible legal action” against Oxfam, which has yet to respond to the content of the allegations.

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

"The only ethical solution is a (single) democratic, secular and civic state in historical Palestine" ... "By definition, Jews will be a minority."
Omar Barghouti,  leader, Boycott-Sanctions-Divestment (Israel) movement

"[Zionism] dehumanizes its victims, denies their history and has a cult-like worship of ethno-racial purity", for which the "one-state solution" is called for, and for which "coercion is necessary".
Ali Abunimah, boycott leader

The use of targeted boycotts against Israel is not only useful, but necessary to destroy its detestable presence within the Middle East. The language couldn't be plainer, although language used by these two completely inverts the situation. It is the desire to destroy, to terrorize, to viciously compel through innuendo, coercion, slander and indignity that divests its victim of humanity in the opinion of those who support boycotts such as those supported unequivocally by trade unions, academics and the socialist left.

What Barghouti calls for is the elimination of Israel as an ethical solution to the inalienable right the Palestinians feel of their entitlement to the land upon which the Jewish state sits. A return to a single democratic, secular and civic state in historical Palestine, he says will cleanse the geography of all its tensions. Historical Palestine, in fact, was the homeland of the Jews, the original 'Palestinians'. The Palestine of which Barghouti speaks was never democratic, never secular, never civil.

As for dehumanizing victims, is this not what the constant call to arms does on the part of the Palestinian Authority with its code-words of 'resistance'? With its school curricula, television cartoons and summer camps that teach young Palestinians the 'history' that perverts truth and glorifies martyrdom, as a future aspiration for the young? Teaching young children not only to hate Jews, but how to handle weapons that will restore all of "Palestine" to Palestinian Arabs as their birthright.

And this is what groups like Oxfam, one of the most powerful, influential humanitarian delivery aid groups in the world, has launched itself into. Feeling as it does, powerfully entitled to add one-sided politics to its humanitarian delivery agenda. Oxfam purports to bring hope and assistance through food, medicine, and sympathetic assistance to the world's vulnerable, its neglected, its poor and malnourished, suffering disease and conflict.

That seems like a fairly busy agenda. So it seems peculiar that it chooses to use the charitable dollars that trusting contributors send to fatten their coffers for this alternate purpose. To provide funding to enable boycott enthusiasts in their attacks on Israeli companies. Singling out Israeli officials within the demonization of Israel process. Oxfam Novig in Holland funded "The Impunity and Prosecution of Israeli war criminals" event in Cairo.

The charity so well known world-wide has gone out of its way to distort the analyses of economic conditions in the West Bank and Gaza, blaming Israeli policy -- presumably its need to protect itself from ongoing violence from the 'resisters' bent on bloodshed and mayhem -- for the lack of Palestinian development. Nor have they ever, it appears, stated how averse they are morally to mass-terror attacks on Israel; events to be overlooked as trivial.

Oxfam International's director, Jeremy Hobbs criticized Israel for creating "the world's largest prison", after it left Gaza, and the result was ongoing bombing from Gaza into Israel. Israel stands accused of being responsible for the policy of Hamas to divert humanitarian resources to fund weapons acquisition, aiding the terrorism file.

In this Sept. 3, 2013 file photo, actress Scarlett Johansson poses for photographers on the red carpet for the screening of the film "Under The Skin" at the 70th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy.   (Andrew Medichini/AP)

 

Details of a pathological imbalance in values and perceptions that gave offence to Scarlett Johansson, to the point where she no longer saw any need for her presence, to represent Oxfam's charitable humanitarian work as an Oxfam ambassador.

Charitable Bullying

"[Soda Stream] is not only committed to the environment but to building a bridge to peace between Israel and Palestine, supporting neighbours working alongside each other, receiving equal pay, equal benefits and equal rights."
Scarlett Johansson, American Actor

SodaStream unveils Scarlett Johansson as its first-ever Global Brand Ambassador at the Gramercy Park Hotel on January 10, 2014 in New York City.(AFP Photo / Mike Coppola)

Oxfam doesn't agree. It, along with the European Union, and the Liberal-left in unions, academia, and anywhere that Israel is held to a standard according to high-minded values that no other nation on Earth obeys, insists that Israel must conform to their vision of how it should manage its affairs, not how Israel believes it views its priorities and needs.

The Palestinians may do as they wish, whatever they wish, however they might decide to express themselves. If violence is the order of their day, then so be it, for no one, it appears, has expectations that they must accord their behaviour in reflection of what any outside sources views normally as civil and responsible. They march to a different drummer, one of institutionalized victimhood in never-ending refugee-ism.

They have a mantra that repeats they have been the hapless victim of a grave injustice. That they were offered equal opportunity to the Jewish contingent in the area in 1948, and their judgement ordered them to angrily reject partition of Palestine, while Israel grasped at the nation-building opportunity is simply what one might expect of Arab Palestinians. The Jewish Palestinians reacted with joy, their counterparts with venomous denial.

After countless efforts at conciliation, and countless rebuffs, and a final collective Arab nation attack in 1967, Israel was reunited at long last with its sacred heritage in East Jerusalem. As an ancient people who managed against all odds to survive every effort of a hostile world to destroy them, Jews have a right and an obligation to themselves and posterity to cling to what is rightfully theirs.

What makes East Jerusalem a candidate for a future Palestinian state capital, as a people who entered the territory a century ago, while Jews remained living there for three millennia?

SodaStream, representing yet another successful Israeli enterprise, has 25 factories in operation around the world. There is one located in the West Bank, close to a settlement in an area captured by Israel during the 1967 war. But the worldwide Boycott-Divestment movement embarked upon by sympathizers of the Palestinian 'cause', orchestrated by a compassion-savvy manipulating PA, seeks to sanction and bring to ruin any company existing in the West Bank.

How hoping to disrupt and even destroy the Israeli economy can be of use to the Palestinians when those companies generally employ Palestinian labour where no other employment is available to them is beyond imagination. The 500 Palestinians who work at the Ma'ale Adumim factory receive similar wages to the Jewish and Arab Israelis who work at that factory. On site at the factory is a synagogue and a mosque.

All workers at the factory share a dining hall, as well as other common areas adding to the quality of the working experience there. Palestinian workers employed by SodaStream receive three times the working wage of typical West Bank employment, if they can find those jobs. Closing the factory would obviously impact negatively on those Palestinians who work there.

That, aside from the leverage that the Israel-condemning Liberal-left is attempting to exert on Israel to force it to see the situation from their perspective, not from Israel's. That coercion is inclusive of the general insistence that it is Israel that must accede to Palestinian demands before both will agree to a peace process resulting in two side-by-side states. With no one questioning the Palestinian commitment to consummating a peace agreement.

That commitment appears elusive. From all indications, including interior propaganda inclusive of school curricula for Palestinian children, television programs using cartoons to instruct Palestinian children that Israel is their enemy and it will become their duty as mature Palestinians to continue to reject any manner of acceptance of a Jewish presence in what they must consider Palestinian land, the insistence of 'right of return', and the outright refusal to permit 'even one Jew' to pollute with their presence the new state, speaks volumes about Palestinian commitment to peace.

Charitable organizations such as Oxfam like the recipients of their charity to be properly grateful, and no doubt they are. Acquiring the altruistic usefulness of public celebrities to advance their message sometimes comes up hard against the reality that some of those who agree to work on their behalf as goodwill ambassadors cannot find it in themselves to agree with their political intervention intent on bullying a nation at risk of terrorist attacks from the very factions that Oxfam considers victims.

And people looking in from afar can decide for themselves whether they would prefer to offer their charitable dollars to organizations doing good who focus on doing just that, and not using their global reach to victimize another victim of world opprobrium.

Trapped

"When the water first came, I was pushed into a room or compartment and then everything went black.  Suddenly I saw a little light. I swam until it got closer and bigger and I noticed it was a window. I climbed through it.
"When we were in the water, I saw people clinging on to dead bodies. I saw men trying to take life jackets from women.
"The reason only half the people had life jackets was because you had to buy them in Libya, and the smuggler told us it wasn't worth it because the boat was safe.
"We are a big family. I was travelling with my mum, brother, cousins, my cousin’s husband and his family. I have no idea where they are.
"I was detained in Malta for three days. I was throwing up blood but still they took me to detention. Their main priority was getting my fingerprints." 
Anas, 17-year-old Palestinian Syrian boy, Lampedusa, October 2013

Hundreds of migrants have died on boats from Libya to Europe.

© UNHCR/F. Noy

Italy's overcrowded refugee holding centres have gained the country notoriety, their reputation slumped suddenly from heroic to downright ugly. Europe has seen itself overrun with refugees from the brutal sectarian civil war in Syria, where the regime and the rebel militias are both engaging in horrendous atrocities against one another and most particularly against the civilian population. Human smugglers have been making a killing on the plight of desperate North Africans and Syrians.

The tiny Italian rock strip of Lampedusa, the nearest European port that refugees can hope to reach to find themselves, as they imagine, welcome with open arms of comforting haven, has been inundated with the detritus of human desperation. Fearful refugees take passage out of Libya or Turkey in the hopes of reaching a rescuing destination that will embrace their need and allow them to reach their potential aspirations to live in peace and security. Waves of the desperate fleeing war and oppression from Syria to Somalia.

At a detention centre in Rome the past weekend, a group of migrants expressed their indignation and dismay at their reception by using thread to sew their mouths shut. They have few other means to gather attention to their plight that fortune has imposed upon them and which, having escaped, have then been forced to live in squalid refugee camps devoid of basic amenities and hope. Others seek to convey their humiliation and misery by refusing to eat.

Italian Premier Enrico Letta has pledged, in the face of international scrutiny and condemnation, to change Italy's citizenship law from bloodlines to birthplace. A change championed by Italy's first black cabinet minister, Congolese-born Cecile Kyenge. Honourary citizenship had been granted in the full-blown publicity of the October tragedy that saw 360 attempting to find refuge drowning off the island of Lampedusa. Less honour is being proffered to the living.

It is hard to be a refugee in a world where countries are all struggling to meet the challenges of their own needs, finding themselves burdened with the miseries and needs of citizens of other countries. Italy has seen a three-fold increase in the number of migrants, over 2012; its holding centres overflow with 16,000 people hoping against hope that the magic of Europe will promise them a future free of oppression and fear of closely-impending death.

Their welcome, alas, has been far from heart-warming anywhere they land. The millions of Syrians who fled their country's poisonous civil war finding refuge with neighbours in Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey find scant comfort there, too, as those countries struggle to cope with their needs and the additional problems the presence of the refugees cause internally. Winter is miserable for the homeless and the insecure in Turkey, Jordan, Italy or Greece.

And it was in a small Greek village that 150 Syrian refugees, shivering in the miserable cold, found themselves lately.  Arriving in the village of Praggi situated high on the highlands of north-eastern Greece they huddled in the courtyard of the local church, others under trees in a nearby forest. They were exhausted from their dangerous journey from Turkey, crossing the Evros river, fleeing Syria through Turkey.

Soon after their arrival white police vans appeared and then there were no more Syrian men, women and children present. "Ever since we have lost all trace of them. They just disappeared. Our firm belief is that they were pushed back into Turkey", said Vasillis Papadopolous, a lawyer specializing in the defence of migrants and refugees.

Greece's police and coastguard have an extremely aggressive policy toward refugees attempting to cross the border. Photograph: STR New/Reuters

Bulgaria, arguably, the poorest country in the 28-member European Union, has been unprepared to welcome the estimated 6,700 Syrian refugees who have flooded across their border. Emergency funding from the European Union is expected to aid Bulgarian authorities in coping with the refugees, now housed in inadequate, squalid conditions. Syrian complaints about those conditions have enraged Bulgarians who would countenance their swift removal.

Irregular food supplies and other necessities donated by ordinary Bulgarians wanting to help ameliorate the plight of Syrian refugees many of whom go to sleep hungry, and then cannot sleep for the cold, are not sufficient to fill the gap of their needs.  "I am ashamed, and that is a very weak word for what I feel. We were a closed country for nearly 50 years and have no culture of receiving immigrants", said Iliana Savova, with the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee.

She visited a refugee center set up in haset at the site of an abandoned military camp in southern Bulgaria. As a member of that human rights group, she directs the refugee migrant unit for the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee. The muddy, garbage-strewn field with its clusters of tents, small cabins and freezing Syrians, dismayed and shamed her as a Bulgarian.

Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times

Refugees in Syria Put Strain on Bulgarian Resources: As the poorest member of the 28-nation European Union, Bulgaria has struggled to provide even rudimentary shelter to Syrian refugees.

"We thought that Europe cares and that they would save us. But we spent hours in the water before anyone came. So we have lost hope in Europe. There is discrimination and no freedom to move. They say yes we feel sorry for you but there are legal issues. Why did you let us in then? Why not leave us in the sea?
"I was stopped on the train in Austria along with around 10 others. We had already given our money to the smuggler. We asked to apply for asylum in Austria, but they said we need your fingerprints. They got our fingerprints then took us in a car back to the border with Italy.
"We were told the fingerprinting was for security/criminal matters and not for asylum, but they tricked us. And now I am trapped. They want us to be law abiding but they do not behave like that themselves." 

Amnesty International Annual Report