The BBC, the Chandlers and UK based Somalis

The BBC just kept on telling us how the Somali community in the UK was working for the release of the Chandlers and upset by it. here's a few examples of this 'narrative', designed to make us feel warmer towards a section of immigrants that people seem not to like as much as others.

1) BBC World Service:

'Chandlers' release: How Somali exile negotiated with pirates

Rachel and Paul Chandler, a British couple who were held by Somali pirates for more than a year, were freed two weeks ago.

Dahir Kadiye is a Somali exile and former taxi driver living in London who helped to negotiate their release.

He spoke to the BBC's Fergus Nicoll about how he helped persuade the Chandlers' captors to let them go and how they reacted when they found out they were free.'

2) BBC News:

'The couple from Tunbridge Wells in Kent are on their way home and will no doubt be celebrating, as will be their family and friends.

So, too, is the large Somali expatriate community, especially those in the UK.

But who is to thank for the release of Paul and Rachel Chandler after 338 days in captivity?

Many people played a part but none so more than the UK's Somali community, keen to avoid more negative headlines.

People who were involved in securing the couple's freedom have told the BBC that the ransom demand was met by a few Somali Good Samaritans along with the Somali government.

When their kidnap was first confirmed on 23 October 2009, Somalis living around the UK were worried - for the Chandlers but also about what the rest of the British population would think of them if anything happened to the elderly couple - Paul is 60, while Rachel is 56.

"If the poor old couple were killed, can you imagine how bad it would be?" asked Ridwaan Haji Abdiwali, a presenter for the London-based satellite Somali channel, Universal TV.

He was one of those who organised the Somali diaspora to show its support for the Chandlers.

The Somali community is no stranger to bad press.

Mention the name Somalia and for many a fearful and suspicious vision of warlords, pirates, terrorists, gangs and police-killers is conjured up.

And the diaspora knows it only too well.

The total Somali population in the UK was estimated at 101,000 in 2008, although many believe the true figure is closer to 250,000.

The majority were welcomed to Britain as refugees in the 1990s.

Although most still dream of returning home, until peace comes to their war-ravaged and lawless homeland they remain stuck in places such as Wembley, Bristol and Birmingham.

For now though, the UK is home, and because of that, the community felt a calling to help out.

"It began as a sort of a feeling that we have among the community in Britain because we are British but because we come from Somalia," Mr Abdiwali told the BBC.

And also because "it is in our culture of the Somalis to look after the elderly people."

Beneath their negative image is a humble and closely-intertwined - some may say insular - community where trust is king.

Many joke that as a Somali you are automatically an activist and entrepreneur.

It is these qualities that drove the community elders and leaders to spring into action, organising meetings and rallies.

The campaign to free "the poor old couple" was born.

Mr Abdiwali dedicated his Have Your Say TV programme to the issue and it became an arena for the community to vent their anger and drum up support.

"People were phoning into the studios demanding their release. There was big pressure. People were very angry.

"I also interviewed Ali Gedow [the spokesman for the pirates who were holding the Chandlers]," he recalled.

"I gave him a very hard talk, asking: 'Why are you holding this old British couple? Do you believe that you will be paid if you kill or humiliate the life of old people? What food do you give them?' I asked him all these things. And every week we called him up."

The UK-based Somalis used their strong ties to their families back home and the clan structure which lies at the heart of Somali society to exert pressure on the pirates to free the Chandlers.

This led Mr Gedow to phone up Mr Abdiwali and complain: "Stop the pressure, you're annoying us. All we want is the money."'

And on and on and on.


3) The BBC timeline includes this entry:

'16 November 2009:

Representatives of the Somali community in the UK record messages - for broadcast on the BBC World Service and Eastern TV Network - appealing to the pirates to free the Chandlers on humanitarian grounds.'

The BBC seem less eager to report what The Mail reports:

'Two members of the Somali pirate gang that held Britons Paul and Rachel Chandler hostage for 388 days are believed to have family in the UK.

One of the pirate leaders says he plans to travel to the UK to join his wife and two children, who have claimed political asylum and live in London.'

Read the whole Mail piece and ask yourself whether you think it totally out of the question that at least one of the Chandlers' abductors ends up living in the UK on benefits? Also ask yourself if you are 100% confident that there is no chance that at least one of the Chandlers' abductors manages to sue the UK government for compensation, maybe for loss of earnings? This country is becoming has become a laughing stock for being an easy touch.