News roundup

A recent NPR newscast (listen) featured the story of an Iraqi named Narwaz who risked his life helping the US military as a translator, but spent nearly two years cutting through the bureaucratic red tape before being granted political asylum with his family in the United States. The story caught the attention of Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) who offered to assist Narwaz when he visited the congressman at his office on Capitol Hill.

Legislation such as the "Repair Act", which is co-sponsored by Rep. Israel, is designed to ease some of the burden off of Iraqi allies like Narwaz who are seeking asylum in the United States. This particular bill would allow processing of asylum requests to take place inside of Iraq, specifically in Baghdad, rather than in neighboring Arab states. Benefits would also be provided to approved applicants as it can cost up to $20,000 for the relocation of refugees (a point underscored by this op-ed featuring another Iraqi translator). Nevertheless, the "Repair Act" and similar legislation seeking to ease restrictions on Iraqi immigration face strong opposition by some who worry about the financial windfall and the prospect that easing the process could endanger US security.

State Deparment and Homeland Security officials announced that US Embassy in Baghdad local staff and their families would soon be able to submit refugee applications directly to the US government. This circumvents the established route through the UN, which often means travel to a third country and the expenditure of thousands of dollars. While this is a welcome development, AP outlines what the announcement means to others waiting for help:

But possibly tens of thousands more at-risk Iraqis — those who worked for private contractors, aid agencies or media outlets and their relatives — won't be eligible due to objections from the Homeland Security Department, which fears that terrorists might use it to slip into the country, the officials said.

Homeland Security is effectively blocking contract employees, like drivers, translators, technicians, from benefiting from the initiative by insisting they provide official U.S. references and sponsors before applying for resettlement, a more stringent standard than for direct hires and even those in the U.N. system, according to the officials.

Meeting that higher bar will be almost impossible for many whose work for private U.S. employers in Iraq ended months or years ago, the officials said.

Without further efforts to ease immigration restrictions, the Bush administration's stated goal of admitting 12,000 Iraqis over the next year seems in peril. As the article, goes on to describe:

[Admitting 12,000 Iraqis] would be a more than sevenfold increase in the 1,608 admitted in fiscal year 2007.

Last month -- the first of the new budget year -- only 450 Iraqis were allowed in, less than half the monthly average of 1,000 needed to reach the target.

Read the full article here.

Refugee International Policy Recommendations

Refugees International, an advocacy group, has recently recommended policies to help ameliorate the Iraqi refugee crisis. Their recommendation of a US ambassador in Syria makes sense considering that Syria hosts the largest number of Iraqi refugees and that the US ought to seriously act on their behalf. The recommendations are as follows:

1. The U.S. immediately appoint a senior PRM official to be based in the region and charged with coordinating both the assistance and resettlement components of its response;

2. The U.S. immediately appoint an ambassador level diplomat to be based in Syria;

3. The U.S. and other donors provide earmarked bilateral assistance to countries hosting large numbers of Iraqi refugees, either directly or through a Trust Fund established by the UN or the Arab League;

4. The U.S. fund all pending UN appeals at a level of 50% or more;

5. The UN country teams make responding to Iraqi refugees needs a priority, with the UN resident representatives acting as coordinators of the overall national UN response and as liaisons with the diplomatic and donor communities.

Read the whole article here.

Washington Post on Iraqis with US ties

On Saturday, November 17, the Washington Post featured a front page article on Iraqi refugees with US ties who are trying to get asylum . Sudarsan Raghavan describes a visit to refugee camps in Jordan, where Iraqis who have worked for the US government or contractors wait, hoping to be recognized by those for whom they have risked everything:

At every opportunity, the Iraqis pull out photos of themselves side by side with U.S. soldiers, photos they feared to share inside their country. They offer up laminated notes of appreciation from American commanders. They flash expired U.S. Embassy badges they still keep in their wallets. Thousands of Iraqi employees of U.S. contractors, forced to flee to this capital out of fear, are desperately trying to leverage their American ties into entry to the United States. But most languish for months in a bureaucratic and psychological limbo, their status as uncertain as their future. "We are here only because of our work with the Americans," said Intisar Ibrahim, 53, a tall, solemn engineer who left Iraq two years ago. "They have an obligation to help us, but until now we have not seen any help."

The article goes on to describe the danger that many of the Iraqis face at home if it becomes known that they are working for the US government, or, more commonly, for contractors, and mentions the List Project as one of the few "hopes" that Iraqis have for getting resettled in the United States.

Ammar Ibrahim, a Shiite, lived in the Sunni-dominated Baghdad neighborhood of
Adhamiyah, but his biggest fear was not sectarian strife. He worked at a Baghdad power plant operated by General Electric. "There is no difference between Sunni and Shia when you work for the Americans," Ammar said. "Both sides want to kill you." He didn't trust anyone. He hired relatives of employees to avoid meeting strangers. Each day, he traveled a different route to and from the plant to avoid suffering the same fate as his aunt's bodyguard. He always hid his GE identification card in case he was stopped. "Even my closest friends didn't know I worked with the Americans," he said.

Almost as an aside, the article also gives a neat roundup of the statistics:

Between Oct. 1, 2006, and Oct. 15 of this year, 1,636 Iraqis were resettled in the United States at a time when as many as 3,000 a day were fleeing Iraq. Last month, the United States announced it would accept 12,000 Iraqis over the next year. But with 2.2 million Iraqis displaced abroad, human rights groups and some members of Congress have criticized the overture as a token gesture. In comparison, the United States has taken in 1 million refugees from Vietnam, 600,000 from the former Soviet Union and 157,000 from Kosovo and Bosnia.

It is good news that the Iraqi allies issue is getting front page stories in major newspapers - hopefully those in a position to do something will start to feel some pressure.

Article Roundup

George Packer continues to conscientiously write about the travails of Iraqi refugees and has mentioned The List Project’s very own Kirk Johnson in a recent blog post:

A few evenings ago, my friend Kirk Johnson stopped by with a man I’ll call Ibrahim, an Iraqi in his early thirties who had arrived in the U.S. earlier this month. Ibrahim’s story keeps getting worse before it gets better.
Toward the end of last year, while working for an American contractor, Ibrahim received a death threat from a co-worker who belonged to the Mahdi Army, and he decided to flee the country. Iraqis are less and less welcome in the Arab world, so he chose a dangerous, though increasingly common, way out: he paid a Swedish-Iraqi smuggler six thousand dollars up front to get him into Stockholm, where a cousin lives.
On the phone, Ibrahim sounded furious, bewildered, despairing—and determined. “Is it possible, is it possible?” he said over the static-filled connection. “I used to be manager of a procurement office of USAID. I am nothing now, and why? Because I trusted the U.S. When you are a refugee, it’s a very terrible feeling. You feel nobody knows about you, nobody cares about you.”

Packer had indicated that he will continue Ibrahim's story on his blog so keep an eye out for that. Furthermore, in a recent spate of articles on Iraqi refugees and U.S. policy towards them, Slate has another article arguing that not only does the U.S. have a moral responsibility to admit thousands of Iraqi refugees into the country, but that robust resettlement will also aid America’s strategic interests:

As with the Palestinian problem, Iraq's refugees could generate numerous regional crises. Large refugee flows can overstrain the economies and even change the demographic makeup of small or weak states, upsetting what is already a delicate political balance. One million Iraqi refugees is a substantial addition to Jordan's population of less than 6 million.

Not only, this, but another interesting piece relates of growing class and economic tensions in Jordan due to the presence of Iraqi refugees:

Hostility towards them easily translates into a general dislike of all Iraqis in Jordan, regardless of whether they are wealthy or not. "I'll give you an example — if an Iraqi comes to my stall he won't ask the price, he'll just start filling his bag," says Mohammed Ro'ud, a greengrocer in Amman's Boukari street market. "This is why the prices of flats are also going up: they don't bargain, they just pay cash right away, and ordinary Jordanians can't afford to do that."

The article also states that while poor Iraqis also constitute part of the refugee population in Jordan, most poor refugees have settled in Syria where the economy is straining under the added weight of approximately 1.5 million Iraqi refugees. The Economist comments on the situation and also explains new Syrian regulations limiting refugee admittances:

The UNHCR has managed to register only 135,000 refugees, a fraction of those who have arrived. And they are still trickling in, despite new rules that have in effect closed the border. Only certain favoured categories of applicants, such as lorry drivers, businessmen, academics and engineers, are now being allowed in, with occasional exceptions for the sick.

In Focus: Beyond the spin about Iraqi refugees returning

Much has been made recently of stories like this one in the Associated Press and this AP story in the International Herald Tribune, both of which seem to demonstrate that reduced violence in Baghdad and other cities is encouraging Iraqi refugees to return.

The number of Iraqis returning to their country after fleeing abroad is growing, with more than 46,000 people coming home last month, an Iraqi government spokesman said Wednesday. Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, said border crossings recorded 46,030 people returning to Iraq in October alone. He attributed the large number to the "improving security situation. "The level of terrorist operations has dropped in most of the capital's neighborhoods, due to the good performance of the armed forces," al-Moussawi told reporters in the heavily-guarded Green Zone.

But while violence may be down, a closer look reveals several other reasons why some Iraqis may be returning to their country. Seattle Post-Inquirer columnist Larry Johnson, who has just returned from a trip to the refugee camps in Syria, reports:

...members of the group I'm with, the Seattle chapter of the United Nations Association, were somewhat shocked to read an Associated Press story on the P-I Web site that talked about large numbers of Iraqi refugees heading back to Baghdad because it has become so much safer for them. I'm certain that not one of the many officials or Iraqi refugees we've interviewed would agree with that. In fact, after reading that story, I asked a prominent Iraqi doctor who is a refugee if he thought it was now safe enough for many Iraqi refugees to go home. He was incredulous. He said there was a small area near Mosul where it might be safer for refugees from that area to return. But, for the most part, the only reason anyone would go back would be because they had completely run out of money here in Syria. Of course, others have to go back to renew their visas under the new laws on Iraqi refugees in Syria.

The doctor, who didn't want his name used, said the daily violence and chaos in Iraq continues. He was anxious to go to any country that would take him. But he added something that I've heard often: Few countries are willing to accept Iraqi refugees.

The New York Times tells a similar story:

Long the only welcoming country in the region for Iraqi refugees, Syria has closed its borders to all but a small group of Iraqis and imposed new visa rules that will legally require the 1.5 million Iraqis currently in Syria to return to Iraq. [Emphasis added] The change quietly went into effect on Oct. 1. Syrian officials have often threatened to stem the flow of refugees over the past eight months, but until now have backed down after pleas from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. For more than a year, 2,000 to 4,000 Iraqis have fled into Syria every day, according to United Nations officials. On the last four days that the border remained open, the officials said, 25,000 Iraqis crossed into Syria.

A story from the AP describes how many Iraqi refugees, unable to work in their host countries, are finding that their money is running out:

Their money gone, Iman Faleh and her family packed their belongings to reluctantly return to Baghdad — a journey they said was like going to “death row.” The religiously mixed family — Iman is a Sunni Muslim, the others are Shiite Muslims — fled their home in a mostly Shiite part of east Baghdad in July and took refuge in Syria, joining an estimated 1.5 million other Iraqis here. But in early fall, they became part of a growing wave of Iraqis leaving Syria for home, not because they are confident of Iraq’s future, but because they ran out of money.

Across the border in Lebanon, tens of thousands of Iraqi refugees are facing the prospect of arrest or deportation:

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) puts the number of Iraqi refugees in Lebanon at 50,000 people, of whom only 8,476 are registered. Another 500 are being held in prison, it says, merely for violating immigration rules... Having not signed the UN’s Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, introduced in 1951, Lebanon does not grant asylum to refugees, despite the presence on its territory of more than 400,000 Palestinians. The overwhelming majority of Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers - 95 percent according to UNHCR figures - are smuggled into Lebanon across the porous border with Syria. Once inside, such Iraqis have no legal status, and lacking protection under international law, are subject to detention and deportation.

And things are little better for Iraq's internally displaced:

Scarce jobs and spiraling rents have made life even harder for displaced Iraqis and forced some women into prostitution, a migration watchdog has found. The problem has been made worse by the threat this month of a Turkish military incursion, which has swelled the numbers of Iraqis abandoning their homes in the north of the country. About 160,000 Iraqis have fled to three northern provinces since 2006, seeking shelter from sectarian violence, military operations and crime in other areas of Iraq, the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) Iraq mission said in a report seen by Reuters on Tuesday. The tide of displaced people has pushed up rents in northern cities like Arbil, and some have been evicted, [emphasis added] said Dana Graber, an Iraqi displacement specialist with the IOM.

Unfortunately, beyond the spin and misdirection, the immediacy of this crisis is not abating.

Must read: "The Guam Option"

The New Yorker's George Packer continues his diligent coverage of the Iraqi refugee crisis, particularly as it pertains to America's Iraqi allies. In his most recent post on the subject, he outlines what he calls "The Guam Option":

In the fall of 1996, the U.S. military evacuated more than six thousand Iraqis—Kurds and others who had worked with American agencies in the north, and whose lives were directly threatened by Saddam’s army—halfway across the world to Guam. There they were screened, processed for asylum, and assigned sponsors in an effort that involved more than a thousand American soldiers and civilians. Almost all of the evacuees ended up Stateside within seven months. Major General John Dallager, the Joint Task Force commander of Operation Pacific Haven, said, “Our success will undoubtedly be a role model for future humanitarian efforts.”

Undoubtedly... Recently, some conscience-stricken American officials have privately begun to ask why the model of Operation Pacific Haven can’t be emulated today. Flying Iraqis to Guam would solve every problem, real and invented, that the Administration claims is holding up resettlement: the inability of Homeland Security interviewers to meet with refugees in Syria; the near-impossibility of Iraqis getting into neighboring countries; the supposed security concerns that prevent the U.S. from screening Iraqis inside Iraq. With the Guam option, none of this would matter.

...In a single day. fewer than a dozen planes could rescue all of the eight hundred Iraqis on Kirk Johnson’s list. And Guam has U.S.-run facilities that can house large numbers of refugees. An airlift to Guam would not be cheap, and part of the cost would be enormous publicity. But it’s the obvious answer. Unless bad P.R., with echoes of the fall of Saigon, is the Administration’s real concern, there isn’t a single persuasive argument, practical or principled, against it.

Slate's Fred Kaplan endorses the plan (and also cites The List Project):

George Packer, the New Yorker writer who first drew attention to this crisis and who continues to shame officials for not doing more to resolve it, proposed a solution in his blog last week. The idea is eminently practical and logically unassailable—so much so that if Bush and his top aides don't take him up on it, there can be only one explanation: They simply don't want to.

Struggles don't end with resettlement

While the efforts like the List Project to get Iraqi allies through the red tape and into the country are important, those that do make it through often face difficult times. In a story in the Washington Post today, Omar Fekeiki describes life for 34 of the 1600 refugees that were accepted in the US last year. After being resettled in Tuscon ("This is not America that I've seen in the movies," said Bushra Abdulatif, 32, who arrived with her husband and two sons. "I want lots of mountains and snow." ), many Iraqis are finding life here difficult, if not as dangerous, as before:

Like the Cuban, Vietnamese, Laotian and Sudanese refugees before them, some
of the Iraqis are going through a difficult adjustment period, feeling
disoriented, alone and even abandoned by the social service agency that is
supposed to serve them. They do acknowledge that, whatever their travails, they
would not trade them for the difficulties of life in Iraq itself.

According to the article, the State Department has asked local non profits to ease the transition, but the organizations can only offer three months of rent, and little to no help finding jobs or other means of support.

Read the whole article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/07/AR2007110702658_2.html?sid=ST2007110702820

News: Marine opens home to Iraqi who saved his life

This powerful story from the Marine Corps Times illustrates a couple of essential points: 1) America's Iraqi allies have been indispensable in Iraq and its military men and women know it, and 2) the process of making a new life for those same Iraqi allies can be positively grueling.

Peering through the window of a white SUV parked next to an Iraqi armory, Lt. Col. Michael Zacchea watched intently as the plot to murder him and the seven other U.S. military advisers to the Iraqi army’s 5th Motorized Rifle Battalion got underway. One insurgent and four Iraqi soldiers jumped into a white Nissan pickup truck piled high with rocket-propelled grenades, AK47s, night-vision goggles, ammunition and body armor, all freshly stolen from the battalion’s armory. The plan was to ambush the two Marines and six soldiers sleeping in their bunks next to their Iraqi counterparts and then escape in the ensuing chaos.

Tipped off to the plot a few days earlier, Zacchea called on his most trusted interpreter to help root out the Iraqi turncoats and set a trap to catch the assassins in the act. More than two years later, the interpreter who helped foil the plot and save Zacchea’s life now lives with the Marine officer and his wife in their modest suburban Connecticut home amid other New York City commuters and a world away from the sectarian violence enveloping Iraq...

Be sure to read the complete article.

News: Internally Displaced Persons

A press release from the International Office of Migration reports that ongoing tensions along Iraq's northern border are further complicating the lives of internally displaced Iraqis:

With tension along Iraq's northern borders causing small-scale displacement, rent prices in cities such as Erbil are continuing to increase with monitors also reporting that IDP families are being evicted because they can no longer afford their monthly rent.

The situation is further compounded by lack of employment and social care. Top priority needs in Erbil cited by nearly 100 per cent of the IDPs assessed there are shelter and access to work.

Authorities in Erbil have stated monetary assistance is planned for IDP families but it is unclear when such assistance will begin.

The Japan Times also reports that the "Number of displaced Iraqis is soaring"...

Opinion: The Disgrace at State

This powerful blog piece by George Packer of The New Yorker is an absolute must-read. In it, he describes a State Department that attempts to obstruct Iraqi refugee legislation, makes promises it has no way of keeping to our Iraqi allies and falls short on promises already made. Perhaps most remarkably, he finds that military and State Department personnel who wish to act responsibly on this issue must turn to the press for help:

"...a desperate department official wrote to me, describing the sluggishness with which refugee applications in Syria and Jordan are being reviewed:

There is no excuse for this kind of mindless bureaucratic approach. I can’t find anyone here who seems to care that some of them seem to be on the verge of abandoning their cases. Know anyone who could do a one-page article somewhere to get the ball moving again?

So conscientious people on the inside have nowhere to turn but the press."

Read the full article on Huffington Post, or Mr. Packer's New Yorker Blog.

In focus: British government sets out resettlement packages

Earlier this week, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband sent a statement to the House of Commons laying out the details of the assistance packages which Iraqis resettling in Britain will receive. At a net cost of over 25 million British pounds, Iraqis will be given a choice of three different packages. Critics are taking issue with the stipulation that Iraqis must have been working for the British for over a year to qualify, eliminating many Iraqis who are in danger because of their association with the coalition, even if formerly employed for less than a year. Still, it is worth noting that any of the proposed packages are more extensive than what refugees in the United States are being offered...

Read the report at The Times Online.

News Roundup, 11/3/2007

Some news stories from the past week on the refugee crisis which you may not have seen:

"Prominent Iraqi oud player Naseer Shamma says he plans a fundraising campaign next month that he hopes will raise millions of dollars to help Iraqi refugees in countries such as Syria and Jordan." - Reuters Africa (Read here)

"New Hampshire Prepares for Iraqis' Arrival" - New Hampshire Public Radio (Listen to the broadcast)

"From Baghdad to Ohio, a refugee family settles in" - Reuters (Read here)

"Band on the run", the chronicle of an Iraqi rock band trapped in unwelcoming Turkey - Reuters (Read here)

And finally, "Heartbreaking kids of a humanitarian crisis", an Seattle-based journalist explores a refugee camp in Syria and sums it up in one headline... - Seattle PI (Read here)

News: US Falls Short of Refugees Goal

Officials from the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security have been saying that 12,000 Iraqi refugees are expected to be admitted into the US over the next fiscal year (October 2007 - October 2008) - at least 1,000 per month. State Department statistics for October show that the US is starting well off that pace, having admitted only 450. While disappointing, that number is actually a large improvement over the last fiscal year, when a total of only 1,608 were admitted.