Displaced Iraqis Are Slow to Return Home

Despite the recent decline in violence and the UNHCR recommendation that refugee status for Iraqis be individually assessed rather than granted en masse, displaced Iraqis do not feel safe enough to return home, according to a Reuters article published Tuesday.  The UNHCR had recommended that all Iraqis from the 'central and southern governorates' should receive refugee status until this May (see this Reuters article), when the Office revised their recommendation due to the decline in violence in Iraq.  The Office still advocates that those who are currently benefiting from international protection retain their status and that all returns must be on an individual and voluntary basis, however, there have been recent reports of deportation (see this BBC article).

According to the Reuters article published Tuesday, many Iraqis feel that violence will increase and security will worsen as soon as the U.S. pulls out of the cities in June.  Recent suicide bombing attacks in Iraq have brought the monthly civilian death toll up to nearly 300, the highest since November 2008.  Resettling displaced Iraqis is key to achieving peace and necessary for the future security of the country.  Leaders in Washington and Iraq must work together to find a sustainable solution in order to promote peaceful returns.

Despite the decline in violence, the List Project has not seen a decline in the number of Iraqis applying for our help.  Please see these recent reports for more information on the U.S. response to the Iraqi refugee crisis and the plight of our Iraqi Allies:

GAO Iraqi Refugee Assistance Report

Human Rights First 'Promises to the Persecuted'

Human Rights First reports on Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act

Human Rights First has issued a report detailing the progress, and in some cases, lack thereof regarding The Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act which was passed in January of last year.

The report points out that "the infrastructures are established, and more than 20,000 U.S. affiliated Iraqis have made applications to the SIV (Special Immigrant Visas) and U.S. refugee resettlement programs.  However, the information we have been able to obtain indicates that processing times are long, and the number of Iraqis who have actually made it to the United States remains quite low."

The report specifically finds that of the 15,627 Iraqis that have been verified (which itself is a low number) as being affiliated in some way with the United States, only around 9 % or less than 1400 people have been resettled.  Additionally, only 960 applications to the Special SIV program have been submitted, a startling number, given that many more thousands qualify.  

The reasons behind these figures again point to the fact that Iraqis, as well as the administrators of these programs have to trudge through the bureaucracy of these historically underfunded and understaffed programs.  Furthermore, the amount of security checks and and delays related to verifying a candidates application can take in some instances years to process.  This is time which these refugees in many cases do not have.  

These lags are also complicated by the fact that in-country processing (i.e. from within Iraq) is taking longer due to the fact that the United States Embassy in Baghdad is understaffed.

There is also the fact that in states such a Syria, which has received the largest number of Iraqi refugees, there is no such mechanism for which to be granted refugee of SIV status.  Of the million plus that fled to Syria, those with hopes of making it to the United States are severely limited by the fact that relations between the two countries have been strained by the Iraq War, as well as the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.

These and other observations, as well as a number of recommendations can be found in the report:

Promises to the Persecuted: The Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act of 2008