TLP's Birthday on World Refugee Day

Today, on World Refugee Day, The List Project officially turns one year old.

Much has transpired in the world of Iraqi refugees this past year including setbacks such as forced deportations in Britain and Sweden, visa restrictions in Jordan and Syria, and the frustratingly slow pace of resettlement in the US. In countries that have been generous in accepting Iraqi refugees, entrance restrictions have been tightened.

Furthermore, news stories have detailed the exploitation of Iraqis in Syria as young girls are forced into prostitution. Barred from obtaining employment, Iraqis in Syria and Jordan spend their savings on the cost of living and have no option but to work secretly and in the underground economy.

We have also heard of the glacial pace of US admittances and the bureaucratic nature of the resettlement process fraught with multiple interviews, long waiting periods, and lack of resources. The fortunate ones who are resettled in the US often find menial jobs at restaurants and hotels meager in compensation as the lure of returning to Iraq for a bigger pay-check, at the risk of death, remains.

However, notable advancements, too, have been made that inspire hope. The Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act was enacted into law by the US government and has increased special visas for Iraqis directly working with the military forces to 5,000 a year for five years. The act has also established the much needed in-country processing procedure so Iraqis need not become exiles in Syria or Jordan or elsewhere just to apply for resettlement in the US. So far, The List Project has resettled over 90 Iraqis in the US but the list keeps growing and currently contains about 1,000 names.

More needs to be done and the most immediate, beneficial, and obvious solution for the Iraqi allies problem is a humanitarian airlift. Denmark has airlifted its Iraqi allies and Britain proposed to do the same. At the end of the Vietnam War, the US resettled over 100,000 Vietnamese refugees; and the 1990s saw the airlift of thousands of Kurdish allies and Kosovar refugees. Despite talk about increased rates per month of Iraqi resettlement, the US can airlift its allies in immediate danger at very little cost compared with the entire Iraqi venture in total. If only there was motivation from the administration to do so.

What Patraeus and Crocker Didn't Mention

The Mosaic Intelligence Report comments on what Patraeus, Crocker, and the quizzing senators failed to mention, via DailyKos:



In the world of policy, a new legal case may set a precedent for a tougher UK asylum policy. The Guardian reports:

The United Nations last night accused the government of holding a 'sword of Damocles' over the heads of Iraqi refugees in Britain after it emerged that the Home Office had won a landmark test case giving it the power to return refugees to war-torn parts of their home country, including Basra and Baghdad.

But following the tribunal's decision, the government now has the power to remove anyone to any part of Iraq. 'We are pleased that the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal has agreed with our view and found that conditions in Iraq are such that an ordinary individual Iraqi civilian is not at serious risk from indiscriminate violence,' a spokesman for the Home Office said.

The tribunal ruling has wide implications for Iraqi asylum seekers. It stated: 'Neither civilians in Iraq generally, nor civilians even in provinces and cities worst affected by the armed conflict, can show they face a "serious and individual threat" to their "life or person"... merely by virtue of being civilians.'

This ruling is similar to a recent one in Sweden that also insisted that asylum seekers from Iraq prove that there is a direct and individual threat to their person, rather than a general threatening environment that results from war.

In Focus: The British Plan to Airlift 1,500 Iraqi Refugees

Last week, we first highlighted Britain's announcement to airlift 1,500 Iraqis (British armed forces interpreters and their families) to the United Kingdom. Because this is such an important development in addressing the Iraqi refugee situation, it is necessary to provide a more in-depth examination of the topic.

According to a UPI article from February 16, interpreters must prove that they worked for British personnel for 12 continuous months to be eligible. The provision also requires that Iraqis show that they worked with British personnel since 2005.

Iraqis granted asylum will receive free housing and benefits to assist in the resettlement process. Ishbel Matheson of Minority Rights Group International penned an op-ed on the resettlement plan in which she described a British precedent for taking in thousands of refugees during the Bosnia and Kosovo conflicts. Matheson goes on argue that the plan does not go far enough and charges that it is an attempt by the British government to deflect negative criticism associated with the Iraq War. Regardless of the motivations behind Britain's new policy, this is clearly a step in the right direction.

This week EU lawmakers released a report that seemed to support increased assistance to resettling Iraqi refugees in Europe:

The EU should make it easier for Iraqis to find refuge in its member states and scrap "arbitrary criteria to granting protection and prevent any forced return," the report said.

And in a congressional hearing on Tuesday, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman William Delahunt had strong words regarding America's obligation to do more:

"This sad reality imposes a moral responsibility on this administration and this congress, for we cannot deny that the proximate cause of this human tragedy is the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath."

With the British airlift due to commence in April, and increasing sentiment that we cannot continue to turn our backs on Iraqi allies, it is time that we turn rhetoric into policy. Everyday that we delay, Iraqi allies who risked their lives to help American colleagues are in greater danger. Perhaps a US-sponsored airlift in the near future is the only way to reach the State Department's stated goal of admitting 12,000 Iraqi refugees into the US for FY 2008.

News Roundup: 2/19/08

In what could be a model for future American policy, ThisIsLondon reports that Britain will soon be enacting a lite version of the so-called “Guam Option” – airlifting Iraqi allies to a military base and processing their asylum applications there:

Up to 1,500 Iraqis are to be airlifted to Britain after ministers agreed to grant sanctuary to the interpreters who worked for [British] forces. In a multi-million pound operation starting in April, the translators and their families will be flown here in groups of 100 every fortnight until the autumn. They will be transported in military planes to an RAF base in the South-East where they will be processed by immigration officials.

Sweden and Iraq have signed an agreement that “allows Sweden to send back Iraqi nationals whose asylum applications have been rejected”.

“…'some 400 Iraq nationals were immediately affected' by the agreement inked in Iraq. The deal means that failed asylum seekers will no longer remain 'in limbo,' [Migration and Asylum Policy Minister Tobia] Billstrom told Swedish radio news...

AFP reports on a Swedish town adapting to the heavy influx of refugees.

Jordan has announced it will waive overstay fees for Iraqis who want to leave the country. Alertnet reports:

Most refugees have overstayed their visas by several years, reported the Interior Ministry, amassing fines of thousands of dollars each. There is a fee of 1.50 Jordan Dinar (US$ 2) for each day of overstay... Only those Iraqis who return home or leave to a third country are exempt from the fines. Those wishing to stay in the Kingdom have only two months to pay 50 per cent of their dues if they are to avoid becoming permanently ineligible to be considered for residency status in the future.

Meanwhile, the European Union has just pledged 9 million euros (13.2 million USD) for new health aid for Iraqi refugees.

News: Good news and bad news, East and West of the Pond

Two quick notes on two under-reported stories:

First the good news: Last week, without much fanfare, the Defense Authorization conference report passed the Senate with its Kennedy-Smith-Levin-Brownback Iraqi Refugee Provisions intact:

"This conference report requires the Administration to increase its efforts to resettle Iraqi refugees, to expand the scope of special immigrant visas for Iraqis who have worked for the U.S. government, and to improve our response to the overall refugee crisis.

Of course, the trick is in getting the provisions implemented... Click here to read the full text of the provisions.

Meanwhile, across the ocean, Britain's channel 4 reports:

"Native interpreters who risked death and persecution to help British troops in Iraq have been blocked from starting new lives in the UK, new figures reveal.

Of the 200 interpreters who took up an offer to resettle in Britain, 125 have been turned away, statistics unearthed by the Times reveal.

The revelations contradict Gordon Brown's promise to fulfill a "care of duty" to those who have served with British troops...

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.