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.

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.

TLP in the News: From the Christian Science Monitor

Jill Carroll of the Christian Science Monitor wrote a story this week featuring TLP's Kirk Johnson. Here is an excerpt:

Johnson is from West Chicago: "Bush Country," he calls it. His parents twice voted for the president and support the war. But Johnson's efforts have shifted from trying to massage the bureaucracy to mustering public pressure on President Bush to address America's imperiled Iraqi employees.

"He's the only one that can save them quickly," says Johnson. He rattles off statistics of refugees evacuated on presidential orders – including Iraqis in 1996.

To read the rest of Ms. Carroll's piece on an average day in the life of TLP's founder, click here.

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.