News: Kennedy Legislation Implementation

The Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act, which established in-country processing and 5,000 special visas for Iraqis working for US army or government, recently implemented the special visa program. Although the bill became law this past January, legal wrangling and the trademark turtle pace of change within the immigration bureaucracy had stalled the special visa program. The fact that it took about five months to implement the visa program and about four months to implement in-country processing reveals that our government does not recognize the immediacy of the threats against our Iraqi allies.

For an overview, The New York Times has the story:

The program will allow 5,000 Iraqis to go to the United States for each of the next five years. Each person can take immediate family members, who include spouses and children. More distant relatives, including siblings, parents and grandchildren, can apply under another program.

A second program, also established in January, whose rules were announced about six weeks ago, allows Iraqi employees of American nonprofit organizations, media companies and contractors to apply directly for refugee status instead of waiting for a referral from the United Nations. Like the special immigrant visa program, they can apply in Iraq and will be given support initially in the United States. Technically, anyone who qualifies will be accepted, State Department officials said.

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.

News: An Increase in In-Country Processing

For most Iraqis who seek resettlement in the US, the immigration process is riddled with inane bureaucratic rules. One of those rules required Iraqis to be processed in one of Iraq's neighboring countries rather than Iraq itself; a dangerous and inefficient venture for Iraqis whose lives are in danger.

George Packer reports that this US policy has now changed. Thanks to a bill sponsored by Ted Kennedy, the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act that passed in December 2007, resettlement cases for Iraqi allies are being held in the Green Zone. Packer relates:

I pushed for in-country processing when I was in Baghdad in early 2007 reporting for my article “Betrayed”; I was told by embassy officials that it wasn’t possible, without ever getting a persuasive explanation. It could have started a year ago, or two years ago. But I want to give credit where it’s due: if, in the coming year, a few thousand Iraqis who work with Americans won’t have to join their colleagues in the misery of exile before having a chance of being resettled here, then something good will have happened in this shameful story.