Iraqi Refugees, Enemies?

It is really sad to see an American think of an Iraqi refugee as an enemy. This is either ignorance or simple hatred or maybe both. Iraqis who had suffered under Saddam had suffered even more when the U.S. invaded and occupied their country. Hundreds of thousands were kidnapped, tortured, beheaded, displaced and even buried alive in mass graves since the war started five years ago. And for what? For a war based on lies and private interests. And yet, there is this American woman named Bertha Avila from Marysville who is shocked to see Iraqis, whose lives were destroyed because of her country, being resettled and compensated for what they lost in Iraq.

What Bertha doesn't seem to understand or maybe doesn't seem to want to understand is that once upon a time those Iraqis had a relatively normal life compared to their destroyed life after her country invaded theirs. It is the least thing the U.S. could do to atone itself for what it did to those people's lives. Those were doctors, engineers, teachers, dentists, … etc. They are not enemies; they are the remaining seeds of a better future that for a while seemed dim.

Read Bertha's letter below:

Letter: Why is U.S. aiding Iraqi refugees?

The Department of Homeland Security has recently allowed refugees from Iraq to settle in our country through a program called U.S. Refugee Admission Program, and as of June 4, 6,480 Iraqis have been admitted into the USA and an additional 27,940 Iraqis referred to DHS for interviews, with approvals growing each day.

Iraq was considered a global terrorist threat. We go to war to prevent terrorism and then we turn around and welcome their displaced citizens into this country giving them special visas and loans to travel and all the benefits such as welfare, food and medical services while our own government is facing a recession?

I am puzzled and can't understand the fairness of this country. One day U.S. sons and daughters fighting in this bloody war will come home to be neighbors with the sons and daughters of the of the enemy enjoying the benefits they will only hope for.

Go to www.USCIS.gov and read all about this program.

Bertha Avila

Marysville

News: UNHCR cites conflicting reports on Iraqi return figures

A UNHCR press release issued on Friday, December 7 explores some of the difficulties that agencies such as UNHCR face when reporting on refugee figures, and returns in particular - difficulties that can lead to the sometimes conflicting reports that get issued.

Part of the problem, according to the press release, is that not everyone being counted is a refugee:

[The number of returning refugees reported] includes all categories of Iraqis, including bus and taxi drivers, and not just refugees who returned for good. UNHCR does not have a 24-hour presence at the border and relies on various sources to estimate numbers.

Adding to the difficulty in understanding the current state of the refugee crisis are the many and varied reasons for which people return to Iraq. According to UNHCR spokesman William Spindler:

"UNHCR staff have spoken to a wide range of refugees before they left Syria, and some said they were returning because they believed that security had improved, while others said they had run out of resources and feared the winter period when the cost of living jumps. Others are leaving because they have outstayed their visas,"...

Some also wanted to arrive before the end of the year to enable their children to enrol in school, the spokesperson said, while adding that there was "a real concern among the returnees about longer-term security with many saying they are only returning to areas where they feel secure because of the local security arrangements in place."

The rest of the press release discusses other issues faced by refugees in Syria and Lebanon, many of which have been discussed previously on this blog, but it is well worth reading.

News: US admitting few Iraqi refugees

Much more to come tomorrow, but for tonight, some quick, bad news The AP reports:

The United States admitted only 362 Iraqi refugees in November, almost 100 fewer than in October, and far less than half the number it needs per month to meet a goal of 12,000 by the end of this budget year... In the first two months — October and November — of fiscal 2008, only 812 Iraqi refugees have been allowed into the country, meaning the Bush administration must now accept more than 11,000 over the coming 10 months to reach the target it has set for itself, the figures show.

This report comes on the heels of a November 29th briefing from the the State Department, in which Ambassador James Foley, Senior Coordinator on Iraqi Refugee Issues, said:

Finally, let me conclude with a comment about the goal I mentioned at the top; namely, to admit up to or at least 12,000 Iraqis refugees into the U.S. this fiscal year. I believe we are on track to achieving that goal, but we are not going to be in a position to substantiate that for a number of months to come. At present, we do not have enough -- we do not have sufficient cases in the pipeline to generate more than perhaps several hundred arrivals per month. This is due largely to DHS's absence from Damascus for virtually the past six months. Thanks though to this recent agreement, we now have indeed ambitious plans to interview Iraqis in the region during the second and third quarters of the fiscal year, and we believe this will result in arrivals of well over one thousand per month in later stages of the year.

Unfortunately, we have heard this story before...

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.

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.

Assistant Secretary of State offers upbeat assessment

In a recent interview published by the State Department, Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Ellen Sauerbrey offers a very optimistic report of the current refugee situation and the American response. Among the key questions and answers:

MR. MCCORMACK: Let's just start off with getting from you a little bit of an overview of where we stand now with respect to Iraqi refugees. I know we've set out some goals and we came pretty close to hitting the targets. Could you lay out for us right now where we are with respect to the goals and what we might expect over the next, say, six months to a year in terms of the number of refugees actually getting into the U.S.?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SAUERBREY: Sure. Our goals, though, are twofold. And the first goal, of course, is assistance to the larger quantity numbers of refugees that will remain in the region, and I'll come back to that. But in terms of your question about resettlement, we will resettle 12,000 this year. And I have no doubt that we will make that goal.

MR. MCCORMACK: So this -- this calendar year we'll have about 12,000?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SAUERBREY: Yes. We spent many months putting together a very complicated infrastructure. There are many moving parts in refugee resettlement, including the security clearance process, and getting all the pieces in place -- the diplomatic clearances, training the people that do the screening -- took time to get up and running, but it's running pretty smoothly now. And so I have no doubts that we will easily reach 12,000.

In terms of those Iraqis who have helped coalition forces:

MR. MCCORMACK: Let me ask you about the home front here. There are a lot of questions about what our responsibilities are to those Iraqis who work for us, whether it's for the military or for the State Department, in Iraq. What are we doing to help change the law so that we can meet our obligations to these people who work for us?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY SAUERBREY: Well, we have two ways that those that are affiliated with the U.S. in some way can enter the country. Through the refugee program, which of course, it's my bureau, whereby what is called a special immigrant visa. There actually are now about 800,000 that have come in on special immigrant visas and, as you know, over 1,600 that have come in through the refugee program.

They are greeted in the United States by a wonderful resettlement program that we have run by voluntary organizations, 365 individual affiliates throughout the country that meet the refugees. And we contract with them to provide initial shelter, household goods, to train new arrivals in the English language, skills training, get them enrolled in -- get the children enrolled in school, and most importantly to get them employed. We're very successful in getting them employed very quickly.

Read the rest of the interview here.