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 Iraqi Resettlement in the US

The figures for Iraqis resettled in the US for the month of May indicate that numbers are on the rise. According to the Associated Press, James Foley, who is the State Department's director for Iraqi refugees, claims that the US resettled 1,114 in May and also claims that approximately another 8,000 are in the late stages of the process thereby signaling that the US may fulfill its promise to resettle 12,000 refugees by the end of September 2008.

While this is good news, the rate of acceptance has to further increase to meet the 12,000 goal. Furthermore, the 12,000 goal pales in comparison with the thousands who are at risk due to their work for the US and the millions of others who barely eek out an existence in neighboring countries or who are internally displaced.

Furthermore, The Washington Post reports on the initial progress of the new processing center in Baghdad. Until recently, Iraqis seeking to relocate to the US had to live in exile in Syria, Jordan, or Egypt to be processed by the US:

The office, which began interviewing applicants May 10, has already finished processing 80 embassy employees for departure, and the first two arrived in the United States this week, according to Ambassador James B. Foley

At the same time as these positive developments come to light, the US is also encouraging refugees to return to Iraq. According to Reuters, Foley lauded the Iraqi Prime Minister's plan of spending $195 million for refugee return but claimed it was not enough. Here is what Iraqi Christians resettled in Sweden think of repatriation:

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.

News: Congress and the Iraqi Refugee Crisis

This past Tuesday, the mayor of Södertälje, a city in Sweden, testified before Congress on Sweden's handling of the Iraqi refugee crisis. The mayor, Anders Lago, spoke with presidential hopeful, Barack Obama, who Anders reports as saying:

"He said word for word that he was ashamed that the United States didn't take greater responsibility for Iraqi refugees. Then he praised Sweden and Södertälje for how we've dealt with the issue."

Anders also testified that the city of Södertälje, a city of 80,000, has settled more Iraqi refugees than the entire US and Canada combined.

On the same day as Anders testimony, senators Joe Biden and Ed Kennedy sent a proposal to the White House outlining their vision of ameliorating the crisis. Congressional Quarterly reports that the senators seek to establish a coordinator for Iraqi refugee affairs, increase financing of UN refugee operations from approximately 25% to 50%, and increase the pace of US refugee resettlement to meet the 12,000 goal.

News: "UNHCR criticizes Sweden's Iraqi refugee policy"

The Local has recently reported on new developments in Swedish Iraqi refugee policy:

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees on Tuesday criticized Sweden's policy of deporting rejected Iraqi asylum seekers to the southern and central regions of their home country.
Since July 2007, Swedish immigration authorities have ruled that Iraqis from the southern and central regions of the country have to prove they are personally threatened in their country to be given residency.
The UN agency criticized, among other things, the fact that the agreement makes no distinction about whether the rejected asylum seekers come from the northern parts of Iraq, or the more volatile southern and central parts.

Sweden has been very accepting of Iraqi refugees, but now seems to be slowly pulling back the welcome mat. While Sweden has been the most gracious Western country in this crisis, perhaps it has overextended and has realized it cannot support the thousands of Iraqi refugees it currently hosts. However, for the sake of these Iraqis lives, perhaps Sweden ought to allow these refugees stay until a robust solution to this crisis takes hold. Hopefully, the US will take the lead in the next presidential administration.

News roundup: 3/12/2008

The Boston Globe ran an editorial on Monday criticizing the cessation of Iraqi visa processing and also noting the efforts of TLP partner Upwardly Global:

"... Unfortunately, federal officials have stopped processing these visas, citing snags over such logistics as how visa applicants can prove that they face a threat in Iraq as a result of working for the United States. But the risk is gruesomely evident, and this bureaucratic hang-up should be cleared quickly to get Iraqis out of harm's way...

... a San Francisco nonprofit called Upwardly Global helps them connect to American jobs. This is essentially a translation project, explaining in American terms what an immigrant's foreign experience is and how it can benefit domestic companies. It provides this support for Iraqis across the United States during a weekly conference call, covering resume writing, networking, and the option of moving to places with more job opportunities. The nonprofit is also organizing an employment "boot camp" that it hopes to hold in the coming weeks in Washington.

...[M]aking a place here for thousands of Iraqis who helped the US government would repay a debt of gratitude."

Even Bush Administration officials have been conceding on the record that the crisis is "deepening":

Ambassador Lawrence Foley said a prime concern is worsening poverty among those who sought shelter inside Iraq as well as in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey. "The most critical problem is increasing impoverishment," said Foley, senior coordinator for Iraqi refugee issues at the State Department. Iraqis who live in foreign countries but do not possess residency permits are often forbidden to work, and so the longer they stay, the more likely they are to spend and deplete any remaining family resources, he said.

A new blog is up on blogspot in which an Iraqi currently employed as a translator describes his day to day life. The subheading of the blog poignantly describes his existence: "Traitors in our peoples view, Spies in american view, we are stuck in the middle!, who are we????????"

Alertnet runs a self-explanatory piece "Iraqi refugees see little hope of returning home."

Meanwhile, Sweden, formerly a haven for Iraqi refugees, is beginning to close its doors.

On a brighter note, the Washington Examiner reports on an Iraqi family peacefully settling in to the suburbs of the District of Columbia.

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: A Shift in Sweden's Iraqi Refugee Policy

Sweden has admitted thousands of Iraqi refugees in the past few years; considerably more than the US has allowed to resettle with in its own borders. However, according to a recent article by the The Austin American-Statesman, Sweden has tightened its policy:

A recent decision by the Superior Court of Migration said that Iraqis must now prove they are personally in danger of persecution before being granted asylum. As a result, only 42 percent of Iraqi refugees were allowed to stay in Sweden in January, compared with 93 percent in January 2007.

To compare Sweden's intake of Iraqi refugees with the US', consider the following:

Sweden, a country of 9.1 million people that played no part in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, received nearly 18,600 Iraqi refugees in 2007. By contrast, 1,608 Iraqis were admitted as refugees to the United States in 2007.

With Syria's recent restrictions and now Sweden's, the US ought to fulfill its promise to accept 12,000 refugees for the fiscal year, although, as reports show, the slow rate of US acceptance may lead the US to renege on its promise.