News: Senior US Diplomat Meets with Syria Regarding Iraqi Refugees

According to the International Herald Tribune, the State Department's senior coordinator for Iraqi refugees, James Foley, met with Syria's foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, to discuss the Iraqi refugee situation in Syria. Such high level diplomatic contacts are a positive sign since contacts between the US and Syria are rare given their mutual animosities and criticisms. For example, consider the following quote by TLP's founder, Kirk Johnson from an interview with MSNBC:

...we’re letting Damascus dictate our abilities. The refugee process got frozen for seven months in Syria because Department of Homeland Security agents couldn’t get stamps in their passports.

Despite past hurdles, it is clear that Syria and the US need to coordinate their efforts since both have an incentive: Syria needs to lessen the burden upon its society due to its huge refugee population and for the US, pressure is building to resettle more Iraqis.

James Foley is part of the State Department and reports to Condoleezza Rice, who ostensibly reports to President Bush about the refugee crisis. However, certain refugee advocates on Capitol Hill, such as senators Ted Kennedy, Joseph Biden, Chuck Hagel, and Gordon Smith; believe this position within the State bureaucracy is not forceful enough. Last Friday, on World Refugee Day, these senators introduced a bill to establish a White House level position for the coordination of Iraqi refugee policies. The bill seeks to bring the issue onto a higher priority level than it already is now by creating this special position.

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.

Refugee Stories

The following video podcast, via Our Man Inside, explores what life is like for Iraqi refugees in Jordan.



Also, check out this blog, named Baghdad Burning, written by an Iraqi refugee in Syria. An excerpt:

By the time we had reentered the Syrian border and were headed back to the cab ready to take us into Kameshli, I had resigned myself to the fact that we were refugees. I read about refugees on the Internet daily… in the newspapers… hear about them on TV. I hear about the estimated 1.5 million plus Iraqi refugees in Syria and shake my head, never really considering myself or my family as one of them. After all, refugees are people who sleep in tents and have no potable water or plumbing, right? Refugees carry their belongings in bags instead of suitcases and they don’t have cell phones or Internet access, right? Grasping my passport in my hand like my life depended on it, with two extra months in Syria stamped inside, it hit me how wrong I was. We were all refugees. I was suddenly a number. No matter how wealthy or educated or comfortable, a refugee is a refugee. A refugee is someone who isn’t really welcome in any country- including their own... especially their own.

Hat tip: The Ground Truth in Iraq blog.

News Roundup: 3/14/2008

War News Radio has recently reported on the dire conditions of Iraqi refugees living in Syria and Jordan. With interviews with refugees, the piece emphasizes the hardships Iraqi refugees have to face due to decreasing personal funds. The broadcast also mentions the crucial role Jordan's non-refugee employment policy plays in rising poverty and Jordan's power to deport any Iraqi refugee who obtains employment. Consequently, many refugees are forced into menial jobs and employment within the black market. However, there are charitable organizations that ameliorate some of the hardships.

Mercy Corps, an international NGO, has helped deliver aid and social services to refugees in Jordan:

In September, 523 families received a month's worth of dry food delivered to their homes. During the month of Ramadan, which ended October 13, three Iftar tents serving hot meals welcomed an estimated 150 to 200 Iraqis a day. A soup kitchen in Amman serves roughly 300 a day, most of whom are Iraqi refugees.
We've also assisted Iraqi families in registering their children for formal schooling and helped Iraqis gain access to neighborhood social services like psychosocial counseling, youth activities and job-skills training. The agency recently forged an agreement with an operator of three community centers in East Amman to extend their services to 300 Iraqi families living nearby.

In other news, The Department of Homeland Security has recently issued a press release stating:

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Department of State (DOS) have been committed to streamlining the process for admitting Iraqi refugees to the U.S. while at the same time ensuring the highest level of security.

The DHS issued the press release the same day a committee in the House of Representatives held a hearing on the Iraqi refugee issue; a hearing that this AFP article summarizes.

UNHCR calls for more aid to Jordan and Syria to support refugees

The UN High Commission on Refugees is calling on the global community to give more aid and support to Jordan and Syria, two countries who have had a massive influx of Iraqi refugees, which have taxed both governments ability to alleviate the strains on their economies. Antonio Guterres urged increased efforts, stating "We know the heavy price that they have been paying (Jordan and Syria) in order to accommodate such a large number of Iraqis with a heavy impact on the economy and society" He also stated that Jordan and Syria have reiterated their support of Iraqi refugees and pledged that they would not send Iraqis back to their war torn country.

It will be interesting to see where this leads, and weather the governments of Jordan and Syria are sincere in their commitments. I say this because it is becoming increasingly difficult, as mentioned earlier for these governments to cope with the influx. Jordan for instance has recently ended subsidies) on fuel and many other goods forcing prices on some products to surge by as much or more than 100% of their previous rates. This was not instituted because of the refugee problem obviously, but in order to curb a large deficit. This is a burden which not only Iraqi refugees in Jordan, but also Jordanians themselves have to shoulder, and many will have a hard time doing it. Increased aid will ease the burden on refugees and the governments, so they will not have to resort to radical methods.

News: More refugees leaving Iraq than returning

A glut of stories have recenlty described how despite Bush Administration claims to the contrary, Iraq is still by no means safe for refugee return. Though Iraq’s minister of migration insists that exact numbers are difficult to track, it is clear that more Iraqis are heading to Syria than returning home. Reuters notes: “Better security not why most Iraqis go home”. The BBC ran a story with the blunt headline “We Can’t Return”. Ironically, for the minority who do want to return, Jordan – which has made it clear that it does not want these refugees – is imposing an expensive levy on those who have over-stayed their visas, preventing them from leaving. Returns home for internally displaced refugees are also on the wane.

To top things off, an historically drastic winter is making life near impossible for many refugees.

Video: Iraqi Refugees at Work in Syria

Alive in Baghdad, a video-news blog, presents videos of the everyday lives of Iraqis. Iraqi refugees in Syria speak about their work and living conditions in the video below.

News: Iraqi Refugee Resettlement Challenges

In an NPR news broadcast, featured on All Things Considered, Deborah Amos reports on the challenges faced by Iraqi refugees stalled in the resettlement process. Discussed in the broadcast are findings from a new UN report that one-third of Iraqi refugees living in Syria will run out of money within the next three months. The UN report is also referenced in a recent US News and World Report article.

One of the refugees profiled in the NPR story is included on TLP's list of Iraqis who should be resettled in the United States. His work with USAID earned him death threats that forced him to flee to Syria. Now the bureaucratic process has left him in a state of despair:

"He's given up on resettlement and on the US government that trusted him in Baghdad, but he believes doesn't trust him enough to admit him to the United States."

Video: Young Iraqi Refugees Forced into Prostitution

Facing an increasingly desperate situation as the money runs out in Syria, some Iraqi girls have been forced into the sex trade to help provide for their families. We learned about this disturbing trend from a New York Times article by Katherine Zoepf in May 2007. In an NBC News report by Richard Engel, we are updated on this chilling consequence of the ongoing conflict.

News: Iraqi Refugees Struggle in Jordan and Lebanon

Recent news coverage has slowly begun to focus on the deteriorating situation for Iraqi refugees in neighboring Syria. Nevertheless, two new reports should remind us that their plight outside of Iraq is widespread. As reported in IRIN, the UN's news website aimed at raising awareness on humanitarian issues:

Many Iraqi asylum-seekers in Jordan have fallen victim to resettlement scams in which they are approached by individuals claiming to guarantee their resettlement in a third country with the help of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), according to UN officials and Iraqi residents.

It is unclear how many Iraqis have fallen victim to resettlement scams, but the UN estimates the number to be in the thousands. While Jordan is currently hosting an estimated 500,000 Iraqi refugees, roughly 50,000 have fled to Lebanon. Although this may seem like a relatively small amount, it places a great deal of pressure on a country of 4 million that already hosts a Palestinian refugee population of up to 300,000. The consequences are outlined by a report released this week by Human Rights Watch:

Lebanese authorities treat as illegal immigrants Iraqis who enter Lebanon illegally or enter legally but then overstay their visas, regardless of their intent to seek asylum. Iraqi refugees are then subject to arrest, fines and detention by the Lebanese authorities.

Click here to read the IRIN report. To read more about the Human Rights Watch report, click here.

Article Roundup

George Packer continues to conscientiously write about the travails of Iraqi refugees and has mentioned The List Project’s very own Kirk Johnson in a recent blog post:

A few evenings ago, my friend Kirk Johnson stopped by with a man I’ll call Ibrahim, an Iraqi in his early thirties who had arrived in the U.S. earlier this month. Ibrahim’s story keeps getting worse before it gets better.
Toward the end of last year, while working for an American contractor, Ibrahim received a death threat from a co-worker who belonged to the Mahdi Army, and he decided to flee the country. Iraqis are less and less welcome in the Arab world, so he chose a dangerous, though increasingly common, way out: he paid a Swedish-Iraqi smuggler six thousand dollars up front to get him into Stockholm, where a cousin lives.
On the phone, Ibrahim sounded furious, bewildered, despairing—and determined. “Is it possible, is it possible?” he said over the static-filled connection. “I used to be manager of a procurement office of USAID. I am nothing now, and why? Because I trusted the U.S. When you are a refugee, it’s a very terrible feeling. You feel nobody knows about you, nobody cares about you.”

Packer had indicated that he will continue Ibrahim's story on his blog so keep an eye out for that. Furthermore, in a recent spate of articles on Iraqi refugees and U.S. policy towards them, Slate has another article arguing that not only does the U.S. have a moral responsibility to admit thousands of Iraqi refugees into the country, but that robust resettlement will also aid America’s strategic interests:

As with the Palestinian problem, Iraq's refugees could generate numerous regional crises. Large refugee flows can overstrain the economies and even change the demographic makeup of small or weak states, upsetting what is already a delicate political balance. One million Iraqi refugees is a substantial addition to Jordan's population of less than 6 million.

Not only, this, but another interesting piece relates of growing class and economic tensions in Jordan due to the presence of Iraqi refugees:

Hostility towards them easily translates into a general dislike of all Iraqis in Jordan, regardless of whether they are wealthy or not. "I'll give you an example — if an Iraqi comes to my stall he won't ask the price, he'll just start filling his bag," says Mohammed Ro'ud, a greengrocer in Amman's Boukari street market. "This is why the prices of flats are also going up: they don't bargain, they just pay cash right away, and ordinary Jordanians can't afford to do that."

The article also states that while poor Iraqis also constitute part of the refugee population in Jordan, most poor refugees have settled in Syria where the economy is straining under the added weight of approximately 1.5 million Iraqi refugees. The Economist comments on the situation and also explains new Syrian regulations limiting refugee admittances:

The UNHCR has managed to register only 135,000 refugees, a fraction of those who have arrived. And they are still trickling in, despite new rules that have in effect closed the border. Only certain favoured categories of applicants, such as lorry drivers, businessmen, academics and engineers, are now being allowed in, with occasional exceptions for the sick.

Syria opens refugee clinics, insists refugees are temporary

Although Syria has closed its borders to Iraqi refugees, it remains host to the largest Iraqi population outside of Iraq itself. The Syrian government now finds itself in a difficult position: seeking to provide services for over a million people while trying to make it clear that it does not intend to become a permanent home for most of the refugees. Thus, we end up with the following stories:

The UNHCR is reporting that, in order to provide medical service to the estimated 1.5 million Iraqi refugees, the Syrian government has opened two clinics for refugees in Damascus. Meanwhile, Syria continues to insist it will do what it can to ensure that Iraqi refugees can eventually go home, while continuing to condemn the war itself.

The ability of the Syrian government to balance the pressures it faces will have a major impact on the lives of literally millions.

In Focus: Syria's closed border

The closure of the Syrian/Iraqi border earlier this month is a major development in the ongoing refugee crisis, the ramifications of which continue to ripple. Syria had long been the only place where many Iraqis could legally go to escape the violence in their home country. Now, with borders closed all around them and a high-tech wall going up on the Saudi side, for many if not most Iraqis, there is nowhere to run...

The New York Times offers this thorough report:

Syria Shuts Main Exit From War for Iraqis:
By THANASSIS CAMBANIS

...“The door is now closed to Iraqis in every direction,” said Sybella Wilkes, a spokeswoman here for the United Nations refugee agency. It is unclear whether Syria will enforce the rules for the Iraqis already in the country. United Nations officials believe Syria is likely to continue its practice of not deporting citizens of other Arab countries whose immigration status is illegal. Syria announced the new rules this summer and said they would take effect on Sept. 1. But it postponed their implementation and continued to accept refugees until Oct. 1. Under the old visa rules, Iraqis entered Syria without restriction and were allowed to remain for three months. Damascus has avoided any announcement about the policy since it took effect, leaving refugees and United Nations officials in a haze of uncertainty...

Read the complete article.

News Roundup: 10/24/07

Among desperate Iraqi refugees, prostitution a growing problem (From the International Herald Tribune): ...the problem is growing as thousands of Iraqis flee their homeland. Most troubling to some human rights groups is the possibility that ever-younger girls may turn to, or be pulled into, the sex trade, desperate to support families barely getting by...

Iraq refugees headed for Twin Falls, ID (From the Times-News): They fled their homeland because they helped the United States... A family of four Iraqis will arrive in Twin Falls from Jordan in the near future, but their exact arrival date is unknown... "It's like the army says, hurry up and wait," [College of Southern Idaho Refugee Service Center Director Ron Black] said.

Fire ravages UN refugee agency warehouses in Syria (UN News Centre): This story has been up for a few days, but is worth drawing attention to...

Commentary calls for international action on refugees

In The Guardian today, James Denselow discusses how options are narrowing for Iraqi refugees as Syria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and others close their borders, and calls on the West to do something before the situation reaches disastrous proportions:

Indeed, with the Saudis building the world's most hi-tech fence and joining the Kuwaitis and the Jordanians in attempting to hermetically seal their border, the ways out for Iraqis are narrowing by the day. What's more the imminent Turkish incursion into northern Iraq may trigger a new wave of refugees that may find themselves running into cul-de sacs of no-go areas, literally unable to seek refuge. The nature of the heavy weaponry that Turkey is preparing on its border with Iraq, including armour and artillery, could reveal the gilded statue that is the Kurdish regional government (KRG), as being based on a bed of political quicksand, and the relative security of the north of the country could become a thing of the past...

Instead of waiting for such an inevitable tragedy to occur, steps must be taken now to reinforce the UNHCR and affiliated bodies with financial and political capital. This will take pressure off the neighbouring host countries and make clear that the refugee issue is separate from the myriad of political disputes that are currently in lay. Continued inaction sees the walls of the Iraqi labyrinth shift ever closer on those most vulnerable and that must not be allowed to happen.

Read the rest here.

News: Syria's border closure hits Iraqi refugees

From Reuters:

"SAIDA ZEINAB, Syria, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Suffering kidney disease and living in a Damascus slum, Amal Jabar lost her only means of support when Syria closed its borders to Iraqi refugees a few weeks ago.

"My son Mostafa used to come and bring me whatever little he scraped together from odd jobs in Baghdad. I would be starving now if it wasn't for charity," said Jabar, who fled from the al-Amel district in Baghdad, a focus of sectarian fighting.

"The area is swamped with militias and Mostafa's life is in danger. He was planning to move to Syria, but now he cannot and I haven't heard from him," she said.

Syria's decision on Oct. 1 to shut its borders to Iraqi nationals, except merchants and academics, has disrupted lives of refugees, separated families and trapped thousands amid killings and upheaval, according to refugees and aid agencies.

With an estimated 1.4-2 million refugees constituting up to 10 percent of Syria's population, the government said it could no longer absorb more Iraqis, although thousands were crossing the border every day."...

Read the complete story.

News: Money gone, Iraqi refugees reluctantly head back to uncertain future

From the Associated Press:

"Damascus, Syria: Their money gone, Iman Faleh and her family packed their belongings for Baghdad — a journey they said was like a trip to "death row."

The religiously mixed family — Iman is a Sunni but the others are Shiites — fled their home in a mostly Shiite part of east Baghdad in July and took refuge in Syria, joining an estimated 1.5 million other Iraqis here.

But in early fall, they became part of a growing wave of Iraqis leaving Syria for home — not because they are confident of Iraq's future, but because they ran out of money."

Read the complete story