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More Support Needed For Iraqi Asylees


By G. Willow Wilson
Posted on Thu Jan 04, 2007 at 11:37:49 AM EST
Tags: Iraq, Politics, Immigration (all tags)

The New York Times reports today that few Iraqis are being granted sanctuary in the US. The reason? Bizarrely enough, Iraqis cannot apply for refugee status at the American Embassy in Baghdad. The Bush administration claims that this is because it relies on the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to identify the most needy of Iraq's war victims. The UN in turn says that it simply doesn't have enough money to do this job effectively; its operating budget in Syria (where many Iraqi refugees have fled) last year was only $700,000; or about $1 per refugee.

According to the Times article:

The Bush administration suspended resettlement of Iraqi refugees after the Sept. 11 attacks, and it did not resume until April 2005, after the process had begun for other Arab countries. A total of 198 Iraqis were resettled in the United States as refugees in the fiscal year of 2005, and 202 in 2006, but most were in the pipeline before the 2003 invasion, and few of the cases address the increasingly dire situation for Iraqis today.
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The exceedingly modest size of this resettlement effort is, according to US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants President Lavinia Limon, a product of the White House's dogged optimism with regard to the situation in Iraq; "If you think you're winning, you think [war refugees] are going to go back soon."

But the Republicans are not winning, and as if to remind them of as much, the newly Democratic senate is putting a Kennedy in charge of the Immigration, Border Security and Refugee Subcommittee. Time will tell what impact this will have on the future of Iraq's most embattled asylum seekers, many of whom are translators and aides who have been targeted by militants for the invaluable help they have provided to the US during the course of the invasion and occupation. 

Refugee crises are not pretty, especially when they are unexpected or ill-prepared for. The sudden and enormous influx of Palestinian refugees into Jordan after the 1967 war temporarily crippled the country's economy. Today, Egyptian and Somali youths fight in the streets of my own neighborhood as more and more asylum seekers flee the Horn. As Ali observed in an earlier post:

All we can do, as Americans, is to get people relief from channels that aren't military, and to help as many refugees find asylum elsewhere.

The US has a direct responsibility to the victims of the Iraq war, and if the situation in Iraq does not take a considerable turn for the better, that responsibility may come to include a major resettlement effort. If steps are not taken now, a refugee crisis of serious proportions will fall on an increasingly unstable Middle East, and the political and economic consequences will be severe.

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More Support Needed For Iraqi Asylees | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)
Good, we don't want them(none / 0) (#1)
by TallDave on Thu Jan 04, 2007 at 12:20:29 PM EST

There have been roughly as many refugees returning to Iraq as leaving.  The ones returning are largely Shia/Kurd and those leaving are largely Sunni.  That tends to happen when a minority population that brutally oppressed the majority is removed from power.

Frankly, if Sunnis are leaving Iraq in terror, they're reaping what they've sown.  It's the Sunni areas that are the seas in which the Iraqi terrorists responsible for the sectarian violence swim.  Let Jordan and Syria succor those whose lives they've ruined by supporting their most violent elements.

Remember, the Shia sat back patiently for a long time while Sunni suicide bombers slaughtered them by the thousand.  That wasn't going to last forever. Peace requires willing partners.

Now those Sunnis want to come to America after ruining their own country??? Ha! 

 



responisbility(none / 0) (#2)
by sequoia on Thu Jan 04, 2007 at 04:48:57 PM EST
The United States does I believe have a moral obligation to help those Iraqis searching for a better life reglardles of sectarian labels.

[ Parent ]
I don't disagree(none / 0) (#3)
by TallDave on Thu Jan 04, 2007 at 09:48:17 PM EST

Everyone should have the opportunity for a better life; that's part of why the U.S. is in Iraq, to give them that chance (the Kurds have run with the concept; the Arabs are lagging a bit).  But we're not obligated to reward people who are trying to ruin that opportunity for others in Iraq through mayhem.

 



[ Parent ]
why(none / 0) (#4)
by center on Fri Jan 05, 2007 at 06:54:19 AM EST
TallDave..what a short sight.  Indiviudal cases..not blanket condemnations...

[ Parent ]








I have to go and do some research(none / 0) (#5)
by Samaha on Fri Jan 05, 2007 at 08:30:02 AM EST

but, I believe that even in Bosnia during the war, one was not able to go to the US embassy to apply for refugee status - there were organizations such as World Relief which handled that, usually outside the country.  I realize that the US was not responsible for creating those refugees, but it seems that there is a system in place for seeking refuge (which is different than seeking assylum).

Are neighboring Arab countries taking on refugees?  I realize you stated that the Palestinians crippled the economy with those refugees, but there does have to be neighboring countries that are opening their borders with TEMPORARY shelter as Croatia did for Bosnians.

What seems to be the problem though is that absolutely nothing organized is being done for these refugees outside of Iraq and what does contribute to that is that these Iraqis have not been "deemed" refugees or inhabitants in peril.

Once there is a status (for which the UN may have direct involvement - and if that is the case, you may see it very difficult to get a status for these Iraqis - considering SA's unhappiness with the situation) then you would see organizations like World Relief come in and do their work.

My mother's own family came to the US on a tourist visa as there was no refugee status for Bosnians at the time and their city was one of the first to be taken over with some of the worst atrocities taking place (Vlasenica).  Both of my grandparents have passed away since and one aunt was able to recieve assylum (then she sponsored her daughter) another is in limbo after being denied assylum - the whole problem was that they came here on a tourist visa (the only way we could bring them in) so they were not able to get refugee status.

It's all so messed up.





More Support Needed For Iraqi Asylees | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)

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