I begin processing my first four families tonight as I will pick them up this evening. They are three Iraqi families and one unaccompanied minor (a tricky case I'm told...). I've spent the day researching their cases, pouring over their files and researching the situation from which they originated so I will be better able to assist them at this crucial time in the resettlement process. Some of what I discovered is incredibly frustrating and very blog worthy.
FIVE YEARS LATER, A HIDDEN CRISIS: Report of the IRC Commission on Iraqi Refugees
The number of Iraqis accepted globally for refugee resettlement programs actually fell between 2003 and 2006. UNHCR has referred far more refugees for resettlement than have been accepted. U.S. government officials have criticized the number of UNHCR referrals as “stagnant” and predict that the admissions program will catch up to UNHCR referrals by the spring of this year. UNHCR, however, has slowed down its referrals process because it does not want to create a large backlog of refugees who have false hopes for resettlement.
The U.S. government fell short of its already modest target of 7,000 Iraqi refugees in fiscal year 2007 and resettled only 1,608. Many of those resettled had been part of earlier waves of refugees—including Christians fleeing the Saddam Hussein regime. For fiscal year 2008 (Oct. 1, 2007–Sept. 30, 2008), the United States has pledged to admit up to 12,000 refugees, a very low number in view of the need. Once
again, however, it is off to a slow start, admitting only 1,432 refugees in the first four months of the fiscal year (450 in October-, 362 in November, 245 in December, and 375 in January). Because of the slow start, State Department and Department of Homeland Security officials conceded in early February that they
may not meet the goal of 12,000 Iraqi refugees in fiscal year 2008. They continue to have 12,000 as their target, and hope to make up shortfalls with higher numbers in July, August and September, but offer no guarantees of reaching the goal. We recommend that at least twice that number be admitted this year.
Clearly, something other than the normal procedures should be used to respond to this crisis. A major effort on the order of what Presidents Ford and Carter mounted back in the post-Vietnam War era is needed. Between May and December 1975, 131,000 people were resettled, and the United States took in more than 900,000 Vietnamese refugees overall. Similarly, the United States welcomed more than 600,000
Russian Jews and other religious minorities during the Cold War, and accepted more than 150,000 Bosnian refugees during the Bosnian conflict.
In January 2008, President Bush signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2008. A section of this law is the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act of 2007, often referred to as the “Kennedy bill” after its chief sponsor, Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy. The law provides for greater opportunities for vulnerable Iraqis to obtain protection in the United States.
The Kennedy legislation expands the categories of Iraqis who will have priority for admission to the United States as refugees. The Kennedy bill does not specify the number of Iraqis who should come to the United States each year as refugees, but the emphasis on expanded categories could result in higher refugee admissions and more focus on vulnerable groups. The legislation also authorizes a significant increase in the number of Iraqis who can come to the United States with special immigrant visas (SIVs). Under a prior law, a total of 500 Iraqis and Afghans who worked as translators for the U.S. government can get such visas each year and they can bring their family members. Under the new law, another 5,000 Iraqis and their family members (expected to total 10,000 to 12,000 persons) will be able to get such visas for the next five years, and they will be eligible for the same services and benefits as those admitted as refugees. The State Department was already planning to resettle 12,000 Iraqi refugees in fiscal year 2008. The impact of the SIVs and refugee provisions of this legislation could boost admissions this year to at least 25,000 Iraqis—and potentially many more—for whom no other viable solution exists.
A major challenge is that a number of federal agencies (including the State Department, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Health and Human Services) have a role in the U.S. refugee admissions program, which is funded through a mix of appropriations to these agencies, visa fees and contributions from voluntary agencies (see appendix). The State Department uses a partner agency (in
Jordan and Syria, it is the International Organization for Migration) to run an intake office called the Overseas Processing Entity. The entire program also relies on voluntary agencies (funded largely through the State Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement at Health and Human Services) to help the refugees resettle in the United States. Scaling up to meet the needs of significantly greater numbers of
Iraqi refugees in a manner that does not undermine the flow of refugees from other regions would involve many senior decision makers and require investments within the entire system, and not just to one agency. Another challenge has been that the U.S. resettlement program focuses almost entirely on threats of violence and persecution to refugees in their country of origin, and puts almost no emphasis on threats to the refugees outside Iraq. UNHCR, on the other hand, has several categories for Iraqis who want to be resettled, including severe trauma (including sexual violence and violence against women) in Iraq, medical problems or disabilities for which there is no adequate treatment in the refugee-hosting country, and statelessness.
Other groups listed by UNHCR are:
• minorities targeted in Iraq because of their religious or ethnic background;
• women at risk in their host country;
• unaccompanied or separated children and children who are the main applicants for resettlement;
• dependents of the refugees living in potential countries of resettlement;
• elderly people at risk;
• high-profile refugees and/or their family members;
• refugees associated with the multinational force in Iraq, Coalition Provisional Authority, the United Nations, foreign countries, and international or foreign institutions or companies and the press;
• refugees with immediate risk of refoulement (being sent back to country of origin before it has been deemed safe)."
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