The Foreign Service Journal, March 2008

Sen. Edward Kennedy had attached his Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act. President Bush signed the law. The Kennedy language expands the cate- gories of refugees who can apply directly for resettlement in the United States — without having to go through the United Nations — to include ethnic and religious minori- ties with relatives in the United States and Iraqis who’ve worked with the U.S. government. Any Iraqi who worked with the U.S. government, not just translators, will be able to apply for the special immigrant visa, and the number of those cases allowed each year will be increased from 500 to 5,000. The law also requires the State Department to estab- lish minister-counselor positions in Baghdad and other locations to coordinate the visa program and refugee resettlement for those groups that qualify for expedited processing. State is also charged with assisting those countries currently hosting refugees and working with the international community to assist in the resettlement of refugees, something State officials say they are already doing. And Congress seems like it’s willing to put its money where its mouth is. Two leading House Democrats, Al- cee L. Hastings of Florida and John D. Dingell of Michi- gan, wrote to President Bush in January requesting an increase in funding for Iraqi refugee programs of $1.5 bil- lion, including $160 million earmarked for transportation costs to resettle refugees in the United States. “Our gov- ernment has a moral responsibility to provide leader- ship,” they wrote. A Delayed Reaction State insists that it has moved as quickly as possible on resettlements. But it’s now been two years since the refugee problem started to explode. In February 2006, terrorists destroyed the golden dome of the Askariya Mosque in Samarra, about 65 miles north of Baghdad. The mosque is one of the holiest in the world for Shiite Muslims and its destruction launched a round of sectari- an violence between Sunnis and Shiites that, Foley says, sparked a “huge wave of refugees.” By the end of 2006, more than 1.5 million Iraqis had fled to neighboring countries. Up to the bombing, most experts agree, Iraq had experienced a net inflow of maybe as many as 400,000 Iraqis who had previously fled from the rule of Saddam Hussein. Since that time, the number who have left has grown to more than two million, mostly to Syria and Jor- dan, with another two million inter- nally displaced within Iraq. It’s clear that State’s first reaction was to hope that the security situation in Iraq would improve quickly enough to alleviate the problem. The numbers are telling: In all of 2006, only 202 refugees were reset- tled in the United States. Congress began to put pressure on State late in 2006, when the first inkling that lawmakers were dissatisfied with the way cases of former host-country employees were being handled became apparent. A provision in the 2007 Defense Authorization Act allowed 50 translators in Iraq and Afghanistan to apply for special immigrant visas for themselves and their families. Later that month, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, held the first congressional hearing on the broader refugee issue. In February 2007, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice responded by appointing Paula J. Dobriansky, under secretary of State for democracy and global affairs, to head a task force on the refugee situation. But from the start, Dobriansky made it clear that she believed “the best way the United States and other countries can assist displaced Iraqis fleeing violence in their country is to help re-establish a stable security environment that will allow them to return home,” according to a release issued by the department at the time. Despite some hopeful signs toward the end of last year, that hasn’t happened, at least in large numbers. And the prospect of a mass return seems unlikely. So the refugee crisis could deepen further this year if, as some are predicting, refugees who’ve fled to Jordan and Syria run out of money and find they have nowhere to turn. Last December, for example, the Washington Post reported that United Nations and U.S. military officials “reacted with horror” when the Iraqi government offered in November to send buses to Syria to bring refugees home. The Post said that U.N. officials feared a human- itarian crisis if returning Iraqis found themselves home- F O C U S 30 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 0 8 State’s first reaction was to hope that the security situation in Iraq would improve quickly enough to alleviate the problem.