"They Said They Have Nothing for Iraqis. We Feel Just Like Stupid Trash"

Technorati Tags: Iraq, refugee crisis, Bush administration, State Department, United Nations, Refugees International

Sabrina Tavernise and Robert F. Worth have an article in the New York Times about how hard it is for Iraqis fleeing the war to get into the United States:

With thousands of Iraqis desperately fleeing this country every day, advocates for refugees, and even some American officials, say there is an urgent need to allow more Iraqi refugees into the United States.

Until recently the Bush administration had planned to resettle just 500 Iraqis this year, a mere fraction of the tens of thousands of Iraqis who are now believed to be fleeing their country each month. State Department officials say they are open to admitting larger numbers, but are limited by a cumbersome and poorly financed United Nations referral system.

"We're not even meeting our basic obligation to the Iraqis who've been imperiled because they worked for the U.S. government," said Kirk W. Johnson, who worked for the United States Agency for International Development in Falluja in 2005. "We could not have functioned without their hard work, and it's shameful that we've nothing to offer them in their bleakest hour."

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat who is taking over the immigration, border security and refugee subcommittee, plans hearings this month on America's responsibility to help vulnerable Iraqis. An estimated 1.8 million Iraqis are living outside Iraq. The pace of the exodus has quickened significantly in the past nine months.

Some critics say the Bush administration has been reluctant to create a significant refugee program because to do so would be tantamount to conceding failure in Iraq. They say a major change in policy could happen only as part of a broader White House shift on Iraq.

"I don't know of anyone inside the administration who sees this as a priority area," said Lavinia Limon, president of the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nongovernmental refugee resettlement agency based in Washington. "If you think you're winning, you think they're going to go back soon."

It's easy to point to bureaucratic snafus and inefficient processing procedures at the UN, but the Bush administration bears the moral responsibility for this crisis, having created it:

Refugees International called on the west to "lead an international initiative to support Middle Eastern countries hosting Iraqi civilians".

"The United States and its allies sparked the current chaos in Iraq, but they are doing little to ease the humanitarian crisis caused by the current exodus," Kenneth Bacon, the organisation's president, said.

Refugees International called attention to what is rapidly becoming the "biggest refugee crisis in the world" in a report published last month.