It seems that the Displacement Task Force I reported on last week will soon be quite busy. According to today's New York Times, the Bush administration and the United Nations will announce a plan later this week to bring thousands of Iraqi refugees to the U.S. over the next ten months. While this will hardly make a dent in resolving the crisis -there are approximately 2 million refugees- it is certainly a step in the right direction. Such measures are all the more urgent given that Syria, which previously had the only open border in the region, is no longer issuing three month visas to Iraqis.
UPDATE: The number of Iraqis let in has been set at 7,000 not including those Iraqis deemed to be at risk for having worked with the US government inside Iraqi and who may be given US residency under a separate program according to State Dept. spokesman Sean McCormack. Also seems amount of aid pledged to resettling refugees is $18 million. Will have full blog post in morning as more details become available.
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3 comments:
I find myself wondering how many of those refugee spots will be going to translators and others who would be killed as collaborators.
We still have a big Vietnamese community down here in Houston.
Yea given how selective these spots will be, I'm sure most will go to those that have direct contact with American forces who can speak on behalf of the applicant. Also Kennedy who I'm sure was involved in this new program has recently been holding hearings that emphasize the plight of Iraqis that collaborate with coalition forces. So yea, basically if you want to come to the US you are going to have to put your life in even more danger by working with the troops.
hmm just found this: "The figure does not include Iraqis deemed to be at risk for having worked with the US government inside Iraqi and who may be given US residency under a separate programme, McCormack said.
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