30 March 2007
United States Prepared To Accept Additional Iraqi Refugees
State Department official says there is no cap on Iraqi resettlement
Washington – The United States is prepared to increase significantly the number of Iraqi refugees it admits as the civil unrest in Iraq drives a greater number of people from their homes.
Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Ellen Sauerbrey told reporters at a Washington briefing March 23 that previous reports about the United States accepting an additional 7,000 Iraqi refugees in the coming months are inaccurate. She said this figure simply reflects the number of U.S. referrals the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) feels it realistically can expect to make in the coming months.
“UNHCR, which has the international mandate, if you will, to do the protection and make referrals for resettlement has indicated … that they had the capacity to be able to register, identify the vulnerabilities and make referrals of about 20,000, and that they anticipated that they would refer 7,000 to the U.S. resettlement program,” she said.
Sauerbrey emphasized that there is no cap on the number of Iraqi refugees the United States is willing to resettle. The only limit is set by the presidential determination that identifies the total number of refugees the United States will accept from around the world in any given year. In 2007, that number stands at 70,000.
The assistant secretary said the United States will be accepting referrals from places other than the UNHCR as well. These include referrals from U.S. embassies and nongovernmental organizations working in the region. However, the United States will not accept resettlement requests at the U.S Embassy in Baghdad for security reasons. Sauerbrey explained that the resettlement program is designed for vulnerable individuals and said that if people are truly in danger in Iraq, they would be ill-advised to remain in the country while their applications are processed.
“[T]he advice that the embassy is giving to people … who feel that they are jeopardized is to get to a UNHCR office outside of the country and get the protection letter quickly and then make their application to be considered,” she said.
Sauerbrey said there are 10 categories of vulnerability the United States will consider in making its determination of whether an applicant is in need of resettlement. Some of the key categories are single women with children and no financial resources, unaccompanied children with no family, elderly people, individuals with extensive medical needs, certain ethnic and religious minorities, and people who are endangered because of their association with the United States and the multinational forces.
She emphasized that although the United States feels a strong moral commitment to those Iraqis who have worked with the U.S. government, the program is not limited to those individuals. “[W]e want a broad range of vulnerabilities to be considered,” she said.
Sauerbrey said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is working to devise a program that would expedite the issuance of family reunification visas for Iraqis who already have family living in the United States. This would be an effort separate from the refugee resettlement program and would increase the total number of Iraqis the United States could admit.
She said that there are currently 1,500 to 2,000 Iraqi refugees being processed for admission to the United States.
The assistant secretary emphasized that resettlement is not a practical solution for the vast majority of Iraqi refugees now living in countries of first asylum, such as Jordan and Syria. She praised those countries for their generosity in assisting the displaced Iraqis and said the international community must step forward to help them deal with the strain on their political, social and security systems. An April 17-18 donors’ conference in Geneva will address this issue.
A transcript of Sauerbrey's remarks is available on the Foreign Press Center Web site.
For more information on U.S. policies, see Humanitarian Assistance and Refugees and Iraq Update.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
