PEACE & SECURITY | Creating a more stable world
16 April 2008
Support for Displaced Iraqis Urged by U.S. Official
Needs growing among refugee families, says State’s Foley
Washington -- Iraqi families displaced by conflict need more help, says a top U.S. diplomat who recently returned from a tour of the Middle East and Europe to urge nations to join the United States in lending continued support.
“This is a shared responsibility and the stakes are high,” says Ambassador James Foley, the State Department's senior coordinator for Iraqi refugee issues. “We all have to contribute and contribute more.”
In recent weeks, Foley has been urging countries to help bridge a $400 million funding shortfall for nongovernmental aid agencies working to support 2 million Iraqi refugees residing mainly in Syria and Jordan.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that refugee needs will continue to grow in 2008 as more Iraqi families exhaust savings brought from Iraq and are unable to find new jobs. UNHCR projects a doubling of its food aid deliveries from 150,000 to 300,000 rations in Syria and as many as 50,000 more in Jordan.
Iraqi refugees are living in cities instead of camps, making them less visible, but no less at risk, Foley said. “The trend line is clear for increased needs, even impoverishment, indeed, in some of these places,” says Foley.
Since 2003, the United States has been the single largest contributor of humanitarian assistance for displaced Iraqis, providing more than $500 million in direct aid for refugees and the internally displaced as well as through the United Nations and nongovernmental aid organizations.
The United States already has contributed $208 million toward Iraqi refugee aid in 2008, up from $171 million in 2007 and $43 million in 2006, according to an April 11 fact sheet. The U.S. Agency for International Development and its Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance also are engaged in programs to support displaced Iraqis remaining in the country, Foley added.
“We still firmly believe that the solution for the overwhelming majority of the refugees is to be able to go home to Iraq,” Foley told reporters April 9. “But until that day comes, their needs have to be met. And those needs are increasing, and if they're not met, the consequences will be felt more broadly in the region.”
UNHCR is starting to work with the Iraq government to formulate a refugee return policy, Foley said, and as the country continues to stabilize, the United States will encourage the Iraqi government to build on its April 2007 contribution of $25 million to neighboring governments hosting its refugees.
Support for Iraqi refugees is expected to be high on the agenda when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice travels to Kuwait for the Expanded Neighbors of Iraq Ministerial Conference on April 22.
UNITED STATES ON TRACK TO ADMIT 12,000 DISPLACED IRAQIS
Foley also reported that the United States is stepping up its efforts to process applications for Iraqis wishing to resettle in the United States and remains on track to meet its goal of admitting 12,000 refugees this year. (See “United States to Welcome 12,000 More Iraqi Refugees in 2008.”)
A total of 2,267 Iraqis have arrived in the United States so far in 2008, and 5,000 applications already have been approved this year, Foley said. Representatives from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services will be in the region interviewing 8,000 additional candidates between April and June.
In 2007, UNHCR began referring refugees seeking resettlement to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, which established processing offices in Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Turkey and is preparing to expand in Lebanon. In all, more than 5,800 Iraqis have resettled in the United States to date.
A transcript of Foley's remarks is available on the State Department Web site. A supporting fact sheet is available from America.gov.
