12-16-2011
By Ruthie EpsteinResearcher & Advocate, Refugee Protection Program
On Wednesday, President Obama delivered a major speech to the soldiers at Fort Bragg on the end of the war in Iraq. He congratulated them on their honorable service and committed to supporting the soldiers and their families as they transition back to life in the United States. However, the President barely mentioned the Iraq that the United States leaves behind – including the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis forced to flee their country, and the 2 million-plus internally displaced inside Iraq. Such speeches from both ends of the political spectrum are likely to flourish in the next two weeks, as the official date for final troop withdrawal gets closer and closer.
Bloomberg News took up the issue in an editorial on U.S.-affiliated Iraqis on Thursday. And our colleague Kirk Johnson, founder of The List Project for Iraqi Refugees, penned an eloquent appeal on their behalf for the NY Times op-ed page today. Last week, Human Rights First argued that the United States’ moral and strategic interest in providing assistance to the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees displaced by the war does not end with troop withdrawal, and offered recommendations to the U.S. government to re-affirm its commitment to refugee protection.
As the nation considers the nine long years our military spent in Iraq, and welcomes the troops home at last, we cannot forget the country we’ve left behind, nor its people. The conversation over the coming weeks must include an acknowledgement of the millions of Iraqis displaced by the war. Thousands lack permanent and safe housing in Iraq; thousands more languish without formal legal status in their countries of first asylum, awaiting protracted and uncertain resettlement processes. Tens of thousands of children cannot access regular education and their parents cannot work legally. Single or widowed women, LGBTI individuals, religious minorities, journalists, and academics still face threats or violence in their country, as do Iraqis who worked in some capacity with the United States or a U.S.-based organization. 39,000 Iraqis await resettlement processing by the United States inside Iraq, and 18,000 more are in the U.S. resettlement pipeline in Syria.
The troops are back, but the U.S. obligation to the war’s refugees is definitely not over.
This article greatly illustrates the ways the United States should say connected with Iraq and I believe America cannot give up on those Iraqi immigrants. Iraq hosts thousands of IDP’s and refugees that cannot return to their homes. The United States’ presence in Iraq provided some optimism to these people who constantly live in fear and despair. The people in Iraq thought they would be better protected with the United States in Iraq, but now Iraq is finally free to solve their own problems. This does not look good for the refugees and IDP’s because Iraq lacks jobs, has a lot of violence, and does not have the United States in it, so they could face dangerous times. Many IDP’s will never see their houses again, and many refugees have no safe place to go. Even though America’s military is not present in Iraq anymore that does not mean that we cannot positively impact Iraq’s problems. Another reoccurring problem is that the UN cannot reach the people that are in need in Iraq because of Iraq’s lack of security. Hopefully Iraq’s security will improve since the United States is not interfering anymore and now Iraq can work to change their complicated difficulties. Basically, the United States should continue address these tough refugee problems in Iraq, and work with the UNHCR to help develop safe camps for these refugees. These camps will allow refugees to live safely and will allow the members to return to their countries when stability is reached.
Mr.John Eckman , it seem when you wrote your reply you weren’t thinking how lives in camps can be hard uneasy , it seems camps is the solution for Iraqis who’s worked with or onbehalf USG, thats not accepted for one reason…Iraqi ppl is human like you and can’t accept less than free life, so the least thing USG can do, is to accept them in US lands as there own civilian . UNHCR is doing almost nothing and its just waist of money and time , UNHCR need lots of cleaning and forcing house rules as there employee in general are less careful for iraqi refuge and i do have proves for this point.