New Numbers Released: U.S. Resettlement Lags

Last week, the UNHCR announced that it had met and exceeded its 2007 goal of referring 20,000 Iraqi refugees to resettlement countries – the UN refugee agency had processed 20,472 Iraqi refugees as of December 12. Once the UNHCR makes the referrals, though, the resettlement countries must step up and actually accept these refugees into their own resettlement programs. The U.S. promised to resettle 7,000 Iraqis in FY 2007, but managed to bring only 1,608 during the year. The U.S. State Department and the Department of Homeland Security say that they’ve upped their staffing in two major countries of first asylum – Syria and Jordan – yet we’ve actually resettled less than 20 percent of the Iraqi refugees that the UNHCR referred to us in 2007. The processing is lagging dramatically behind the need.

It’s time for the U.S. to match the UNHCR in living up to its promises.

For FY 2008, the U.S. has announced a resettlement goal of 12,000 for Iraqi refugees. That would require a rate of 1,000 per month. In October, the first month of the fiscal year, the U.S resettled 450 Iraqis. In November, the U.S. resettled 362. State and DHS had to deal with legitimate delays – DHS could not get visas to Syria for several months, for example – and State recently said that it expects the resettlement numbers will now “increase significantly.” We’ll look forward to seeing that expectation become reality. The U.S. has a moral obligation to accept our fair share of the responsibility for resettling Iraqis who would face danger or death if they’re forced return home to their country.