Iraqi Refugee Blueprint for the Obama Administration

The new year has finally arrived, and it is a year of many changes. Today, the new U.S. embassy in Baghdad officially opened. On January 1, control of the Green Zone passed to the Iraqis in accordance with the new status of forces agreement. And, of course, in just two weeks we’ll see a changing of the guard in the leadership of the U.S. government when Barack Obama is sworn in as President of the United States.

President-elect Obama made repeated commitments to address the Iraqi humanitarian crisis during the campaign. His plan for Iraq notably includes a $2 billion pledge to assist displaced Iraqis. We have learned that the $2 billion pledge remains a target, despite the inevitable constraints created by the global financial crisis. At the end of December, Human Rights First released a comprehensive blueprint of recommendations for the Obama administration – How to Confront the Iraqi Refugee Crisis. You can read it here.

The blueprint was informed by a recent month-long mission in Syria and Jordan conducted by me and my colleague, Amelia Templeton, as well as by the advocacy we’ve undertaken over the past year and a half on the crisis. In it, we call on the incoming administration to strengthen oversight and effectiveness of refugee assistance, to ensure that the Iraqi government refrains from pressuring refugees to return home before they can do so in safety, and to place a coordinator for Iraqi refuges in the White House. The blueprint contains detailed recommendations to these ends.

We’d love to hear your comments, and please do join us in calling on President-elect Obama, Vice President-elect Biden, future Secretary of State Clinton, future Secretary of DHS Napolitano, and the rest of the administration to fulfill the United States’ moral obligations – and to respond to our strategic imperatives – in the Middle East by undertaking a thoughtful and comprehensive strategy to deal with the refugee crisis.

Obama and Clinton Acknowledge Refugee Crisis

In last night's Democratic debate, the war in Iraq received some considerable attention. Sen. Obama pointed out that he and Sen. Clinton both believe that addressing the humanitarian crisis in the region is a critical component of any future strategy in Iraq. His exact words:

Both of us have said we would make sure that our embassies and our civilians are protected. Both of us have said that we've got to care for Iraqi civilians, including the 4 million who have been displaced already. We already have a humanitarian crisis and we have not taken those responsibilities seriously.

We're glad to hear the presidential candidates begin to lead a national conversation that acknowledges a refugee crisis whose scale is almost beyond comprehension - and a U.S. obligation to take responsibility for that crisis.

Iraqi Refugees Mentioned in NH Debate

In Saturday night's debate in New Hampshire, Sen. Clinton acknowledged the crucially important issue that’s largely remained unaddressed in discussions over the war in Iraq – what to do about the thousands of Iraqis who are in danger because they've helped U.S. efforts in their country:

We have to figure out what we're going to do with the 100,000-plus American
civilians who are there working at the embassy, working for non-for-profits or
American businesses. We have to figure out what we're going to do about all the
Iraqis who sided with us, you know, like the translators who helped the Marines
in Fallujah, whom I met, who said they wouldn't have survived without them. Are
we going to leave them?

You know, this is a complicated enterprise, so it has to be done right.

As the candidates consider their proposals for dealing with Iraq, they should not forget the millions of vulnerable Iraqi refugees - including Iraqis who've put their lives on the line to support the United States.

(Note that Sen. Clinton’s 100,000 estimate of the number of American civilians working in Iraq is probably high. According to an LA Times examination of reports obtained from the government under the Freedom of Information Act, there are a few thousand American civilians in Iraq working directly for the U.S. government, and an additional 21,000-plus American civilians working under U.S. contracts in Iraq. The article states that 118,000 Iraqis are working under U.S. contracts in Iraq. Those numbers were calculated in February 2007, but it’s still clear today that the Iraqis working for American interests in Iraq vastly outnumber actual American civilians working in Iraq.)