[wvns] DETROIT EXPECTS HALF OF IRAQI REFUGEES
Canada must accept more Iraqi refugees
By ALEX NEVE, FLORA MACDONALD, RON ATKEY
Tuesday, October 2, 2007 – Page A21
http://www.rbcinvest.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/LAC/20071002/COREFUGEE02/Comment/comment/comment/1/1/2/
The number of Iraqis forced to flee their homes because of war and
human-rights abuses has become a staggering international catastrophe.
Yet, the bulk of the world community continues to look away, leaving
overstretched front-line states such as Syria and Jordan to cope with
the consequences.
The United States and Britain, directly involved in the fighting that
has led to this displacement crisis, have turned their backs. Canada,
to date, has done little to assist. This cannot continue. It is time
for Canada to spearhead an international initiative to respond to this
crisis, before the human cost becomes even greater.
It was all, sadly, predictable. War inevitably means people flee their
homes: When mortar fire, militia raids and suicide attacks claim
thousands of civilian lives, the fear that is unleashed leaves people
with no other option. Some may remain within the country in hope a
different region will offer greater safety. Others will make it across
the border and look to other states for help.
That is exactly what has happened as the devastating violence in Iraq
has deepened over the past 4½ years. Adding to the many Iraqis who had
already fled to nearby countries to escape the sadistic persecution of
Saddam Hussein, millions more have been displaced by recent attacks
and abuses. There are now more than two million Iraqis displaced
within the country; another two million have sought refuge in
neighbouring countries. One million refugees flooded into Syria during
2006 alone. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
estimates that another 2,000 Iraqis are becoming displaced every day.
This, of course, is not just about numbers. For those still in Iraq,
security is a paramount concern. For those who have joined the tide
into neighbouring countries, there are grave problems in getting
enough food, finding shelter and accessing health care. And as the
situation continues to spiral out of control, the prospects of a
long-term refugee crisis in the region promises only further
insecurity and destabilization.
Given that this crisis was so clearly foreseeable, it is all the more
shameful that the world has been so unprepared and its response so
dismal. Funding appeals from UN agencies have not been fully met, and
much of the money pledged has not been forthcoming. The direct
financial assistance that governments such as Syria and Jordan have
received has been particularly paltry.
Beyond money, there is a stark need to resettle many of the refugees
in third countries. Earlier this year, Canada said it would be willing
to receive 500 additional case referrals (to the current 900) to be
evaluated for possible resettlement. That is not a generous number; of
even greater concern is the fact that Canadian officials in Damascus
turned down 70 per cent of the cases of Iraqis referred by private
sponsors for resettlement in 2006.
Canada can do better. Canada has done better. Hungary, Czechoslovakia
and Uganda are shining examples. And, of course, there was Vietnam.
Thirty years ago, the world was faced with a similar mass exodus of
people fleeing insecurity and human-rights abuses associated with a
war gone terribly wrong. U.S. troops had withdrawn from Vietnam and
the war had officially come to an end, but hundreds of thousands of
desperate people took to the high seas in overcrowded boats in hopes
of finding safety abroad. In 1979, Ottawa boosted Canada's
resettlement levels for Vietnamese refugees to an impressive 3,000 a
month. By the end of 1980, 50,000 Vietnamese refugees had been
resettled in Canada. As a nation, we rose to the occasion.
Canada can take concrete steps to help alleviate this current crisis.
An immediate start would be to significantly increase the number of
Iraqi refugees to be resettled in Canada and to speed up the times for
processing their cases. At the same time, Canada must substantially
augment the levels of financial support offered to UN agencies, aid
groups and governments coping with the challenges of protecting
displaced Iraqis.
Finally, Canada should press other governments to follow our lead.
Millions of Iraqis have fled because of the insecurity that has come
with a war ironically fought in the name of security. It is time to
restore a sense of security in their lives.
Alex Neve is secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada, Flora
MacDonald was secretary of state for external affairs from 1979 to
1980, and Ron Atkey was the federal minister of employment and
immigration from 1979 to 1980 and chair of the Security Intelligence
Review Committee from 1984 to 1989.
===
SAVE THE CHILDREN – UNLESS THEY ARE IRAQIS
Gordon Brown had a lot to say about children in his speech this week
to the Labour Party Conference, quoting from the Bible, "Suffer the
little children to come unto me", and ending with this plea, "Surely
in this 21st century human compassion can lift the pain from the face
of a suffering child."
Unless, of course, they are children in Iraq, which got just a single
mention in Brown's speech. Little wonder, because what has the Iraq
war – which Brown has supported without reservation from its outset to
the present day – brought to the children of Iraq?
* Iraq's Ministry of Health estimates that half of the country's
children suffer from some form of malnutrition. According to a recent
study by UNICEF, 10 percent of Iraqi children under five are acutely
malnourished, while another 20 percent are chronically malnourished.
As many as 260,000 children have died as a result of the occupation,
according to one estimate reported by The Independent.
* Less than a third of Iraq's children now attend school, compared to
100 percent attendance before the March 2003 invasion. For those that
do go to school, a recent survey of Baghdad primary schools showed
that 70 percent of them suffer symptoms of trauma-related stress, due
directly to the destruction, mass slaughter and chaos caused by war
and occupation.
* The war has orphaned countless numbers of Iraqi children and, as the
United Nations reports, "Thousands of homeless children throughout
Iraq...survive by begging, stealing or scavenging garbage for food.
Only four years ago, the vast majority of these children were living
at home with their families."
* The virtual collapse of the Iraqi health service – once the highest
quality health provision in the Middle East – has been particularly
tragic for Iraqi children. Earlier this year, 100 prominent British
physicians wrote an open letter to Tony Blair expressing their extreme
concern over the impact of the occupation on Iraqi children: "We are
concerned that children are dying in Iraq for want of medical
treatment. Sick or injured children, who could otherwise be treated by
simple means, are left to die in their hundreds because they do not
have access to basic medications or other resources. Children who have
lost hands, feet and limbs are left without prostheses. Children with
grave psychological distress are left untreated."
If Gordon Brown is sincere in his concern for children, he has a real
opportunity on Monday 8 October in his speech to Parliament on Iraq to
make a difference. Instead of continuing to support an American
foreign policy which has brought nothing but disaster to the children
of Iraq, he can announce in that speech that all British troops will
be withdrawn from Iraq immediately. He can also announce that in the
interests of the children of Afghanistan, all British troops will be
withdrawn from the other unwinnable war where Britain is doing George
Bush's bidding. And Brown can state categorically, in the interests of
the children of Iran, that Britain will not support any attack by the
USA on that country, as is now looking increasingly likely.
The vast majority of people in Britain are opposed to this country's
support for George Bush's warmongering, whether it be in Iraq,
Afghanistan or Iran. The Stop the War Coalition aims to maximise the
pressure for a change in government policy that reflects this majority
view.
===
DETROIT EXPECTS HALF OF IRAQI REFUGEES
Jeff Karoub
Journal-Gazette and Times-Courier
http://www.jg-tc.com/articles/2007/06/01/ap/us/d8pfsqhg2.txt
Immigration aid workers here expect that as many as half of the nearly
7,000 Iraqi refugees who will be brought into the United States by the
end of September will settle in the area.
Lutheran Social Services of Michigan has received government data on
numerous refugees recommended for resettlement, said Belmin Pinjic,
the service's director of refugee services.
"That's the first sign that someone is in the process and should be
coming," he said. "How long that process should take, we don't know."
The agency has already started to contact the prospective refugees'
family members who live in the Detroit area, Pinjic said.
The Department of Homeland Security said this week it has approved the
refugee applications of 59 Iraqis who should be arriving in the coming
weeks. The department provided no details about where they would
settle but said it has already completed interviews in refugee cases
involving more than 700 men, women and children.
The Bush administration announced in February it would allow up to
7,000 Iraqis into the U.S. by the end of September – up from 202 in
2006. It would be the largest Iraqi influx since the 2003 invasion.
Besides contacting relatives of refugees, immigration groups in the
Detroit area have been locating translators, transportation and
housing, and fielding donations of furniture, clothing and appliances,
Pinjic said.
Southeastern Michigan has about 300,000 people who trace their roots
to the Middle East. They are heavily concentrated in the Detroit
suburb of Dearborn, widely considered the capital of Arab America
because of its national Arab-American museum, many mosques and scores
of Arabic-signed businesses.
Pinjic and others expect that as many as half of the new refugees will
come to the area – either initially or after first resettling elsewhere.
Iraqi community leaders in Los Angeles and Orange County, Calif.,
which also have large Iraqi populations, said they hadn't yet heard of
any refugees being settled in the area. They also complained about the
small number of refugees being allowed to enter the U.S. compared with
the 2 million who have fled Iraq.
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