The Invisible Refugee Crisis


An Iraqi woman sits with bags of food distributed by the Red Crescent Society in October 2005. The food aid, which was distributed to residents in the southern Iraqi city had been paid for by the United Arab Emirates.

The endless media coverage of the Iraq war has left one of the war’s most heartbreaking aspects largely unreported in our country – an inexcusable lapse in journalistic professionalism.

The terrible refugee crisis that this war has created remains tragically out of sight and out of mind for most Americans, and thus out of the public debate.

And it remains a subject the White House wants to stay away from, because it stands out as a glaring and tragic example of how disastrous the Bush doctrine has been for peace-loving Iraqis.

The numbers are overwhelming, and changing daily: Over 2.3 million refugees have fled Iraq over the past few years, flooding the entire region, especially Jordan and Syria. Syria alone has absorbed 1.5 million. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that over two million more have abandoned their homes and neighborhoods within Iraq and are now on the move seeking shelter, fresh water and food, and, above all, security.

Jordan, with 750,000 refugees, has closed its borders, and its fragile economy is reeling from the burden. Syria may soon follow their lead.

The Iraqi Red Crescent Organization estimates that between 50,000 and 100,000 abandon their homes every month because of sectarian violence – up 20 percent since the start of the “surge.” The number of displaced people has doubled since the beginning of this year.

The director of the Iraqi Red Crescent Organization, Dr. Said Hakki, puts it this way: “It’s tragic, absolutely tragic!” Their recent report says “… they have a mammoth task to alleviate the sufferings of the vast number of Iraqis.”

They report that in Baghdad alone, about one million people have been driven from their homes by warfare and sectarian death squads. The number of deaths attributable to the forces of theocratic division violence is about twice the rate from this time last year.

The average war-related death toll throughout the country has doubled as well from a year ago, to about 62 a day this summer.

A 26-year-old Sunni woman, whose family was recently driven from their Baghdad home, said this, “It is a city of ghosts. All that remain are the terrorists.”

Many of the professionals who were desperately needed to patch the country together have fled forever – such is their sense of fear, futility and ultimately, resignation. This “brain drain” will be catastrophic for any future Iraq, whatever form it eventually takes.

The refugee hoards that have spilled over the borders into neighboring countries are putting a great strain on the resources of those countries, and the tipping point is fast approaching.

Many of these refugees are women and children, their men having been killed back home or having simply vanished into the oblivion of war and the forces of theocratic division. Most of the refugee families fled in panic and left everything they owned behind. Some have attempted to return home, only to discover that their homes and possessions have been sold, stolen, or destroyed.

The strain of dealing with the flood of refugees is so great for surrounding countries that many of the refugees will eventually be forced to return to Iraq, which will only compound the humanitarian crisis that already exists within the country.

Beyond the Middle East, Europe has accept the great bulk of refugees The United States may eventually allow 1,600 in this year, while Sweden is expected to take in 20,000. This represents an abdication of moral leadership that dishonors all Americans.

The August National Intelligence Estimate concludes that the civil breakdown that is propelling the refugee crisis could eventually result in the chaotic de facto partitioning of Iraq.

Many are saying that this is the worst Middle East refugee crisis since the establishment of Israel in 1948. And it is only getting worse!

A Moral Obligation of Our Own

There is another aspect of the refugee crisis that needs serious public attention in our country.

Since our occupation began, we have relied on many thousands of Iraqi citizens who have risked their lives to collaborate with us in a multitude of invaluable ways. They have served as our eyes and ears in a foreign land full of violent hostility to our presence.

Many of these brave Iraqis now find themselves trapped in a bureaucratic nightmare because of our Byzantine immigration laws. They and their families face certain death from the militias and death squads if they cannot gain emergency refugee status and escape to the United States – the country they sacrificed everything to help.

It has always been just a matter of time before our enemies – and the enemies of a peaceful Iraq – discovered who these people were and where their families lived.

We pledged to take in only a few hundred of these political refugees, but their visa status has been trapped in “major bottlenecks,” as a leaked memo from an exasperated and embarrassed Ambassador Ryan Crocker recently stated.

Two bills in Congress that would address this growing crisis have been stalled for many months: The Responsibility to Iraqi Refugees Act – HR 2265 and the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act – Senate bill 1651. These bills, if enacted into law, would essentially put these brave men and women, and their families, on a fast track to admission into our country.

In late September, the Bush administration appointed two senior officials to deal with this immigration logjam, and they promised to accelerate the process, to allow about 12,000 refugees into our country within the next years.

But time is running short, talk is cheap, and another layer of bureaucracy, well intended or not, will not solve the problem.

Kirk Johnson, of the United States Agency for International Development in Iraq, put it simply: “The numbers are totally embarrassing. We can’t recognize a moral imperative anymore.”

The Bush administration got us into this war, and they enlisted the help of thousands of Iraqi citizens to help us in the deadly business of war and occupation.

These Iraqis are now pleading for our help by the thousands. They are pounding at our gates while their deadly enemies close in on them.

The Bush administration should do what needs to be done to throw open those gates, to rescue our friends and coworkers from certain death. And Congress should do the same.


A British soldier tries to maintain order as a crowd of Iraqi men swarms a truck delivering food to the border town of Safwan. The delivery was organized by the Red Crescent Society.

If we do nothing – if we abandon these people to their terrible fate – our shame will become a dark chapter in our history, and the Bush presidency will rightly be held accountable!

November 19, 2007 | Filed Under Uncategorized 

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