[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 25]
[House]
[Page 33653]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          IRAQI REFUGEE CRISIS

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, the largest humanitarian crisis in the 
world continues to unfold in Iraq. Over 4 million displaced people, 
more than the crisis in Darfur, two million or more, have fled their 
country; and the rest are displaced within. They have fled to Syria, to 
Jordan, throughout the Middle East and beyond. It is brutal, not just 
for the refugees themselves, and the displaced people, but it places a 
great strain on the host country.
  Late last summer, Ambassador Ryan Crocker pointed out the problems 
that this refugee crisis is posing for the United States itself when he 
expressed deep concerns that if we don't do a better job of helping to 
protect the people whose lives are at risk because they have worked for 
the United States, if we turn our back on them when they flee the 
country, than people will be less willing to work with us, and we won't 
be able to rely on those who make such a difference in terms of 
services of interpreters and guides and others providing essential 
services for United States activities in Iraq.
  I have been deeply concerned about this problem over the course of 
the last year, finding out how far we have fallen short of the mark 
when I was working with a group of high school students in Oregon and 
returning U.S. Oregon National Guard troops. They were fighting to 
bring to the United States their interpreter, a young woman who had 
been marked for death in Iraq because of her cooperation with the 
United States. It was frustrating over the course of the months that we 
worked with them because I really had no good explanation for these 
young people, the Guard and the high school students, about why it 
should be so hard for the United States to help people who helped us.
  It is not just people who had helped the United States who have fled 
the country, it is not just those that are concerned about Sunni and 
Shia violence; the Mandean, an ancient people, a small Christian sect, 
are caught in the crossfire of this civil war in Iraq, and they are at 
risk of being wiped out in their entirety for all time.
  Having been inspired by these young Oregonians, having been inspired, 
by other dedicated advocates, for example, Kirk Johnson, a former AID 
staff member, who chronicled the plight of over 600 people at risk, of 
whom less than 10 had been resettled, we introduced legislation to deal 
with the mismatch between the scope of the problem and the limited 
resources the United States Government has put into addressing it.
  Indeed, after we ``won the war in Iraq,'' the situation became worse 
on the ground, and we witnessed the explosion of this crisis. For 2005 
and 2006, the numbers of people we helped were miniscule. Out of the 4 
million people who have left their homes, we allowed 198 Iraqis in the 
United States in 2005, and 202 last year, almost entirely people who 
were being reunited with their families, who had been made refugees in 
1991.
  There were glimmers of hope this year, with the administration 
promising, to allow 25,000 people into the United States, which was the 
same number of refugees that the Prime Minister of Sweden told me that 
Sweden was willing to accept. Later, the U.S. number fell to 7,000, and 
then ultimately we only let 1,800 Iraqis in throughout the entire last 
fiscal year. Even that was after a last-minute rush, because the first 
6 months we had only allowed 69 Iraqi refugees.
  There is good news, however, because due to an amendment by Senator 
Kennedy that was adopted in the Senate for the Defense authorization 
bill, largely taken from provisions in our House legislation, we are 
actually going to be able to make some real progress. We will be able 
to process some of these refugees in their own country. Until now, 
people had been forced to leave Iraq. Even though we have the largest 
embassy in the history of the planet, they had to leave Iraq before 
they could apply for refugee status. We have an opportunity to increase 
to 5,000 a year those people who are at risk because they have helped 
us. These are important steps, and I hope they are approved.
  But much more needs to be done. First, we have to actually do what is 
authorized. Second, we need to put some real money into it, not just 
the $250 million for refugee assistance that is currently pending. That 
is rounding error, given the billions that we have spent in Iraq that 
we can't even account for.
  It is important for us to scale our commitment to make sure that we 
meet the humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of our war in Iraq.

                          ____________________