Testimony
of
Anastasia
K. Brown
Director,
Refugee Programs
Migration
and Refugee Services/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
Before
House Foreign
Affairs Subcommittees on International Organizations, Human Rights, and
Oversight and House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia
On
No
Direction Home: An NGO Perspective on
Iraqi Refugees and IDPs
May 1,
2008
I am Anastasia Brown, director of refugee
programs for Migration and Refugee Services (MRS) of the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops (MRS/USCCB). MRS/USCCB
is the largest refugee resettlement agency in the United States. Working with over 100 dioceses across the
nation, we provide resettlement assistance to approximately 15,000 to 20,000
refugees each year, helping them with job placement, housing, and other forms
of assistance to ensure their early self-sufficiency.
I would like to thank Chairmen
Ackerman and Delahunt, as well as Ranking Members Pence and Rohrabacher, for
the invitation to speak with you today on the Iraqi refugee population. The U.S. Catholic Bishops hold a special
concern for the Iraqi refugee population.
A delegation of Catholic bishops visited the Middle East in July, 2007,
to assess their plight in Turkey,
Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. In addition, a member of the Bishops’ staff
visited Jordan and Syria earlier this year on a project with the International
Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) to identify service gaps for vulnerable
Iraqi refugees, including unaccompanied refugee minors, vulnerable women who
are heads-of-households, and refugees with specific medical or psychological
needs, just to name a few.
Mr. Chairman, I ask that the
reports of the U.S.
Bishops’ mission in July, 2007, and the reports of the International Catholic
Migration Commission (ICMC) and the USCCB be included in the hearing record.
Mr. Chairman, it is the view of the
U.S.
Bishops that much more needs to be done to meet the human needs of the estimated
2 million Iraqi refugees and 2.5 million internally displaced. Others on the panel will address the plight
of the internally displaced. My
testimony today will focus upon Iraqi refugees, the majority of whom are
located in Jordan and Syria. In my testimony, I would like to outline four
areas that need to be addressed in the immediate future in order to avoid
further deterioration of the refugee situation and to alleviate further human
suffering:
·
The Administration and Congress must increase
efforts to deliver basic humanitarian assistance to Iraqi refugees. Not only will this require the provision of
more funds, but it also will require more diplomatic initiatives to ensure that
the global community also contributes much needed assistance;
·
The Administration must step up efforts to make
available resettlement opportunities for vulnerable Iraqi refugees, both in the
United States
and in other countries;
·
Special attention must be paid to extremely
vulnerable populations, including unaccompanied refugee minors, women heads-of-households,
and other groups;
·
Specific needs, such as health services
(including mental health), education, and basic food and shelter, must be
addressed. Protection within host
countries is also deteriorating, as refugee families without formal legal
status remain at risk.
I.
Overview of
the Iraqi Refugee Crisis
We are grateful, Mr. Chairman, for
the work that your two subcommittees have done to highlight the humanitarian
crisis in Iraq. I am sure that you would agree that, despite
your efforts, one of the most under reported stories of the Iraq war has
been the humanitarian crisis it has spawned.
While Washington has debated the
“surge” and other aspects of U.S.
military involvement in Iraq,
the stories of close to 5 million displaced Iraqis have gone largely untold.
It is estimated that more than 2
million Iraqi refugees
are located in surrounding countries, mostly in Syria
and Jordan. As many as 2.5 million are displaced from
their homes but remain within Iraq. In my interviews with refugees I was struck
by the high number of Iraqis who have experienced direct persecution or threats
to themselves or a close family member.
According to the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 77 percent of the Iraqi refugees
surveyed in Syria
have endured aerial bombardments, 80 percent have witnessed a shooting, 68
percent have been harassed by militias, and 75 percent knew someone close to
them who had been killed. Disturbingly,
23 percent have been kidnapped, 22 percent have been beaten by insurgents, and
16 percent have been tortured.
Individual accounts of persecution
have been harrowing. Former employees
of the U.S. military in Iraq,
working as interpreters, drivers, or cooks, have fled because of fear of
imminent death or because of the murder of a family member. Religious and ethnic minorities have endured
similar persecution.
None of the families I spoke with
in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey
or Syria indicated that they
thought they would ever be able to return to Iraq. Even if they do wish to return, prospects do
not look bright, as it is unsafe to return to Iraq anytime in the near
future. Integration into Syria, Jordan, or other host countries
also is problematic. These countries are
overburdened with the number of refugees in their cities. A
third option, resettlement to a third country such as the United States,
has not been offered in sufficient numbers to protect the most vulnerable.
The United States and the global
community have been slow to grasp the magnitude of the displacement issue or to
respond to it adequately. Politically,
the United States has
claimed that other countries need to do more to alleviate the suffering; other
nations have claimed that the United States
and Iraq
have not shown enough leadership. The
facts demonstrate that neither the United States nor the rest of the
world have done enough to address the problem, with the situation deteriorating
each day.
According to the Department of
State, since 2003 the United
States has contributed $500 million for
humanitarian assistance for both Iraqi refugees and displaced. This represents a miniscule fraction of the more
than $500 billion spent on the Iraqi war. In the Fiscal Year 2008 supplemental spending
bill, for example, the Bush Administration has requested only $30 million for
Migration and Refugee Assistance supplemental request.
The rest of the world also can do
more. According to the U.N. Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Iraq ranks as the second-lowest
funded crisis per-affected person. Of
the $261 million requested by the United Nations for Iraqi refugees for 2008, seven
countries, other than the United
States, have contributed a total of $10.2
million. Many of the Gulf Arab States
have contributed nothing to the effort, explaining that they will not commit
funds until Iraq
itself gives more help to its own people.
Host countries, such as Jordan and Syria, are showing the strain,
asserting that their governments have already spent $1 billion each on Iraqi
refugees. Initially these two countries
kept their borders open to the inflow of refugees, but have shut them
periodically and at times denied entry to Iraqis. Educational and health care systems have been
overwhelmed, partly because of the arrival of new refugees.
More troubling, Iraqi refugees and
their families remain at risk in these countries. Families that fled with money
or resources are now finding it difficult to purchase food and shelter. Men are not venturing out to find work for
fear of deportation, leaving children who otherwise should be in school to
scrounge for jobs and money. Health care
for mental health problems or cancer---high among this population---is becoming
inaccessible.
Some groups are particularly
vulnerable. With their husbands either
dead or in another country searching for work, women with children are at
risk. Orphaned children are susceptible
to human traffickers and smugglers. I will speak more specifically to these
groups later in my testimony.
The Plight of Religious Minorities
Mr. Chairman, among the most
vulnerable refugee groups are the religious minorities of Iraq, predominately Christian
groups. Before the war, between 800,000
to one million Christians—Chaldean Catholics, Assyrians, and Armenians---lived
in Iraq. A smaller religious minority, the Mandeans, who
numbered about 60,000 in 2003, are extremely vulnerable. But now, current surveys show that at least
half of the Christian population has fled their homes to other parts of Iraq or to
neighboring countries. According to UNHCR, one-quarter of those registered as
refugees from Iraq
are Christians.
The stories of Christian
persecution are chilling. Many
Christians in Iraq
have been forced to choose between conversion to Islam or death, while converts
to Christianity have been killed or tortured.
A delegation from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, visiting the Middle East in 2007, heard about one convert to
Christianity who was “crucified” on a tree by insurgents. The delegation was also told that any Iraqi
who made the sign of the cross in public would receive death threats.
The recent kidnapping and death of
Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, archbishop of Mosul, has only added to the fear of Iraqi
Christians, particularly Chaldean Catholics. Such a high profile victim sends a
signal that no Christian is safe within Iraq.
Legislation enacted into law in
January of 2008 makes religious minorities a special priority for resettlement
in the United States,
yet to date the Administration has not announced implementation of special
processing for this group. Religious
communities here have come forward with lists of families known to have fled
Iraq, but to date the only processing available to them is either through UNHCR
referral or access through lengthy and burdensome family-based procedures.
All of us hope that resettlement to
a third country is not the long-term solution for the plight of religious
minorities in Iraq. These ancient communities deserve the right
to remain in their homeland and maintain their religious identity. The Holy See continues to urge protection for
religious minorities within Iraq.
There is no doubt, however, that for
some, resettlement outside of the region may be their best option.
The Catholic Response
The Catholic Church, both
internationally and in the United
States, has responded to the needs of Iraqis
displaced within the country and regionally.
Within Iraq, Caritas Iraq is one of
a few nongovernmental agencies working with the displaced and other vulnerable
Iraqis. Several religious orders, including the Jesuits, Dominican sisters, and
Maronites are serving vulnerable groups, including women and children at risk.
In neighboring countries, including
Syria, Jordan, Lebanon,
and Turkey,
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and
the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) are assisting refugees
and processing them for resettlement in third countries. In the United States, Migration and
Refugee Services (MRS) of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is
working with local dioceses to help resettle Iraqi refugees.
The U.S. bishops have been outspoken in
their efforts to win more relief aid and resettlement numbers for Iraqis. Bishops of the USCCB Committee on Migration
have traveled to the region to assess the conditions of Iraqi refugees and have
reported their findings to Congress and the Bush Administration. MRS also recently produced a report on
unaccompanied Iraqi refugee children and other vulnerable refugee groups. Both reports can be accessed at http://www.usccb.org/mrs/tripreport.shtml.
In addition, the U.S. Catholic
Coalition for the Protection of Displaced Iraqis, consisting of several U.S.
Catholic agencies and religious orders, recently was formed to coordinate
Catholic advocacy efforts in the United States.
II.
Refugee
Admissions
Mr. Chairman, Iraqi refugees, especially vulnerable
groups, currently have no durable solution available to them. Clearly, more must be done to open
resettlement opportunities to them.
Mr. Chairman, the State Department pledged to try to
resettle 7,000 Iraqi refugees in FY 2007 and 12,000 refugees during FY
2008. We believe that these target
goals are insufficient to the need. We
had recommended that at least 25,000 refugees be resettled in 2007 with
significant increases for this fiscal year.
Unfortunately, the United
States has been slow to reach its already
modest targets.
As of March, the UNHCR had referred
approximately 24,000 cases to the United States for consideration for
resettlement. However, to date a little over 4,000 have been resettled in the United States,
despite pledges to relocate a larger number.
For the first half of the fiscal year, for example, the United States
has welcomed only 2,627 of the 12,000 promised to be resettled this budget cycle. Last fiscal year, the United States
resettled 1,608 refugees out of a target of 7,000. Clearly, our government must
do more.
The arguments heard as to why the
process has taken this long is that the US
needed to build an infrastructure where none existed, and that the government
of Syria
would not issue visas for interviewing officers. Both of these statements are true. However it
is also true that the infrastructure put in place is not adequate to the need,
that the outreach for identification of refugees for resettlement has been
insufficient, and that the goals and actual numbers realized are insufficient
to indicate any real burden sharing to the countries of first asylum.
In February of 2007 we asked the
UNHCR to do the unthinkable, they stepped up to the plate and referred over
15,000 people for resettlement within ten months. This included building an infrastructure
where none existed. In the same period
of time the US
admitted only 2,616 refugees. The
attitude appeared to be more ‘business as usual’ than that of extraordinary
operations. In fact, so few people
departed that the UNHCR began to question the wisdom of continuing referrals.
Mr. Chairman, the reality is that
the needs of Iraqi refugees require that the United States resettle many times
the 12,000 pledged for this year. Currently, at least 1,000 refugees
enter Syria
each month, so the 12,000 target merely maintains the status quo and does not
relieve pressure on the host countries. In our estimation, Mr. Chairman,
the United States
must resettle, at a minimum, 60,000 refugees each year in order to improve the
situation. This is a conservative estimate, as UNHCR called for the
resettlement of 80,000-90,000 out of Syria alone this
year.
Mr. Chairman, we are capable of
meeting this number, but it would require a larger commitment of
diplomatic and financial resources. In fact, there is precedence in U.S.
history for staging a large resettlement program for specific
populations. For example, in 1975, near the end of the Vietnam War the United States
resettled close to 135,000 Vietnamese refugees.
During the Orderly Departure Program (ODP) in 1992, at least 10,000 persons
were interviewed and processed each month. These efforts helped saved
thousands of lives. In response to the
refugee crisis in Kosovo, the United
States processed and admitted over 14,000
refugees within a six-month period.
In order to duplicate that effort,
the United States
would have to commit at least 42 USCIS officers interviewing 20 days a month,
requiring larger infrastructure and facilities for both USCIS and the Overseas
Processing Entity (OPE). In addition, UNHCR, with our help, would need to
increase their capacity in order to refer 10,000 refugees a month.
It is true, Mr. Chairman, that diplomatic
relations between the United States
and Syria are problematic,
but I suggest that the prospect of a large resettlement program within Syria is not
unfounded. Again, the United States
was able to conduct a large in-country program out of Vietnam, despite the absence of a
diplomatic relationship between the two countries. UNHCR could play
a crucial role of brokering "technical talks" between the United States and Syria to negotiate the terms of a
large resettlement program.
Mr. Chairman, it is clear that,
given the political will, the United
States could significantly increase
resettlement numbers for Iraqi refugees. For our part and that of other
nonprofit resettlement agencies, we are prepared to handle such a
caseload. Without a renewed and stronger commitment to Iraqi
resettlement, vulnerable groups, including women at risk, children, and the
elderly, will continue to languish in fear, with no hope for the
future. Mr. Chairman, I submit the following
recommendations to improve the resettlement options for Iraqis:
- The United
States must vastly increase its
commitment to resettlement of Iraqis.
The number of 12,000 refugees in one fiscal year equals roughly the
number of refugees continuing to arrive in Syria. The UNHCR recommendation for resettlement
from Syria
has approached 80,000 people per year.
To accomplish this goal, the US and the UNHCR will need to demonstrate
to the Syrian government exactly what is required in terms of
infrastructure, including the number of caseworkers and interviewing
officers required.
- The United
States must implement more aggressively
the authority granted by legislation for refugees that are members of
certain groups. A major outreach
campaign must be launched.
- The UNHCR in Jordan should make
resettlement available to any interested registered refugees, rather than
undertaking an intensive review of cases on an individual basis. With at least 500,000 Iraqi refugees in Jordan,
more must be done to relieve the pressure on the government and Jordanian
society.
- Other avenues for refugee identification must be
pursued. The U.S. government has held only
one training for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) involved in
assistance work to help them to refer refugees for resettlement. This method involves taking people who
already have full time jobs and asking them to take on another
responsibility. The United States
should directly fund several NGO resettlement outreach projects designed
to help vulnerable refugees, as the current system does not reach these refugees,
who are often not able to come to the UNHCR office for multiple
appointments.
- Refugees who have paid ransoms when their relatives
were kidnapped should receive expedited waivers for ‘material
support’. The process for obtaining
these exemptions continues to take too much time and should be streamlined.
- Attention needs to be paid to each stage of the
processing of Iraqi refugees to ensure that all steps are completed as
quickly as possible. This includes
preparation of cases for interview, fingerprints, medical examinations,
etc.
- Congress should enact into law H.R. 5837, legislation
introduced by House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship,
Refugees, Border Security, and International Law Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren
(D-CA) and Representative F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), that would make
technical corrections to two recently enacted laws that provide for the
admission into the United States of thousands of special immigrants from
Iraq. This measure would
facilitate the admission of particularly vulnerable special immigrants
from Iraq
in fiscal year 2008 than waiting until fiscal year 2009.
- Congress should appropriate $345 million in
supplemental fiscal year 2008 Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA) and
$68 million in supplemental funding for the Office of Refugee Resettlement
(ORR) in order to ensure that the assistance, admissions, and resettlement
needs of Iraqis are taken care of in this fiscal year.
- The United States
should expand “in-country” processing in Iraq to areas throughout the
country where large concentrations of displaced Iraqis are located.
III.
Vulnerable
Groups
Mr. Chairman, I would now like to
speak to vulnerable individuals and groups in the Iraqi refugee population who
need special attention. As stated
earlier, MRS/USCCB staff, in conjunction with the International Catholic
Migration Commission (ICMC), traveled to Syria
and Jordan
on separate occasions recently to assess the special needs of this refugee
population.
Generally, the Iraqi refugee
population registered with UNHCR has access to basic services, such as
non-essential food items, health clinics, and food. As families exhaust their resources and
savings, however, these basic items could become more inaccessible. Iraqi children can attend Jordanian and Syrian
schools, provided their families register with UNHCR, but there are no after
school programs or supplemental programs available. There is a great need for mental health
services, as a great number of men, women, and children have experienced mental
and physical trauma from the war. Women
and children are vulnerable to domestic and other forms of violence, as well as
forced prostitution and human trafficking.
Mr. Chairman, during our missions
MRS/USCCB paid particular attention to the situation of unaccompanied,
separated, and special needs children.
As expected, children are extremely vulnerable and are easily
manipulated and exploited in this situation.
To date, UNHCR has identified over 5,000 children and adolescents at
risk in Syria
alone, about 4.1 percent of the registered population.
Unaccompanied children make up
about 1 percent of the registered population, although the majority of children
identified are separated from their parents, not orphaned. Nevertheless, they have varied and substantial
needs, including mental health needs, shelter, and basic food and
medicine. Particularly troubling are
stories of adolescent girls being subjected to sexual and gender-based
violence, some as part of the sex trade.
Girls who are detained in juvenile facilities are subject to rape.
While UNHCR has established a Best
Interest Determination (BID) process to identify and provide solutions for
unaccompanied and separated children, the process is slow and has yet to
produce durable solutions for these children.
More resettlement slots should be made available for them, as well as a
wide range of mental health, social, and basic needs services.
Iraqi refugee women find themselves
alone or as a single parent with several children, as their husbands have been
killed or are in another country searching for work. In Syria, UNHCR has identified single
parents and women-at-risk as persons of concern. Single women, either adolescent or young
adult, are vulnerable to prostitution rings and human trafficking, while women
head-of-households face challenges of meeting the needs of their children.
Mr. Chairman, I offer the following
recommendations to meet the needs of these and other vulnerable groups in the
Iraqi refugee population:
1. Planning
must move from an emergency/ crisis mode of immediate relief to service
planning for at least a two-three year period with further emphasis on
arrangements for durable solutions within that time frame.
2. Outreach
must become more robust and coordinated to include:
·
Information sharing with local NGO and
faith-based organizations whether or not formally registered or receiving funds
from a UN agency;
·
Increased use of techniques, including public
information efforts, to reach all Iraqis, especially extremely vulnerable
individuals and their families;
·
Increased efforts to find and inform Iraqis
outside of Amman and Damascus area.
3. Service
planning must continue to find ways to meet basic needs for food, shelter and
medical care.
4. Services
must be designed and implemented to address the serious protection needs of extremely
vulnerable individuals and their families, including children, adolescents and
victims of violence and torture.
5. Mental
Health and Psychosocial services must be instituted and designed to reach the
standards of the IASC and other international bodies.
6. Attention
must be focused on the service needs of victims of gender- based violence,
including women and girls forced into prostitution.
7. Capacity
building efforts must increase to assist local and international organizations
to meet the protection and service needs of the refugees:
·
Coordinated information sharing must be
increased;
·
Staff training must be increased; and
·
Iraqi refugees must be included in service
design and delivery.
8. Areas
outside of Amman and Damascus must be included in protection and
service efforts.
9. Resettlement
must be increased with greater effort to reach out to extremely vulnerable
individuals and families, including unaccompanied and separated children.
10. Efforts must be made to work with national
governments to regularize the visa
process and requirements to give refugees more predictability and a sense of
security in their current locations.
IV.
Conclusion
The reality of Iraqi refugees can
no longer be minimized or ignored. Host
countries are feeling the pinch, while the displaced and refugees themselves,
having spent what little savings they had, are more in need of assistance. With no possibility of safe return to Iraq
anytime soon, and little prospect for resettlement to third countries, the
situation could reach crisis proportions in the near future.
The United
States, as the leader of the coalition forces in Iraq
and as the world’s lone superpower, must step up its efforts to avert this
impending crisis. Without U.S. leadership,
other nations are unlikely to increase their support. More assistance must be provided,
resettlement options offered, and diplomacy conducted to ensure that the
essential needs of the refugees of Iraq are met.
Mr. Chairman, as mentioned in my testimony, there is
precedence for the United States
undertaking a larger resettlement processing effort in a situation in some ways
similar to the Iraq
conflict. Our efforts in Vietnam,
in which we resettled well over 100,000 refugees in one fiscal year, is a case
in point. The United
States was able to set up an in-country processing
program in Vietnam,
even without a diplomatic presence there.
In order to at least approach that effort, the United States
will need to establish large Overseas Processing Entity (OPE) operations and
infrastructure and commit many more Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
officers for adjudications. This can be
done, provided that the political will exists to accomplish it.
Mr. Chairman, success in the Iraq
war must no longer be measured only in military terms, but by how as a nation
we respond to the human misery it has created.
Thank you for your consideration of
our views.