Bush Administration Shuns Four Million Iraqi Refugee Immigrants

Today, June 20, is World Refugee Day, as designated by the United Nations General Assembly. Per UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, 40 million men, women and children today are refugees from "violence and persecution, and it is likely that the future will see more people on the run... "

The photo at right (Salah Malkawi/Getty Images) captures Iraqi refugees being fed on April 24, 2007 by the Ibrahim al-Khalil Church, located near Damascus, Syria. The church provides cooked meals to 1,500 Iraqi refugees three times weekly.

Through May 2007, the Bush administration's four-year Iraq War has caused almost 4,000,000 Iraqis to flee their homes, and to live as refugees.

More than 2 million "internally displaced" Iraqis live homeless in their own country, while the luckier ones, about 1.8 million, live in refugee camps "abroad." (See Iraq War Statistics at June 17, 2007 for more info.)

Since 2007 announcement of the Bush/McCain war surge, newly displaced Iraqis per month, both internally and abroad, are:

Jan 2007 - 90,000
Feb 2007 - 90,000
Mar 2007 - 90,000
Apr 2007 - 90,000
May 2007 - 80,000

Funny... when I read the federal government's term, "abroad," it carries the connotation of the fabled grand tour of Europe, or of immigrants comfortably settled in another country.

The truth, of course, is far harsher, and anything but grand or settled. And the Bush-led U.S. government plays an ironically cruel role...

1,750,000 of Iraqi war-related refugees living "abroad" are in camps and makeshift tent cities in Syria and Jordan, with the remainder scattered in Egypt, Iran and Lebanon. And Syria and Jordan are being forced to restrict new immigrants due to sheer volume.

European countries have admitted a meager 8,100 refugee-immigrants from Iraq. And the United States, under President Bush, has admitted almost none.

"Staying in Iraq is like committing suicide."
Yup. You're reading that correctly. The Bush administration has effectively destroyed Iraq, and now, shamefully will allow few Iraqi refugee immigrants into the U.S.

And under the new Bush-blessed immigration reform agenda, a scarce number of Iraqi refugees could ever qualify to enter or settle in our country, even if they have relatives here.

Said Hala Numan Jabre, an Iraqi mother of three children, to IRIN this week as she and her family packed to flee into Syria:

"Staying in Iraq is like committing suicide... There is no safe life in Iraq, it's like a jungle. There are no public services, there is no rule of law, and everywhere there is killing and kidnapping.

That is why we've decided to take our daughters away until things get better, God willing."

What Is the Real Bush-Cheney Goal in Iraq?
Digesting the continuing American-caused tragedy in Iraq, I can only conclude that Bush and Cheney were lying when they said were fighting to free the Iraqi people.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour pointed out today that more Iraqis have now fled their home country during the U.S. war and occupation, than did under the entirety of Saddam Hussein's regime.

On World Refugee Day, I have to ask again... Why is the U.S. still in Iraq? What is the real U.S. goal, if not to help Iraqis?

(To learn more about World Refugee Day, I urge you to view CNN's report on the status of refugees, by Christiane Amanpour, and to watch Anderson Cooper's interview with Angelina Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency.)

Related Reading
Iraq War Statistics & Results as of June 17, 2007
UN High Commissioner for Refugees website: World Refugee Day: Displacement in the 21st Century.
IRIN, June 17, 2007: Iraq: Plight of refugees worsens as Syria, Jordan impose restrictions
CNN, June 21, 2007: Iraq refugees chased from home, struggle to cope
Washington Post, Dec 30, 2006: Sen. Edward Kennedy, We Can't Ignore Iraq's Refugees