{"id":481,"date":"2007-11-15T15:23:15","date_gmt":"2007-11-15T15:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=481"},"modified":"2007-11-15T15:26:33","modified_gmt":"2007-11-15T15:26:33","slug":"iraqi-refugees-has-there-been-a-breakthrough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/iraqi-refugees-has-there-been-a-breakthrough\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraqi Refugees: Has There Been a Breakthrough?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems there has been a major breakthrough in processing Iraqi refugees in Syria. The important news is that Damascus recently agreed to allow American interviewers into the country to screen the Iraqis for admission to the United States.<\/p>\n

For the better part of the year, Damascus and Washington have been at logger-heads over how to process Iraqi refugees headed for the US. Damascus insisted that the US accept UNHCR processed refugees and take from the top of the internationally certified list.<\/p>\n

Washington insisted that its special agents be allowed into Damascus to interview and choose which Iraqis would get US refugee status. The primary reason for this, I was told, is that the US wants to give priority to those Iraqis who worked for the US, such as translators, etc. Syria did not want to give the US special status because of bad US-Sy relations and did not want to reward Iraqi "collaborators."<\/p>\n

This dispute now seems to be resolved in Washington's favor. Hopefully, we will see Iraqis begin to be processed at a speedier rate. It seems clear, however, that this dispute was not the main reason for so few Iraqis based in Syria getting into America. Iraqi refugees based in Jordan and elsewhere are not getting processed and into the States any faster. The bottleneck is in Washington. <\/p>\n

Homeland security is establishing its own set of criteria for clearing Iraqis, which is different than that established by the UNHCR. Homeland Security does not have processing systems in place and is only beginning to establish permanent offices in Jordan or Syria. A whole new redundant bureaucracy is being established. The US is becoming the land of red-tape and silly procedures. Is Yankee ingenuity and can-doism dead? It would seem so.<\/p>\n

There is great pressure in Washington not to open the taps to Iraqi refugees. Daniel Pipes and other anti-Arab aggitators have long saught to stem the immigration of Muslims and Arabs into the US for fear that "Islamofascists," as they call them, will establish greater electoral and lobbying might in US politics. They have long believed that Europe is "occupied territory" and do not want the US to be taken hostage by the forces of evil and Jihadism.<\/p>\n

2007 Iraqi Refugee Admissions: An Overview<\/a> (This info is from Human Rights First) <\/p>\n