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President’s Corner: Defending Iraqi Refugees in Egypt
January 13, 2009 | Kenneth Bacon |
Barbara Harrell-Bond, a tireless worker for refugee rights, founded the Refugee Study Centre at Oxford University and the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Program at the American University in Cairo. Her apartment in Cairo’s Garden District, just a few blocks from the Nile River, is a combination residence, office, strategy center and way station for refugees of all nationalities. It is also a required stop for all refugee advocates visiting Cairo.
When I arrived I was greeted by Barbara, edgy on the 10th day of an effort to give up smoking, and about a dozen other people. These included:
But for two in the group, the passion is turning into fear and frustration. The two Iraqi refugees--both highly fluent in English, both former workers for the U.S. cause in Iraq—have begun the long process of trying to resettle in the U.S. They are running out of money; one already had to send his wife and child back to Baghdad.
They are struggling to work their way through the complexities and obstacles of the U.S. refugee resettlement program. In Washington, the resettlement program, which is lagging far behind its goals, looks like a bureaucratic failure and another empty promise to the Iraqi people. This past January, only 375 Iraqi refugees were resettled. To Iraqi refugees hoping to come to the U.S., the program looks like a matter of life and death, and they are getting too few assurances of protection.
--Ken Bacon
When I arrived I was greeted by Barbara, edgy on the 10th day of an effort to give up smoking, and about a dozen other people. These included:
- Two Iraqi refugees, both former translators for the U.S., who fled Baghdad to save their lives and are now trying to resettle in the U.S
- A young American film maker working with Barbara to chronicle the plight of Iraqi refugees in Cairo
- Three young women, two from the U.S. and one from Italy, developing a program to educate the press and the Egyptian public about the poor conditions most of Egypt’s estimated 130,000 Iraqi refugees endure
- A young lawyer focusing on ways to speed the resettlement of Iraqis to the U.S.
- The owner of a local art gallery who supports Barbara’s work
- Two AUC students working with Barbara to connect Egyptian civil society organizations to Iraqi refugees
- A young woman working to convince the Arab League to help Iraqi refugees
But for two in the group, the passion is turning into fear and frustration. The two Iraqi refugees--both highly fluent in English, both former workers for the U.S. cause in Iraq—have begun the long process of trying to resettle in the U.S. They are running out of money; one already had to send his wife and child back to Baghdad.
They are struggling to work their way through the complexities and obstacles of the U.S. refugee resettlement program. In Washington, the resettlement program, which is lagging far behind its goals, looks like a bureaucratic failure and another empty promise to the Iraqi people. This past January, only 375 Iraqi refugees were resettled. To Iraqi refugees hoping to come to the U.S., the program looks like a matter of life and death, and they are getting too few assurances of protection.
--Ken Bacon
Labels: Iraqi Refugees, President's Corner
