Refugees International: Articles: Testimony to House Subcommittee on Violence and Displacement in Iraq

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Testimony to House Subcommittee on Violence and Displacement in Iraq

03/26/2007

Testimony by
Kristele Younes
Advocate, Refugees International
to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia

I want to thank the Committee for holding these hearings on the plight of displaced Iraqis, an enormous and rapidly growing humanitarian problem still not effectively addressed by the international community or the US.

Last November, Refugees International visited Lebanon, Syria and Jordan to assess the situation of Iraqi refugees there and discovered the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world. The amount of displacement is huge and getting worse. To date two million Iraqis have fled the violence in their country; most have taken refuge in Syria and Jordan. Iraqis were leaving the country at the rate of 100,000 a month until Jordan recently moved to shut its borders, sharply cutting the flow Within Iraq, 1.9 million people have left their homes and moved to safer areas within the country. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that one million additional Iraqis will become internally displaced by the end of the year. Right now, 15% of the population of Iraq is displaced, either internally or externally, but that number could be more than 20% by the end of this year.

Some of the refugees and displaced people are particularly vulnerable because they worked for the U.S. as translators and in other jobs and are now targeted by anti-U.S. groups. They risked their lives for the U.S. and deserve special protection now.

Until Refugees International began highlighting the size and pace of the displacement crisis last year, little was being done to help the displaced or the countries that are sheltering them. In the last few months UNHCR has sharply increased its budget for the region and the U.S. has announced plans to accept up to 7,000 Iraqis for resettlement in the U.S. These small steps begin to address the growing displacement crisis, but much more needs to be done.

The 2007 Global Needs Assessment by the European Commission Humanitarian Aid ranks Iraq as among the 15 most severe humanitarian crises in the world. Of those 15 crisis, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs rates Iraq as the second lowest funded crisis-per affected person. Yet, no Iraqi, U.S. or U.N. institution is taking this growing humanitarian and displacement crisis seriously enough to mount an effective response. The most urgent need is a program to protect the most vulnerable—people who had to leave their homes because they worked for and with U.S. forces, diplomats and contractors.

The violence in Iraq is both extreme and indiscriminate. Many are fleeing within and outside of Iraq to escape sectarian violence that is causing de facto ethnic cleansing. Both Sunni and Shi’a are leaving mixed neighborhoods because they no longer feel safe outside of their own communities. Christians are leaving as well, because they also are threatened. Many Iraqis are targeted because of their profession. According to the Brookings Institute, more than 2500 Iraqi physicians have been killed since 2003, and many academics, artists and even hairdressers are also threatened by individuals who believe such occupations are “anti-Islamic”. Many of the refugees are middle class and non-sectarian—exactly the people Iraq needs to rebuild.

A colleague and I just returned from northern Iraq, where we surveyed the growing internally displaced population and the problems they face. We also visited Egypt, which is hosting a growing number of refugees. Last week Refugees International issued a report, The World’s Fastest Growing Displacement Crisis: Displaced People Inside Iraq Receiving Inadequate Assistance. I would like to submit a copy for the record.

IRAQI REFUGEES

The UN estimates that there are now over 2 million Iraqi refugees seeking safety in neighboring countries and the numbers continue to grow. Most enter under short term visas which have to be renewed and which do not permit employment. Syria and Jordan have received the greatest number: over 1 million in Syria and about 750,000 in Jordan. Others forced out of Iraq are seeking refuge throughout the Middle East, with growing numbers in Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen and Turkey. Syria and Jordan have tried to be gracious hosts, but the refugee influx is putting enormous strains on their economies. Initially many came with resources, but with the passage of time many have exhausted their resources and those of their families and friends. Some of the newer arrivals are poorer. The host countries are now admitting that they need help. The Iraqis who fled were able to find safety in their country of asylum, but many now require assistance to meet their basic needs. .

Today the Iraqi refugees are a regional challenge. Some local populations and governments fear that the instability in Iraq might spread to the rest of the region. Some countries, concerned about their security and worried that large influxes of refugees could overburden their own fragile economies and government services, have closed their borders. It is now increasingly difficult for Iraqis to get into Egypt. Lebanon and Jordan have proceeded to deport some individuals back. An Iraqi woman in Cairo told us she could not go to her mother’s funeral in Baghdad as she would not have been able to return to her children in Cairo.

Faced with bleak future in the region, some Iraqis are considering other options. In Amman, Jordan, Damascus, Syria, and Cairo, Egypt, many Iraqis told us they are trying to purchase fake travel documents that would allow them to go to Europe. Most Iraqis do not expect to be able to return home soon and without some assistance they may be unable to survive.

RI found two particularly vulnerable groups—people who have worked for U.S. or Western employers and Palestinians. Many Iraqis who worked for the U.S. the military or other American public and private agencies, are seen now as siding with the “occupiers” or “occupiers” themselves. When interviewing Iraqi refugees in Amman, we encountered Yasir, who had worked as a security officer for several western civil society agencies in Baghdad. Last July he and his son were in front of their house, when gunmen fired 10 shots at them from a speeding car, severely injuring Yasir. He is confident he was targeted because he worked for international aid organizations. Yasir heard from his neighbors that the gunmen learned that he survived the attack; so four days later he fled to Jordan.

RI recommends that the U.S. facilitate the admission to the United States of those Iraqis who were endangered by their affiliation with the US effort in Iraq. The most rapid way to process them in our view, would be the expansion of the special visa numbers for US interpreters and their families, currently limited to 50 a year from Iraq and Afghanistan. There should be no limit on protection, particularly those whose lives are at risk because they helped the U.S., as long as they meet the security and other standards for admission to the U.S.   For others, RI recommends the creation of a P2 category for refugee processing that would permit former employees to bypass UNHCR and register directly for refugee resettlement consideration by the U.S. . A third method to handle this population with special ties to our country would be the enactment of either a special immigrant visa or the creation of a humanitarian parole admission that would permit these families to receive benefits similar to refugees and to have the ability to adjust their status.

Palestinians received special treatment from Saddam Hussein, who often moved Shi’a out of their houses to give Palestinians a place to live. Now, labeled as Saddam loyalists, they are targeted and attacked by almost all factions and the subject of a “fatwa” calling for their killing. The 15,000 still in Iraq are in danger and in need of rescue and resettlement as are those who managed to escaped as well as those still stuck camping in no man’s lands between Iraq and neighboring counties. Their statelessness increases their vulnerability.

Most of the Iraqis who have left the country are middle class; they had to have some means to reach the border and get out of Iraq. Also getting a passport in Baghdad is an expensive, dangerous ordeal. Most Iraqis now are urban refugees, living sometimes on their own, often with family members or friends. Many arrive in a state of shock. One Shi’a Sheikh in Beirut told us, his voice shaky, that he could not sleep at night, traumatized still by his kidnapping. Neither Syria nor Jordan, which house the largest Iraqi populations, have signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, so people find it difficult to get official refugee status.

Syria, Jordan and Egypt deserve international recognition for accepting the Iraqis in such large numbers. But the burdens can cause tensions.. Real estate prices and rents are rising quickly in Damascus and Amman and certain areas of Cairo; schools and hospitals are crowded. Jordan has tightened its borders since bombings in Amman in November 2005, and it is particularly difficult for Iraqis, especially men between the ages of 18-35, to enter. Syria, which used to grant free health care to refugees, has started to charge. Although Egypt is a signatory to the Refugee Convention, it does not allow refugees access to public healthcare or education.

In all three countries, refugees are finding it difficult to get jobs as they are not legally allowed to work. Omar, a doctor we met in Amman told us he would be willing to clean houses if only someone would hire him. The UN is now attempting to assess the numbers of refugees in need. But largely urban refugee populations can be difficult to reach, since many refugees are reluctant to register with the UNHCR or local authorities for fear of deportation.

Until recently the international response had been slow and inadequate. In 2006, for instance, the UNHCR budget for Iraqi refugees in Syria was $700,000—less than one dollar per refugee. Now there are some encouraging signs the world is beginning to recognize and respond to Iraq’s growing displacement problem. UNHCR appealed for an initial $60 million budget to staff up its ability to screen vulnerable refugees in need of resettlement and to develop a comprehensive regional program. It has already   increased the size of its staff in the region. UNHCR will hold an international conference at the ministerial level on Iraqi refugees in Geneva next month. RI hopes that the US will be represented by our Secretary of State to demonstrate U.S. interest in burden sharing, particularly with the countries of the region. The UN Refugee Agency is talking with donors and the countries of the region and other UN and international organizations and NGOs about the size and type of programs that would be most effective. We urge the United Nations to make assistance and protection of refugees whether inside or outside of Iraq a major priority this year and to quickly undertake programs to alleviate pressures on countries of asylum by assisting in the provision of humanitarian aid to those communities most in need.

RI commends the Administration’s offer to resettle some 7,000 refugees found eligible under US law and its request to Congress for additional funding in 2007 and 2008 for resettlement and for overseas assistance to these IDPs and refugees. But the amounts requested and the admissions offered are far too small, given the level of need.

RI appreciates the close collaboration between US AID and State Department’s Refugee Bureau in developing programs for those displaced inside Iraq. We would recommend the tripling of these efforts as well as tripling the numbers considered for resettlement. RI remains concerned that some refugees victims of violence, rape, death threats, and kidnappings may be found inadmissible to the US because they have been forced in self-defense to provide “material support” to an organization the US deems to be terrorist, and thus be barred from admission. We hope the Congress this term will carefully reconsider such bars to admission for those who are the innocent victims of terrorists.

The U.S. has a special obligation to help the refugees of Iraq. The US must provide increased, fast and adequate funding to all relevant agencies, so that programs for the most vulnerable can be put in place immediately, in and outside of Iraq.

Finally, host countries, particularly Jordan and Syria, need multilateral and bilateral assistance in shouldering the burden of the refugee population. This means programs to help in sharing the costs of those who stay, and assist both Iraqis and vulnerable individuals in the host communities. Building the capacity of the host countries systems in particular is a priority. In Jordan, for instance, the Kingdom’s 3200 schools are overcrowded with over 1.5 million students. Funding and assistance to build new schools would go a long way towards improving access to education for both Jordanian and Iraqi children.

In January, RI warned the Senate Judiciary Committee that the worst outcome would be for Iraq’s neighbors to close their borders to Iraqis, thus shutting off a safety valve that is saving lives. Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt have now severely restricted entry to Iraqis, and Syria remains alone in absorbing over 40 000 new arrivals every month. We must now increase our diplomatic efforts to urge countries in the region to help end the conflict and to stop threatening to deport innocent Iraqis back to an environment of violence and unrest. We urge the US to work with its allies and countries in the region to make it possible to assist displaced Iraqis in need to find temporary refuge and safety whether inside Iraq or in the region, and to find new places for those most vulnerable refugees who cannot remain in the region.

INTERNALLY DISPLACED IRAQIS

The UN estimates that there are now 1.9 million displaced within Iraq. This includes one million people forced from their homes before 2003 and an additional 727,000 displaced since the 2006 February bombing of the Samarra mosque. UNHCR is projecting internal displacement might increase by as much as one million more people this year. Iraq is becoming Balkanized. Formerly mixed neighborhoods are disintegrating into Sunni and Shiite redoubts, all afraid of one another, and leaving minorities such as the Christians or the Mandeans with no safe place to go to. A Sunni imam born and raised in Basra, a largely Shiite area, told us: “I used to have Shiite friends and neighbors. But everything changed. After I was beaten up and threatened several times, I had to leave to protect my family.”

According to estimates by the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, he is one of 160,000 Iraqis who have moved to Iraq’s most stable region, the three governorates of Dohuk, Erbil and Suleimaniya in the north. During a two week survey of conditions in this largely autonomous area administered by the Kurdish Regional Government, Refugees International found that many of the internally displaced are struggling to survive. They are victims of inattention, inadequate resources, regional politics, and bureaucratic obstacles. But as one woman who fled north from Baghdad said, “Here at least, we are safe.”

The autonomous Kurdish region, protected by its own security forces, is largely immune to the violence in other parts of Iraq. Kurds, Christians, Sunni and Shiite Arabs are all trying to resettle there. Getting in is not easy, as the displaced need to have a guarantor, a Kurdish resident of one of the three Northern Governorates, who can attest to their morality and identity. Single Arab men rarely get admission, Refugees International found that it is harder for Muslim Arabs to gain entry than for Kurds, or for Christians- who sometimes get preferential treatment.

In addition, Kurds from disputed areas such as oil-rich Kirkuk or Khanaqein, whose status is to be settled by referendum later this year as stated in both the Constitution and national law, are systematically discouraged or even prevented from moving into the Kurdish provinces. Kurdish authorities actively discourage Kurds from leaving Kirkuk and other disputed towns and forces them to stay for the referendum rather than resettle in existing, recognized Kurdish territories. Left with no other alternatives, these Kurdish families have to return to their place of origin, where they can face serious danger.

Some displaced are getting into the Kurdish provinces. Other relatively safe Governorates, such as Karbala and Basra, have been forced de facto to shut their borders because they say their infrastructure can not accommodate an influx of internal refugees.

Whereas many Iraqis tell us they worry most about security, in the stable Kurdish area the biggest concerns are economic. Those who reach the Kurdish provinces must surmount difficulties in finding housing, shelter, employment, and education for their children. They face an inflation rate of over 70 percent and fuel and electricity prices that have increased 270 percent in the course of 2006.

Most internal refugees can not find work, except for professionals such as doctors or engineers, who are welcomed and sometimes even sought after by Kurdish authorities. Some displaced stay with host families; others are staying in public buildings, depending entirely on the host community’s willingness to help. “We depend on our neighbors’ generosity to feed our children,” a displaced Kurd said,

Only 1% of the displaced in Iraq are in camps. Although some local officials told RI they favored setting up camps, we agree with the UN and others that integration into local communities is preferable. Most of the new arrivals have to pay rent, which has risen drastically in the past couple of years, particularly in the main urban areas. High rents are exhausting the resources of displaced families. In the town of Shaklawa alone, in the Erbil governorate, we heard that 10 families had to return to their place of origin in February because the cost of living was too high. A Sunni Arab woman from Baghdad living in Erbil told Refugees International that she and her husband had decided to return to Baghdad with their two children despite the threats they had received for being Sunni. “My husband can’t find work here, and the rent is too expensive. Everything is cheaper in Baghdad. God will protect us, I hope.”

Before 2003, 80 % of Iraqis depended on a monthly Public Distribution System(PDS) for food and fuel under the U.N.’s Oil for Food program. With the economy in chaos and high unemployment, the program now run by the Iraqi government, is more needed than ever.

To qualify for PDS , Iraqis need ration cards that are distributed in their towns of residence. The cards have also served as the basis for the voter registration system for post-war Iraqi elections, so they have acquired political significance. Since voter roles depend on the issuance of ration cards, towns are reluctant to allow families to take their ration cards when they move. Without ration cards, these people cannot get food. In theory, after acquiring a residence permit from the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), displaced people can return to their place of origin to file a request to transfer the food ration cards, but many find it too expensive or too unsafe to return. If they do return to initiate a transfer of their ration card, the application must go to Baghdad, but neither the central government nor the Kurdish authorities have much interest in promoting migration, particularly of Arabs.   No family RI interviewed said it had been able to transfer its food ration card. The displaced blame the lack of access to food and fuel rations on bureaucratic resistance, general inefficiency, and rampant corruption. RI believes it is essential that institutions such as the US Agriculture Department or the UN World Food Program immediately seek to assist the Iraqi government to overcome these problems and devise an, improved and more effective public distribution system to get these resources to the displaced.

Displaced people in the KRG can go to public hospitals, but their children frequently cannot enter school. To be admitted into a school, children must present an official certificate from their former school attesting to the grade they have completed. Many families left in a hurry and were not able to obtain these papers before they fled.

Another obstacle for displaced children is the lack of Arabic language schools in the Kurdish region. A large number of the displaced are Arabs or Kurds who have been living in Arab areas for decades and thus many can not speak Kurdish. Arabic schools in the KRG are only in the main urban areas. Many of the displaced have chosen to settle in smaller towns or villages where the cost of living is lower. As a result, their children are not able to go to school. Even in the main cities, access to Arabic language schools is a problem since there are very few.. In Erbil, there are only two Arabic schools in the city, which operate on two shifts to allow as many children as possible to attend classes. In Suleimaniya, three schools with three shifts each are unable to meet the needs of the growing Arab community. The government as well as UN agencies such as UNHCR and UNICEF need to address displaced children’s education and health needs. To do so, they will need increased resources.

In Baghdad the national Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoDM) is reluctant to admit the level of displacement. This lack of political will, combined with the deficiencies in Iraqi bureaucracy and the country’s generalized insecurity, means a lack of government services to the displaced. In fact, the Iraqi Government’s refusal to declare a humanitarian crisis is leading international donors to question whether their funds are really needed to assist the displaced. Many argue that since the Iraqi Government has billions of dollars of unspent funds, it should not be the international community’s role to provide additional funding. Kurdish authorities have provided ad hoc assistance. Some mayors are able to provide the most vulnerable with some form of assistance. Others in need receive nothing.

International non-governmental organizations, local relief agencies and religious groups are providing some assistance to the displaced. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) continues to function at a national level, albeit in a fragile way. In Erbil Governorate it has provided some assistance to 8,000 families. Depending largely on volunteers, the IRCS is doing the best it can with limited resources. RI believes that increased aid e to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and its local partner ICRS from the U.S. and other donors could dramatically improve conditions for the displaced in Kurdish and other areas of Iraq.

So far, the U.N.’s response has been almost non-existent. After the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, the U.N. started operating on the assumption that the Iraqi challenge would be rehabilitation, reconstruction, and development. Only last month did U.N. agencies officially declare Iraq a humanitarian crisis, where the emphasis must shift to saving lives, not spurring development. Some critics told us U.N. agencies are reluctant to let go of the “development approach,” as they fear loss of budgets and resistance from their donors.

Among Iraqis, the U.N. has a low reputation. Many blame it for the painful sanctions imposed on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq because of the Gulf War. Since 2003, Iraqis don’t think the U.N. has done much to ease current security and humanitarian problems. In addition it suffers from a lack of resources and in our view excessive security restrictions in the KRG region, which have severe consequences on the ability of staff to operate effectively.

The U.N. Refugee Agency, which has primary responsibility for displaced people in the Kurdish and southern regions of Iraq, only has about $9 million to spend in 2007. “If we were looking at responding to real needs, then even $150 million would not be enough,” said one UNHCR official. The International Organization for Migration is charged with assisting internally displaced in the rest of Iraq, but the IOM is also short of funds. RI urges the U.S. and other donors to provide these two organizations and their implementing partners with more resources.

Since the bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad in 2003, the agency has operated largely out of Amman, Jordan. For security reasons U.N. officials in Baghdad stay mainly in the heavily fortified Green Zone, “and when they come out, they are escorted by the Multi-National Force,” says one non-government relief worker in Iraq. Even in the Kurdish area, where conditions are secure and travel safe, U.N. workers stay largely in their compounds, which are difficult to access. When they leave, they travel in armored vehicles, making it difficult for them to interact, collect data and manage programs.

The U.S. and Iraq are finding it difficult to stop the violence in Iraq. Until they do, the flood of internally displaced and refugees will continue. While we don’t yet know how to stabilize Iraq, we do know how to protect and support displaced Iraqis. We must continue and increase our efforts to do it now multilaterally and bilaterally.