IRAQI interpreters given asylum in Australia after working alongside Australian troops during the occupation of their country say they feel short-changed by the Federal Government since arriving in Australia two months ago.
Gee where have I heard this before, oh yeah, yesterday in Baltimore. The Age from Melbourne Australia joins the Baltimore Sun in whacking the stingy, bad, pro-war West and our allies and goes on:
The interpreters, who faced persecution in Iraq and were branded traitors by many of their countrymen, feel they have been dumped in Australia with little help or prospect of work.
They say they were promised jobs, immediate health care and moderately priced housing.
However, most have been told since arriving that they will need to retrain to work in their existing professions. Some, with family health issues, have been placed on public hospital waiting lists, and those who have been housed are paying almost half their Centrelink payments in rent. Many say they have had to scrounge for furniture and clothes from church and charity groups. Several families are still living in motels.
I don’t know if NGOs (non-government organizations) are responsible for resettling refugees in Australia as they are here, so I have no clue if this is the same story there as in Baltimore. However, we have written so much about conditions refugees face that I wonder how all these Iraqis are getting some idea of ‘shangri-la’ in the West. We have reported innumerable times that Iraqi refugees, even well-educated ones, are doing menial labor when they get to the US. And, we have reported that the Iraqi government wants its well-trained people to return to rebuild Iraq.
According to this article, some may already be returning (or are they?):
A small number of the Iraqis, many of whom are trained teachers and university educated, became so disillusioned that they are believed to have returned to Iraq at their own expense. Others say they plan to follow, putting themselves at great risk from vengeful militia, according to their colleagues.
“…they are believed to have returned to Iraq.” You mean the Australian government DOESN’T KNOW WHERE THEY ARE!
I am sure there are decent deserving interpretors and other Iraqis who will make a better life for themselves in the West. But, I will remind readers that when translators went to Denmark, some were found to be spies for insurgents, see Judy’s post here. And then there is the story that no one discusses about how 365 suspected terrorists were weeded out of the Iraqi refugee program in recent months by Homeland Security.
I don’t know if some of those 365 were translators but it doesn’t take a genius to see that insurgents and other terrorists would be sure to plant their best and brightest in the interpreter profession.
Learn everything (and more then you ever wanted to) about the Iraqi refugee issue by going to our category entitled Iraqi refugees here.