Here is a little story put out by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that got me wondering if we were going to add more of Iraq’s minority populations to our resettlement plans, in addition to the 1350 Palestinians we heard about early last week. I have more questions then answers after reading this:
BAGHDAD (AFP) — Almost 200 Iranian-Kurd refugees have been moved from a makeshift camp on the Iraq-Jordan border to a larger camp near Syria, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Wednesday.
[….]
“The group composed of 186 refugees has been temporarily relocated to Al Waleed refugee camp, on Iraq?s border with Syria,” it said.
Al Waleed is one of the camps we have come to know as a “Palestinian” camp with miserable living conditions (or so the refugee industry lobbyists say). Is this the strategy, move people to miserable camps then tell the world they live in misery and need to be resettled to the West?
Incidentally, these are internally displaced people and I’m wondering if we are establishing a pattern here—-are we going to be in the business of helping other countries sort out their minority problems by moving them to the US, as we are with the Palestinians?
And then this:
UNHCR figures published last August said Iraq had more than 42,000 non-Iraqi refugees, mainly Palestinians, Turks, and Iranians (Kurds and Arabs), and some Syrians, Sudanese and Somalis.
Why are all these people with different ethnic backgrounds classified as “refugees” if they are still in Iraq, surely they didn’t all just arrive there from elsewhere—who in their right mind would arrive in Iraq these days seeking asylum?
Please don’t tell me we (with our buddies in the UN) are helping Iraq get rid of minorities—helping it toward ethnic and religious purity of sorts?
Endnote: We are already helping purify Iraq of its religious minorities, but those listed in the 42,000 number would be mostly Muslims and we all know how charitable Muslims are to their fellow Muslims, right!