Duhhhh! We don’t know, so says Eric P. Schwartz at the US State Department. As we speak, the Office of Population Refugees and Migration (PRM) in the US State Department is haggling, probably with Ms Power in the White House, and trying to decide just how many refugees President Obama will be putting in his FY2010 Determination Letter to Congress due out by October 1st.
Because the press is so fixated on the Iraqi refugee numbers and how many will be resettled in the US, here is an exchange between the head honcho of PRM and a reporter dancing around the subject. Either Schwartz really doesn’t know because it is now out of the State Department’s hands and in the black hole at the White House, or he is determined not to tell the press where they stand on bringing more Iraqis to the US who can then complain about how the US treats them badly.
From a press conference at the US State Department on the newly created World Humanitarian Day (LOL) yesterday:
QUESTION: The 30,000 figure you mentioned for Iraq by the end of the fiscal year, that is since the war began, correct? Are you going to bring 30,000 in this year?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY SCHWARTZ: No, no, no. I think the numbers for fiscal year 2008 and 2009 probably get us around 30,000, but the overwhelming numbers who have come in through our resettlement program will have come in during that period. So if you take since the war began, we’re going to be, I think, over 30,000. How much higher than 30,000 I can’t tell you. We could come back to you on that.
QUESTION: Well, how about –
ASSISTANT SECRETARY SCHWARTZ: The numbers – let me – I think I may answer your next question. The numbers for fiscal year 2008, I think are on the order of about 13,000. I’m looking to my team here. And the numbers for fiscal year 2009 will get us – will probably be up to about 20,000. So you do the math. And that’s for those two years. In terms of prior years, the numbers are much, much lower, but I don’t have the specifics.
QUESTION: Sorry, do you have more?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY SCHWARTZ: No, no, I’ll just say if what I’ve told you —
QUESTION: I think that’s right. I mean, last – the – last year, they were looking at – I think the number was about 17 for this – for the fiscal year that ends on September 30th.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY SCHWARTZ: That’s right. We don’t have a final number, but we’re going to be at – we’ll be in that neighborhood and probably – I’m pretty confident we’ll be higher than 17. I don’t know whether we’ll be at 20, but we’ll be in that neighborhood.
QUESTION: Just to follow up – just – thanks. Just to follow up on Iraq, I think one of the complaints about – from refugee advocates and groups is that there hasn’t been enough done. I mean, it’s nice that you’ve resettled 30,000, but there’s still, you know, upwards of hundreds of thousands of displaced.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY SCHWARTZ: Absolutely.
QUESTION: And I’m wondering why, when you give this extra 160 million in support for humanitarian assistance, why there is no extra assistance for Iraq, and if you could talk about the scope of your programs that are going on right now.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY SCHWARTZ: Sure. First of all, I’ll have to get back to you to see whether any of this new announcement includes Iraq. But what I will say is in this fiscal year, we will have done by the end of this year over $350 million of support from – again, I’m going to have to double-check those numbers. If those numbers are very different than what I’ve just told you, we’ll get back to you. But I think that is the number, and it is a huge amount of support. And it’s both on – the vast majority of that is not directed toward resettlement, but rather assistance in place, because as I said before, resettlement in a large-scale displacement crisis, third-country resettlement will never be the answer for the majority of those who are suffering. So it has to be focused on assistance. And what we’ve done, oh, about a week or so ago, we announced the appointment of Samantha Power at the White House, who is going to coordinate – serve as a coordinator for our assistance to Iraq and our resettlement programs. And part of the reason that announcement was made was as a communication to the Government of Iraq how critically important this issue is to us.
The other “part of the reason” is that Ms. Czarina Power* will be making the decisions, not the State Department. “Communication to the Govt. of Iraq!” What a joke! It’s called consolidation of power in the White House and a slap-down to Hillary.
* I guess technically you can’t call her a czarina, but what is the female name for czar (just czar)?