Category: Iraqi refugees

Get ready for it! Syrians will be our next big batch of refugees…

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..along with the Rohingya (but that’s another story)!

Last week I reported that Iraq had agreed to open its borders to fleeing Syrians (Syrian Christians being killed by rebels).  But, it appears that they have done so with great reluctance because they fear that Al Qaeda (Sunnis) will flow in with the Syrians.  I think it’s a legitimate concern for the mostly Shiite government in Baghdad.

Here the New York Times has the Iraqi anti-refugee theme outlined.

QAIM, Iraq — Muhammed Muafak decided he had had enough when Syrian Army mortar shells struck near his house while his family was having the iftar meal to end the daily Ramadan fast. He packed up his 10-member household in Bukamal, the Syrian border town where they lived, and fled here to this Iraqi border town.

He expected a warm welcome. After all, his country had taken in 1.2 million Iraqis during their recent war, far more than any of Iraq’s other neighbors, and had allowed them to work, send their children to public schools and receive state medical care.

Instead, Mr. Muafak found himself and his family locked up in a school under guard with several hundred other Syrians, forbidden to leave to visit relatives in Iraq or to do anything else.

“We wish to go back to Syria and die there instead of living here in this prison,” said Abdul Hay Majeed, another Syrian held in a school building, along with 11 family members. Mr. Majeed was refused permission for that either, he and other refugees said.

Alone among Syria’s Muslim neighbors, Iraq is resisting receiving refugees from the conflict, and is making those who do arrive anything but comfortable. Baghdad is worried about the fighters of a newly resurgent Al Qaeda flowing both ways across the border, and about the Sunni opponents of the two governments making common cause.

The NYT never did like that Iraqi government:

The contrast with the situation during the war in Iraq is stark. [Assad’s] Syria took in more Iraqis than any other neighbor, and was more hospitable than Jordan, which imposed tight restrictions on its 750,000 refugees’ freedom to work and use public services.

[….]

“If they don’t want us here, they should let us go back to our country,” said Thafir Khalel, who came Thursday. “It’s better to die there than be humiliated here.”

Looks like Iraqi government leaders have a legitimate fear!

Now, American troops have left Iraq, and Al Qaeda has switched sides, taking up arms against the Assad government.

Here is the story that link about switching sides sends you.

The presence of jihadists in Syria has accelerated in recent days in part because of a convergence with the sectarian tensions across the country’s long border in Iraq. Al Qaeda, through an audio statement, has just made an undisguised bid to link its insurgency in Iraq with the revolution in Syria, depicting both as sectarian conflicts — Sunnis versus Shiites.

[…..]

One Qaeda operative, a 56-year-old known as Abu Thuha who lives in the Hawija district near Kirkuk in Iraq, spoke to an Iraqi reporter for The New York Times on Tuesday. “We have experience now fighting the Americans, and more experience now with the Syrian revolution,” he said. “Our big hope is to form a Syrian-Iraqi Islamic state for all Muslims, and then announce our war against Iran and Israel, and free Palestine.”

Watch for it!  We have already given Syrians Temporary Protected Status and now I can hear the distant drumbeat—the clamor to bring more Syrians to America has begun (and it won’t be a clamor to save the Christians).  Will we be sure Al-Qaeda doesn’t sneak in here too?

El Cajon, CA officials in DC this week begging for help with refugee overload

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..they want $20 million from the federal government and a state of emergency declared for San Diego County to help them out with their refugee overload.

Feds:  It’s your problem now!

For those of you following the Refugee Resettlement program of the US State Department this news item from Fox News in El Cajon won’t come as a surprise. (Hat tip: a friend from Tennessee)

Here is the gist of the story.   Since 2005, the reporter tells us 15,000 refugees have come to San Diego County—the largest number are from Iraq, or more precisely Iraqis from somewhere in the Middle East.

Their federal resettlement contractors are the International Rescue Committee and Catholic Charities (no, you don’t say!)

There are no jobs (surprise!).

2000 refugees are on a waiting list to get English lessons. (no English=no jobs)

A local college wants to help, but an administrator says on tape that he is “surprised” the federal government has no sympathy for the community’s plight after it was the feds who brought such large numbers to San Diego County.

It is your problem now, say federal officials.

County officials have gone to Washington in search of $20 million of your tax dollars to bail out the beleaguered city.

Good luck with that!

Watch the film!

New readers:  We have 10 previous posts involving El Cajon, here.  And, it sure looks like it’s time for an Anne Richard intervention!

Syrian Muslim Brotherhood rebel group killing Christian refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….and in a surprise move, the Iraqi government has opened its borders to Syrian refugees.

Here is the story from Catholic News Agency about the persecution of Christians by the rebel forces attempting to bring down the Assad regime:

Damascus, Syria, Jul 23, 2012 / 04:50 pm (CNA).- The Syrian rebels’ attack on Damascus has allowed radical Islamist groups to attack Iraqi refugees, Christians allegedly loyal to the Syrian government and other civilians.

Local Christians have expressed dismay and outrage at the attacks on defenseless civilians, a local source told Fides news agency.

The rebel group Liwa al-Islam, a Wahhabi group whose name means “The Brigade of Islam,” has claimed responsibility for killing top generals in President Bashar Assad’s government. On the morning of July 23, its members also killed an entire Christian family in the Damascus neighborhood of Bab Tuma.

Militants blocked the car of Nabil Zoreb, a Christian civil officer. They ordered him, his wife Violet, and his two sons George and Jimmy to get out of the car. The militants then killed them all.

In southeastern Damascus, Islamist fighters with the Muslim Brotherhood ally Jehad al Nosra attacked the homes of Iraqi refugees. They ransacked the homes, burned them and forced the occupants to leave.

The refugees said “gangs of Muslim terrorists attacked and chased us.”

Syrians to Iraq!

For years refugees fled Iraq for safe harbor in Syria, but now that the Muslim rebels affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood are on the move in Syria, the refugee flow will reverse direction as Iraq opens its borders to Syrians.

From Reuters:

(Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ordered his country’s borders to be opened up to allow Syrian refugees fleeing violence at home to enter Iraq, his office said on Monday.

There is more, read it all.

Speaking of the Muslim Brotherhood, if you haven’t followed the controversy in the US where Reps. Michele Bachmann and four other members of Congress are under fire (from Republicans!) for asking for Inspector General investigations of several federal agencies to ascertain the depth of penetration by the Brotherhood into those agencies, see my other blog, here.

Study: Iraqi refugees not working and in poor health; need more costly health care

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I came across this interesting report just now entitled, Mental and Physical Health Status of Iraqi Refugees Resettled in the United States.

When you open the report, be sure to see the 4th frame with the map of the US depicting where the 63,000 or so Iraqis resettled (at the time of this undated report) to the US have been sent.  Of course, Wyoming shines like a bright light having received zero refugees, but look closely—VP Joe Biden’s Delaware is among the handful of states receiving only small numbers of refugees.  I find that so amusing since ol’ Joe helped create the Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980 with ol’ Teddy (Kennedy), yet Delaware gets only a tiny number of the neediest immigrants.

Back to the study and its results.

Here is the summary:

23% not covered by health insurance

67% not currently working ***

63% rated physical health as fair or poor

23% married to their first cousins

Chronic Diseases

60% ≤1 condition

37% ≤2 conditions

Mental Health Conditions

50% reported emotional distress

31% at risk for PTSD

Then here are some comments the refugees made during a forum:

* I will submit a request for social security pension because this will ensure having Medicaid…

* I am worried they will stop the Medicaid and I still have many operations to do…

* Medicaid will be canceled if my husband income exceeds a certain limit,….I feel that I am a burden to my husband because if he worked for extra hours, they would cancel my Medicaid. I need it for my psychological and physical health problems…

* We can handle stopping the food stamps but not the Medicaid…

* The more honest you are in explaining your medical problems, the less they will believe you……

* Please tell the Medicaid staff that when I am smiling in their face, that does not mean I am fine, nobody knows what I am going through and the pain I have……

It sure is a good thing that Obamacare will soon rescue these unhealthy refugees.

*** What do you make of that—67% not working.  Didn’t we just hear a couple of days ago that over 80% (almost 90%!) of the refugees living in Manchester, NH have work?  Maybe we should send more Iraqis to Manchester?  (Just kidding!)

New readers take note:  We have a health issues category, here, with 130 posts covering many very important topics involving immigrant health.

An afterthought:  When you look at that map and notice that the largest number of refugees are assigned to California, think about that when you read that some California cities may soon “cease to exist.”

Iraq refuses to repatriate failed Iraqi asylum seekers from the UK

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

They were refused asylum in the UK, the UK wants to take them back to Iraq, Iraq says no way.

Here is the story in the Daily Mail:

The Iraqi parliament has blocked the repatriation of thousands of asylum seekers who have lost the right to remain in Britain.

It has banned the forced return from Europe of tens of thousands of Iraqis and threatened to fine airlines that deliver deportees.

Failed asylum seekers have already been turned back at the border, said the refugee support group that pushed for the change.

The UK has failed to return any rejected Iraqi asylum seekers since March 2011, mainly because of legal problems over their arrival at Baghdad airport and the breakdown of security within Iraq.

[….]

Between 2007 and 2009 over 38,000 Iraqis accounted for 17 per cent of all asylum applications in the EU, making it the largest country of origin for refugees.

The only explanation I can come up with about why Iraq doesn’t want them back is that they are probably criminals.   We all know Iraq is just fine now—right?—Obama told us so when he withdrew our troops.

Be sure to read the comments to the Daily Mail story, they are more interesting than the article itself.

As we approach our 5th anniversary at RRW, we have 527 previous posts on Iraqi refugees in our special category, here.