Category: Iraqi refugees

Iraqi Sunni Muslim commander denied US refugee status

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is from the Los Angeles Times yesterday (Hat tip:  Center for Immigration Studies). 

Reporting from Amman, Jordan – The man who had fought Al Qaeda in Iraq sat in the waiting room of the immigration office. He watched others go up before him. After several hours, they called his name: Saad Oraibi Ghafoori.

In a way, the waiting burned him. He had once led more than 600 men in Baghdad; Iraqi officials and U.S. commanders came to him for help. Now he lived in a nondescript home in Jordan’s capital with an upset wife and two restless children — a 9-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl — who had been hoping for more than a year to get the call to go to America.

He had sat in classes given by the International Organization for Migration, learning about U.S. apartment rental prices and how to apply for food stamps. He was ready to do whatever the Americans wanted: If they wished him to train U.S. forces heading to Iraq, he would do it; if they wanted him to fight in Afghanistan, he would go.

[…..]

In the office that day in July, Ghafoori was finally summoned to a table. The case officer was blunt: He had been rejected and there was no point in appealing the case.

We let all sorts of other Iraqis into the US, this article suggests we need to consider the fighters too!

Last year, the U.S. government removed hurdles that had made it difficult for its Iraqi employees whose lives were endangered to flee to America. It also cleared similar obstacles for Iraqis working with U.S. companies. The number of Iraqis accepted in America through the State Department’s refugee assistance program jumped from 1,600 to nearly 14,000 in 2008 and is expected to reach 18,000 this year.

But Ghafoori’s case poses a policy challenge for the U.S. government. How should it handle the pool of 100,000 paramilitary fighters called the Sons of Iraq, many of them former insurgents, who have little in common with the Iraqi translators and civil servants that the refugee assistance program aims to help?

Does the United States have any obligation to men like Ghafoori, whom the U.S. military once funded and fought with against a common enemy?

Here is my question, were the Sons of Iraq fighting to rid their country of the Al Qaeda scourge or were they fighting for a plane ticket to the US?  I thought it was the former.

Finally, I’ve never heard of this and it bears looking into:

One of the few routes available to him would be Homeland Security’s Significant Public Benefit Parole program, which is run in close association with the Pentagon to bring in people who served the war efforts. But the program operates in near secrecy and is the equivalent of winning the lottery: The combination of official backing and luck must align to bring the person inside.

Iraqis learn about American life from on-line forums

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I guess forums like this one fill in the gaps refugees are experiencing in their supposed orientation programs offered by US State Department-funded outfits.

This McClatchy article made me laugh:

Forum regulars offer do’s and don’ts for airport screenings and remind new arrivals to report any changes of address “so you don’t become a national security concern.” They get into the nitty-gritty of an Iraqi household in America: Long skirts for Muslim women? Bring them, because U.S. shops are filled with miniskirts and shorts. Electrical appliances? Leave them in Baghdad because of the voltage difference. Hookah pipes? Don’t worry, the tobacco and coals are available. Need cheap furniture and household goods? Try a site called Craigslist, “where you can buy and sell anything!”

Wal-mart exploits old people?  

An Iraqi refugee whose online handle is “Arizona” is a particularly astute observer of his new world. One of his most recent posts describes how he walked into a Wal-Mart and was shocked to be welcomed by “a person who’s over 85 years old and works as a tracker of shopping carts.” Apparently unfamiliar with Wal-Mart greeters, who are often senior citizens, Arizona made a phone call to make sure that the chain wasn’t exploiting the elderly, and later he published relevant labor laws for other Iraqis to see.

Do we have a budding social justice activist here?  Arizona needs to find the nearest ACORN office!

Another time, Arizona wrote of a stroll through a park and his first encounter with homeless street performers. He struck up a conversation and learned about their tenuous lives. He wrote with admiration that the U.S. government provides them with food assistance and medical care.

“God bless you, my brother,” an Iraqi named Basel commented on Arizona’s post about the street musicians. “I always see you trying to shed light on American society and to show us the corners we’ve never heard of.”

Fatwa: Iraqis must not become U.S. citizens

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The invaluable MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, which translates things in the Arabic-language media that we need to know, reports:

Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, head of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS), recently issued a fatwa stating that an Iraqi exile may not become a U.S. citizen; the fatwa came in response to a question from a viewer during his Ramadan television special. Al-Qaradhawi explained that a Muslim must not become a citizen of a country that is occupying his homeland – and that the ruling was inspired by similar rulings issued by Muslim clerics during France’s occupation of Tunisia.

Al-Qaradhawi qualified his pronouncement by saying that it did not apply to Iraqis who had fled Iraq at the beginning of the occupation and had already taken foreign citizenship in the U.S. or Europe, but only from this day forward.  It also applied to Afghan exiles, he said.

Others  disagreed.

Al-Arabiya TV director ‘Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed wrote an op-ed in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat criticizing Al-Qaradhawi’s ruling. The following are excerpts from the English version of his article, as it appeared in the English edition of Al-Sharq Al-Awsat:

“However, this fatwa has nothing to do with the reality on the ground, and contains more political absurdity then it does religious guidance. Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi himself is an Egyptian who has Qatari citizenship – given to him after he opposed the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. However, when an Israeli office was opened in Doha, Al-Qaradhawi did not renounce his Qatari nationality. This is a personal issue that does not concern us as much as we are concerned with the usage of religion, especially the weapon of the fatwa, in highly politicized cases.”

….

“The truth is that the fear is from the opposite side. In the U.S. there is a strong lobby opposed to the naturalization of Muslims and Arabs, for racist and political reasons. Immigration to the U.S. eventually results in citizenship, and the granting of full citizens’ rights – something not granted to Arab refugees in any Arab country, regardless of the humanitarian situation.

“Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi should ask about the Palestinian refugees who live a tough life and are treated like animals in many Arab countries. They are forbidden from working and earning a livelihood – and some are even forbidden from traveling and visiting their families.

“In the future, before speaking, Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi should ask any Arab immigrant who has been lucky enough to gain citizenship in the [country of the] infidel, in order to find out the difference between myth and reality.”

So it is unclear what effect the fatwa will have, if any. Probably those Iraqis who are having a hard time in the U.S. will end up going back, as we’ve seen they are doing, and those who stay will want citizenship. I don’t get the impression that most Iraqi immigrants are ruled by faraway Imams.

Denmark: We will take Burmese refugees, but not Iraqis

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’ve had a pile of stuff on the on-going conflict involving Denmark and the Iraqi refugees they have been deporting, but lacking time, have posted little of it.  So, just accept this simple summary.  Many Iraqis who arrived (presumably illegally and then asked for asylum) in Denmark have been ordered deported.  So, political activists hid them in a church and ultimately authorities entered the church and physically removed them—a riot ensued.  Now, according to this report, Denmark says it will take refugees that the UN designates, but only Burmese, no more Iraqis.

Below is the whole short article from the Copenhagen Post:

Despite announcing just two months ago that Denmark could accept the Iraqi refugees as agreed by the UN, Immigration Minister Birthe Rønn Hornbech has now said they will not be the first choice this year.

Head of the Social Liberal party Margrethe Vestager is demanding an explanation for the u-turn and said she suspected that domestic politics may be responsible. ‘Birthe Rønn doesn’t want to be in a position where she is throwing Iraqis out of the country, while at the same time bringing more in,’ said Vestager to Politiken newspaper.

The minister did not wish to elaborate on the reasons for the change, but told the paper that past experience showed that Burmese refugees were good at integrating into their new country.

Quota refugees are different to asylum seekers in that they are resettled in a country following agreement with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Denmark has agreed to take approximately 500 of these refugees annually, who are selected under a number of criteria, such as geographical regions, those who are critically ill and need treatment, those who are at risk of being sent back to their original country or those who are currently in danger where they are living.

Note to Danish government:   If it’s Muslims you are concerned about, although many Burmese refugees are Christian,  take into consideration that Burmese Rohingya are Muslims too.

To learn more than you ever wanted to know about Rohingya, visit our category on the topic here (80 posts!). So far, the US has not officially taken any Rohingya, but Canada, Australia, the UK and Ireland have, among others.

Iraqi refugees bringing over the family; importing one’s own labor

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is another of those same old stories about how Iraqi refugees can’t find employment and are suffering in America.  We probably have thirty such stories already.  Just change the names of the refugees and their resettlement city and its the same lament.  And, of course the International Refugee Committee is always in there begging for more taxpayer money. 

You can read the whole thing here yourself.  But, this caught my eye near the end. 

Odeesh, his wife, Manal Harmiz, and their children, ages 11 to 23, live in a second-floor apartment near downtown El Cajon. The furniture — and a computer and flat-screen television — were given to them by Sabah Toma, a cousin who lives in La Mesa.

Toma, who came to San Diego County from Iraq in 1982, has helped bring over 63 relatives.

He owns San Diego Ice Machine, along with five convenience and liquor stores where many of his relatives work.

Toma said he’s trying to find a job for Odeesh, but it’s difficult in a tough economy.

“I have always told him, ‘When it’s your turn,’ ” Toma said. “You’ve got to go one step at a time.”

Holy cow!  Sixty three relatives!   I guess that is one way to be sure you have cheap labor!   

Last year we told you that family reunification had been closed mostly from Africa when the State Department had discovered widespread fraud through DNA testing.  Maybe they should do a little random testing among these Iraqis!

By the way, this article also tells us that the San Diego area of California has the second highest population of Iraqi refugees outside of the Detroit area of Michigan.   Both states are near the top of the unemployment charts.