World Refugee Day: U.S. Criticized For Failing to Help Iraqi Refugees and Iraqis Who Aided U.S. Occupation

Since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, an estimated 4.7 million Iraqis have been displaced both within and outside Iraq. And for many, the situation is desperate.

Jordan and Syria alone have taken in some two million Iraqi refugees but are not equipped to meet the needs of all those arriving. In a new report, Amnesty International accuses the international community of failing to respond to the crisis in a meaningful way. As of 2007, only 1 percent of the total displaced Iraqi population was estimated to be in the industrialized world.

To mark World Refugee Day, Amnesty International is calling on the international community, in particular those countries who participated in the US-led invasion of Iraq, to take real steps to alleviate the suffering of those displaced.

Nowhere is this more relevant than in the United States. Over the past five years the U.S. has resettled just 5,000 Iraqis. Compare that to Sweden–a country of only nine million people–which resettled 18,000 Iraqis last year alone. And smong the most desperate seeking asylum are those Iraqis who have been forced from their homes because they helped the US government in Iraq, serving as interpreters and civil society experts for the military, State Department and federal agencies such as USAID.

Today we are joined by one of the few Iraqis who was resettled in the US. Haydar Saeed Assad worked as a translator with the US army in Najaf for 4 years. He fled Iraq after two attempts on his life and now lives in Ithaca, New York. Maura Stephens is a journalist, educator, and peace activist. She recently started a non-profit called Iraqi Refugees Assistance Connection. They both join us from Ithaca.

We are also joined on the telephone by Kirk Johnson, he is the founder of The List Project that helps safely resettle in the United States whose lives are endangered because of working with the US in Iraq.

Kirk Johnson, Former USAID worker in Iraq. He is the founder of the List Project that helps safely resettle in the United States Iraqis whose lives are endangered because of working with the US in Iraq.

Haydar Saeed Assad, Worked as a translator with the US army in Najaf, Iraq for four years. Fled Iraq after two attempts on his life and now lives in Ithaca, New York.

Maura Stephens, Journalist, educator, and peace activist. She recently started a non-profit called Iraqi Refugees Assistance Connection. Before the 2003 invasion she and her husband co-authored a book about Iraq called “Collateral Damage.”