LiberalNation
10-02-2007, 09:57 PM
Good for us. Most of these iraqis helped our troops and great risk to their own lives. letting them live here is the least we can do seeing has we can't seem to give them a safe democratic country of their own.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usiraqrefugee;_ylt=AorKck2MTgzzhjMdqHv2oGQDW7oF
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States, under fire for not taking in more Iraqis displaced by the war, plans to admit 12,000 refugees from the strife-torn country before October 1, 2008, a US official said Tuesday.
"Our plans for FY (fiscal year) 2008 include processing enough Iraqi refugees to admit 12,000 during the fiscal year," which began Monday, the US official said on condition of anonymity.
The official's comments came as US President George W. Bush told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in an official memorandum that the United States looked to welcome a maximum of 80,000 refugees over the next 12 months.
As of September 19, when it named a special coordinator for Iraqi refugees to help break the bureaucratic red tape that has held back thousands from entering the country, the US government had admitted about 900, well short of the target number of 7,000, according to official US figures.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees on June 6 estimated that 2.4 million Iraqis had fled abroad, mostly to neighboring Syria and Jordan, since the war began, and another two million have been displaced inside Iraq.
US lawmakers have expressed outrage at the tiny numbers of Iraqis allowed into the United States and have crafted legislation aimed at lifting some of the roadblocks faced by Iraqi refugees, many of whom are said to have worked for the US government and fear reprisals by insurgents.
Bush's memorandum laid out ceilings for the numbers of refugees to be admitted from each region: 16,000 from Africa; 20,000 from East Asia; 3,000 from European and Central Asia; 3,000 from Latin America and the Caribbean; and 28,000 from the Near East and South Asia.
The remaining 10,000 formed an "unallocated reserve" to expand admissions "in regions where the need for additional admissions arises," Bush said in the document.
The anonymous US official said that the United States had admitted 53,813 between October 1, 2004 and October 1, 2005; roughly 41,500 in fiscal year 2006; and about 49,400 in the just completed fiscal year 2007.
In Europe, Sweden alone had admitted between 80,000 and 120,000 Iraqis by mid-September, according to the government in Stockholm, which has tightened up its conditions for granting asylum.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usiraqrefugee;_ylt=AorKck2MTgzzhjMdqHv2oGQDW7oF
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States, under fire for not taking in more Iraqis displaced by the war, plans to admit 12,000 refugees from the strife-torn country before October 1, 2008, a US official said Tuesday.
"Our plans for FY (fiscal year) 2008 include processing enough Iraqi refugees to admit 12,000 during the fiscal year," which began Monday, the US official said on condition of anonymity.
The official's comments came as US President George W. Bush told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in an official memorandum that the United States looked to welcome a maximum of 80,000 refugees over the next 12 months.
As of September 19, when it named a special coordinator for Iraqi refugees to help break the bureaucratic red tape that has held back thousands from entering the country, the US government had admitted about 900, well short of the target number of 7,000, according to official US figures.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees on June 6 estimated that 2.4 million Iraqis had fled abroad, mostly to neighboring Syria and Jordan, since the war began, and another two million have been displaced inside Iraq.
US lawmakers have expressed outrage at the tiny numbers of Iraqis allowed into the United States and have crafted legislation aimed at lifting some of the roadblocks faced by Iraqi refugees, many of whom are said to have worked for the US government and fear reprisals by insurgents.
Bush's memorandum laid out ceilings for the numbers of refugees to be admitted from each region: 16,000 from Africa; 20,000 from East Asia; 3,000 from European and Central Asia; 3,000 from Latin America and the Caribbean; and 28,000 from the Near East and South Asia.
The remaining 10,000 formed an "unallocated reserve" to expand admissions "in regions where the need for additional admissions arises," Bush said in the document.
The anonymous US official said that the United States had admitted 53,813 between October 1, 2004 and October 1, 2005; roughly 41,500 in fiscal year 2006; and about 49,400 in the just completed fiscal year 2007.
In Europe, Sweden alone had admitted between 80,000 and 120,000 Iraqis by mid-September, according to the government in Stockholm, which has tightened up its conditions for granting asylum.