By William Fisher, t r u t h o u t
As the government’s fiscal year came to an end last week, the Bush administration had resettled only slightly more than 10 percent of the 7,000 Iraqi refugees it pledged to help – and an even tinier fraction of the estimated two million men, women and children who have fled to Jordan, Syria and other neighboring countries or the additional two million who have been internally displaced by ethnic and religious violence within their own country.
According to the US State Department, less than a thousand Iraqi refugees were given US asylum in Fiscal Year 2007. In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last September, Ellen Sauerbrey, assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, said the US would arrange US visas for 7,000 Iraqi refugees by September 30. She later revised the goal downward to 2,000.
Those seeking US visas include thousands of Iraqis who worked for the US government as translators, drivers, cleaners, cooks and a variety of other occupations. Many of these people live under death threats because of their support for the US-led coalition. The US Department of Labor has recorded the deaths of more than 250 translators alone.