Iraq's Refugees

Excellent report by Cara Buckley for The New York Times that shows just how far from normal the new, less spectacularly violent Iraq is:

The government’s widely publicized plan to run free buses from Damascus, Syria, to Baghdad was suspended after just two runs. Thousands of Sunni refugees get no aid because they fear registering with the Shiite-led government. While aid organizations are distributing emergency packets that include utensils, blankets and food, deeper structural issues, like securing neighborhoods, supplying housing and creating jobs, remain unresolved and largely unaddressed.

A small fraction of the millions of refugees who fled Iraq have come back. While the government trumpeted their return as proof of newfound security, migration experts said most of them were forced back by expired visas and depleted savings. Ms. Hashim, for one, pawned her wedding ring and gold jewelry to stay in Syria, but came back after her uncle’s visa application was denied.

Given that the West -- and especially the USA -- showed little inclination to do anything to help refugees (helping refugees, you see, would be like admitting that Iraq's all screwed up; better to let people suffer in order to keep up appearances) returning home even under these conditions is probably the right move for many families. It's a reminder, though, of the tenuous nature of whatever kind of security has been brought to Iraq. None of the underlying issues have been resolved, so the potential for further breakdown is constantly looking over the horizon.

Comments

Given that the West -- and especially the USA -- showed little inclination to do anything to help refugees

The West has found 3rd World refugees are like down on their luck freeloading relatives or boomerang kids. Once invited in, nearly impossible to get rid of when conditions improve.

The days when Euro Left and Jewish human rights lawyers dictated 1st world nations "moral obligation" to take in whatever wretched refuse from distant teeming shores showed up - are long gone in a massive Warsaw Bloc gang plus African&Muslim crime wave stretching from Scandanavia to Greece -and refusal of newcomers to assimilate.
Instead, it is in the interest of the West to get the refugees to return ASAP. Iraqi refugees will not luck out with lifetimes on the dole in London like happened after Saddams consolidation of power in 1978 or the 1991 Gulf War. Nor do countries with mass refugee camps wish to let them remain to become cancerous hot beds of terror and subversion like the Palestinian refugee camps became in Kuwait, siding with Saddam, Black September in Jordan, or all the Hez and Fatah and Hamas terror coming out of the camps in Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria.

Posted by Chris Ford | December 20, 2007 2:40 PM

Have you ever thought that, considering that we wrecked their country, maybe it wouldn't be hugely prudent to let hundreds of thousands or millions of Iraqi refugees into the U.S.?

Some of them, or their sons, might consider us to blame (which we are) and feel they should take some vengeance on America.

Posted by Steve Sailer | December 20, 2007 9:17 PM

I have to say that the US trying to help the two million Iraqi refugees would be a complete waste of time.

The only way it might work is if the US somehow worked with Syria and the other countries taking in Iraqi refugees and paid for the expense incurred by those countries.

Given the US hostility to those countries (Iran and Syria), email me when that happens.

The only way the refugees can return home now is to the alternative Sunni and Shia enclaves that the ethnic cleansing has produced. They can no longer return to their original homes, that is clear.

The refugee crisis is obviously a problem, but the real problem for the US is the occupation. As long as the occupation remains, the refugees as well as the Iraqi citizens not displaced are going to hate the US for at least a generation.

Putting US troops in the middle of that indicates a complete lack of interest in those troops well being.

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | December 20, 2007 10:20 PM

Ford's got it right about the Palestinian refugees, at least -- while I'm no Israel apologist, even I bristle knowing Jordan, Egypt, et al's refusal to assimilate refugees, all for political gain.

Also, Derek Fischer got jobbed tonight.

Posted by EpicureanQuaker | December 20, 2007 11:14 PM

Our occupation of Iraq has indeed created a refugee mess similar to that created by the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Palestinian refugees (originally 700,000, now 4 million) have been a destabilizing force and have prevented progress in neighboring Middle East countries, which is one reason why they should be allowed to return home where they came from. Israel prevents that. Can one imagine the Iraqi government saying that only Shiites could return home? Israel should end the occupation, accept the Arab Peace Plan, allow refugees back. We should also end our occupation of Iraq.

Posted by J. E. Dundee | December 20, 2007 11:19 PM

I have to disagree with you that the West shows no inclination to accept Iraqi refugees. Sweden has taken in 27,500 Iraqis since the start of 2006 through November this year. The U.S. would have to accept 900,000 Iraqis to make an equal contribution.

Posted by JB | December 21, 2007 4:45 AM