On
Tuesday, Human
Rights First (HRF) released its assessment of the implementation of the
Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act of 2008. CPJ
supported the legislation, which created a category known as P2 (priority
2) for direct resettlement of Iraqi refugees with U.S. affiliations, including employees
of U.S.-based media. The act promised a lifeline to Iraqi journalists, among
other eligible groups, who have been targeted and killed
in record numbers. However, CPJ shares the concerns detailed in the HRF
white paper about the lengthy delays applicants are facing throughout this
process.
According
to HRF, only 9 percent of U.S.-affiliated Iraqis who applied to the U.S. refugee admissions program, including
journalists, have arrived in the U.S. The group estimates the entire
P2 process, from the initial request for direct resettlement to departure for
the United States, takes two
years on average for those applying out of Iraq. CPJ's own interviews with eligible
Iraqi journalists who have applied for direct resettlement are consistent with
their findings.
Journalists
applying out of Baghdad
have expressed anxiety and frustration to us with unexplained delays and lack
of information available to them on the status of their cases. One translator
for a major U.S.
newspaper submitted her application materials 10 months ago and still has not
received so much as an invitation for an interview. She did receive a notice last month
requesting she resend some of her documents. She complied and received an auto
reply that her case would be reviewed within 10 months. This could mean a 20-month
wait before even knowing if she has been confirmed as eligible, let alone the time
it takes for the multi-agency security clearance process and Department of
Homeland security checks which follow. That is a long time for someone in her
shoes.
Like
many other journalists and Iraqis at risk for their work, she has moved five
times now for her safety; she keeps her occupation secret from family and
friends and says she fears discovery
every day by militias that consider people who work with Americans to be
traitors or spies. Then there is the chance that she will find out after the
long wait that she has not been approved. A cameraman for a prominent U.S. television
news program was interviewed six months after his application was submitted; he
waited another four months to learn that his application was rejected and he
must now apply for reconsideration.
This
is, as Human Rights First puts it, "far too long for programs that were
designed to rescue Iraqis facing danger due to their ties to the United States."
Working at its best, the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act should be a means to
quickly evacuate some 250 individuals and their families eligible for their U.S. media
affiliations. It doesn't touch on the plight of those working with Iraqi-based
media outlets around the country like cameraman Jehad Abdulwahid Hannoon,
who was ambushed, shot, and left for dead while working in Baghdad in 2005. These journalists are
playing a vital role in building civil society in Iraq.
CPJ appreciates that the steps laid out in the Refugee
Crisis in Iraq Act represent an enormous undertaking and that there are
necessary screening and security protocols in place for all refugees, but the
long waits applicants are facing in both the adjudication and security
clearance phases are worrisome. Journalists who have risked their own and their
families' lives to bring essential news to the American public are left to
languish in the face of continuing threats without knowing when or even if they
will be offered a way out.
We
join in Human Rights First in calling for increased staffing, more frequent
Department of Homeland Security trips to the region to interview refugee
applicants and a more efficient security clearance process. CPJ also hopes the P2 category can be expanded, or another
mechanism put in place, to address the dangers journalists working for local
Iraqi press face on a daily basis.
If
you are interested in supporting a journalist in exile contact
CPJ's Journalist Assistance
Program.
For
more information on the Iraqi refugee crisis and ways you can help visit:
Human Rights
First
Refugees
International
The List Project
International Rescue
Committee
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why all the news about asylum seekers and refugees are old and out of date
and why the recent new news of asylum seekers and the refugees are not getting published in details with their dates in connection with resettlement in different countries.
We have and will continue to monitor up-to-date information available on this issue. If you have any relevant information you would like to refer us to, please do so.