Pledge expected within days during visit by senior State Department official; Washington to take in hundreds of Iraqis

AMMAN - The US is expected to make a new pledge of “substantial aid” to the Kingdom “within days” to help it cope with the burden of admitting tens of thousands of Iraqi children to state schools, a US State Department official said Wednesday.

The Washington-based official told The Jordan Times in a telephone interview that the pledge will be made this week during a visit to Jordan by Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Ellen Sauerbrey.

The expected pledge follows a UN appeal for $129 million to help countries hosting Iraqi nationals in providing educational services to their children.

The official, who preferred not to be named, would not divulge the amount of aid to be disbursed, but added that Washington is also expected to take in “several hundred additional refugees to the US within the next coming weeks”.

Sauerbrey is expected to arrive in Amman from Turkey where she began yesterday a weeklong Middle East visit on behalf of the Iraq Refugee and Internally Displaced Persons Task Force. The task force, which was established in February, was formed to coordinate refugee and internally displaced persons assistance to the region and refugee resettlement.

In Jordan, Sauerbrey will meet with concerned officials to discuss the Iraqi education initiative and observe the UN refugee processing operation, according to a US press statement.

A UN official told The Jordan Times that during the visit, “it is most likely that the department will look into more Iraqi cases that are suitable for US resettlement”.

The US has come under wide criticism for its reluctance to accept large numbers of refugees; since the beginning of the US-led war until the end of 2006 the powerhouse country has absorbed only 764 of an estimated 2.5 million persons who have escaped raging Iraq.

“For 2007, we have so far received 254 Iraqi refugees with perhaps an additional several hundred in coming days and weeks,” the State Department official told The Jordan Times yesterday.

The official noted that the US knows that there is an acute crisis but since the post-September 11 atmosphere, security protocols were reviewed and amended to protect the US. “The resulting dip in admissions will see a definite up-kick,” the State Department official added.

The US embassy in Amman was unavailable for comment on the issue.

The US Bureau of Public Affairs and the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration were unable to give a specific date or further comment on the visit.

Meanwhile, US Congressman Alcee Hastings, chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (US Helsinki Commission) and Special Representative on Mediterranean Affairs for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly sent a letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday following a visit to Jordan in May of this year.

In the letter, the Florida-based congressman expressed grave concern regarding the massive displacement of Iraqis, the third-largest displaced population in the world and the fastest growing refugee population.

The letter stressed the need for the United States to address “this devastating situation with strong financial support”.

“I believe the United States has a moral obligation to spearhead efforts to assist the growing Iraqi refugee populations,” Hastings wrote.

He expressed his distress about “the alarming influx of refugees in a country of just six million people” and the rapidly “deteriorating security situation” in the host countries.

“Tension is rising among host communities, oversaturated with displaced populations, who, themselves, lack access to basic services, and Iraqi refugees angered by their deteriorating living condition. The destabilising nature of large refugee flows, the need to enrol children in school… and the skewing of sectarian balances in host countries may very well lead to a breakdown of law and order in the host countries,” the congressman warned in his letter.

The letter to Rice included that despite this, “Jordan has not seen significantly increased economic assistance from its top ally - the United States - to fund its schools, hospitals and public infrastructure”.

In a telephone interview with the communications director at the Helsinki Commission in Europe, Ms Lale Mamaux told The Jordan Times yesterday that the congressman is dissatisfied with his country’s handling of the crisis and believes, “US needs to do more”.

She said that there has yet to be any official response to the letter but the commission expects a response from the secretary of state in around 7-10 days.

“In the fall, Hastings plans on introducing legislation regarding the Iraqi refugee issue which we are in the preliminary stages of drafting,” Mamaux said.