Jordan Times
Friday, December 14, 2007
Only 22% of applicants left
By Linda Hindi
AMMAN - UN refugee officials in Amman said they have reached referral target for
Iraqi refugees this year, but expressed disappointment at the below-expectation
number of actual departures.
"With three weeks to go before the end of the year, we are extremely concerned
about the low rate of departures to date," said Vincent Cochetel, deputy
director of UNHCR's Division of International Protection.
On Wednesday, the UNHCR announced it had exceeded its target of 20,000 Iraqi
refugee resettlement referrals for 2007.
As of December 1, only 4,575 Iraqis had actually left their recent host
countries like Jordan and Syria, among others, for resettlement countries, a
mere 22 per cent of the total referred cases. In Jordan alone, a total of 7,551
Iraqis have had cases submitted for resettlement to 13 countries.
The US received referrals for 5,560 Iraqis followed by Canada and Australia with
598 and 506 cases, respectively.
The UNHCR official quoted International Organisation for Migration (IOM) tally
as putting the number of departures from Jordan as of the end of November at
1,534.
Top representatives from the IOM office in Amman and the regional office in
Cairo declined to confirm the figure or to offer further details on the issue.
The organisation’s head office in Washington could not be reached.
Earlier this week, Iraqi Vice President Tareq Hashemi said that his country was
working with the Jordanian government to encourage thousands of Iraqis hosted by
the Kingdom to return home.
"I am confident that the coming few days will witness Jordanian-Iraqi measures
to facilitate the return of those who want to go back to Iraq," AFP qouted
Hashemi as saying following talks with Prime Minister Nader Dahabi.
Iraqis in Jordan are not labelled as refugees by local authorities, a decision
that Hashemi praised this week because, he said, it helped prevent an Iraqi
brain drain.
According to the refugee agency, the only durable solution available for Iraqis
is resettlement.
Senior staff representatives are expressing concern over the current security
situation in Iraq, which, in their view, remains extremely unsuitable for safe
returns, countering Iraqi officials’ recent statements.
"We all hope that the situation in the country will continue to improve. Pending
this improvement, resettlement will remain one of the solutions for the most
vulnerable and exposed Iraqi refugees," said UNHCR Director for Middle East and
North Africa Radhouane Nouicer.
From Switzerland, UNHCR official Astrid van Genderen Stort told The Jordan Times
“in general, departures take longer because each country takes time to study
each case under their own procedures”.
“Most countries have sent their own delegations to do on the spot meetings,” she
said.
The official explained that UNHCR has on several occasions urged the
resettlement countries to move quicker because of the extreme vulnerability of
these Iraqis.
There are several categories of people considered for resettlement, including
torture victims, women at risk, urgent medical cases, female-headed households
and members of minority groups, according to a UNHCR statement.
Meanwhile, as of the end of last month, UNHCR Jordan has registered 51,872
refugees and asylum seekers. Iraqis by far form the vast majority of registrants
with non-Iraqis making up only 837 of that number.
The escalation of violence in Iraq since the 2003 US invasion drastically raised
the number of Iraqis fleeing to Jordan to over 750,000, according to UN
estimates. A recent study commissioned by the government and conducted by the
independent Norwegian survey group placed the number of Iraqis in Jordan between
450,000 to 500,000.
Overall, more than 4.5 million Iraqis are currently uprooted with 2.4 million
internally displaced, while the rest reside mainly in Syria and Jordan. Only a
small fraction of the most vulnerable can realistically expect to be considered
for resettlement to third countries, which must themselves offer opportunities.
UNHCR estimates there are still some 80,000 to 100,000 extremely vulnerable
Iraqi refugees in the Middle East in need of resettlement.
Other resettlement countries include Sweden, New Zealand, Ireland, Brazil,
Chile, Finland, Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Ireland, Spain
and Germany.