Iraqis aiding US seek visas, refuge

WASHINGTON -- The American ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, has asked that the Bush administration grant immigrant visas to all Iraqis employed by the US government because of growing concern that they will flee the country if they cannot be assured eventual safe passage to the United States.

Crocker's request comes as the administration is struggling to respond to the flood of Iraqis who have sought refuge in neighboring countries since sectarian fighting escalated early last year. The United States has admitted only 133 Iraqi refugees since October, despite predicting that it would process 7,000 by the end of September.

"Our [Iraqi staff members] work under extremely difficult conditions, and are targets for violence including murder and kidnapping," Crocker wrote Undersecretary of State Henrietta Fore. "Unless they know that there is some hope of an [immigrant visa] in the future, many will continue to seek asylum, leaving our Mission lacking in one of our most valuable assets."

Crocker's two-page cable underscores how Iraq's instability and a rapidly increasing refugee population are stoking pressures to help those who are threatened or displaced.

As public sentiment grows for a partial or full American withdrawal, US Embassy officials are facing demands from their own employees to secure a reliable exit route, and the administration is facing pressure from aid groups, lawmakers, and diplomats to do more for those upended by war.

With Iraqi immigration to the United States at a trickle, it appears that humanitarian concerns have been trumped so far by fears that terrorists may infiltrate through refugee channels. Bureaucratic delays at the departments of State and Homeland Security have also bogged down processing of immigration requests by Iraqis.

Skeptics contend another reason the administration has been slow to resettle Iraqis in large numbers is that doing so could be seen as admitting its efforts to secure Iraq have failed. The intense pressure for visas "reflects the fact that the situation is pretty dire," said Roberta Cohen, principal adviser to the UN secretary-general's representative on internally displaced persons.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says that about 2 million Iraqis have been displaced inside the country so far and an estimated 2.2 million others have fled to Syria, Jordan, and other neighbors. Each month, another 60,000 Iraqis flee their homes, according to the UN group.

Overall estimates of the number of Iraqis who might be targeted as collaborators because of their work for US, coalition, or foreign reconstruction groups are as high as 110,000. The High Commissioner for Refugees has estimated that about 20,000 Iraqi refugees need permanent resettlement.

In the cable he sent July 9, Crocker highlighted the plight of Iraqis who have assumed great risk by helping the United States. Since June 2004, at least nine US Embassy employees have been killed. But Iraqi employees other than interpreters generally cannot obtain US immigrant visas, and until an expansion of the annual quota to 500 from 50, translator applicants faced a nine-year wait.