Don't Abandon Iraqi Refugees

On this World Refugee Day the United States is disappointing millions of displaced Iraqis. Those who want to resettle in the U.S. are finding the process slow and opaque. Millions more are struggling to meet basic needs -- food, medical care, education.

Approximately 15 percent of Iraq's population has fled their homes to escape violence; two million have moved within Iraq, some abandoning their homes for crowded camps, while 2.2 million have left the country to seek refuge in other countries. Most of the refugees live in Syria and Jordan.

The refugee flow illustrates the failure so far of U.S. and Iraqi government policies to end the violence in Iraq. More worrisome, the growing population of Iraqi refugees poses a future security threat. Contrary to six months ago, refugees in Jordan increasingly blame the U.S. for their displacement and lack of adequate support. Iraqi refugee communities threaten to breed new opponents to U.S. involvement in the Middle East.

U.S. officials are aware of these risks. In February the State Department set up a special task force to deal with Iraqi refugees, but the results have been negligible. After announcing that it would consider up to 7,000 of "the most vulnerable" for resettlement here, the U.S. has admitted just 21 Iraqi refugees to the U.S. from February through May.

The "most vulnerable" refugees include many who risked their lives working as translators for the U.S. in Iraq, often accompanying American soldiers into battle. "Their work for the United States government often makes them targets of death squads, militias and al Qaeda," explains a recent report by the House Judiciary Committee. One reason for the delays has been the sluggishness of the Department of Homeland Security, first in establishing security standards for processing Iraqis and then in getting adequate screening teams into the field.

Resettlement is the most visible -- but not the most important -- part of the U.S. response to the surge of Iraqi refugees. Even when the U.S. resettlement program is up and running, only a tiny percentage of Iraqi refugees will be able to relocate to the U.S. or elsewhere (Sweden has granted asylum to thousands of Iraqis). Other parts of the policy focus on helping host countries absorb a flood of refugees.

The problems are daunting. For example, there are an estimated 800,000 Iraqi refugees in Jordan -- more than 13 percent of the host country's population -- and approximately 250,000 of them are school-age children. Yet a recent survey found that only 14,000 Iraqi children are enrolled in Jordanian schools. The rest are idle or looking for illegal work to help support their families.

According to Jordanian government officials, the U.S. has provided a total of $10 million in bilateral aid for ministries that deal with health, education and water to help ease the burden of refugees. The U.S. is working with the Jordanian government, UNICEF and the UN Refugee Agency to expand Jordan's school system to make room for more Iraqi and Jordanian children. Washington is preparing to put up more money, some of which will be used to hire Iraqi teachers from the refugee community. But nobody expects a school construction program big enough to accommodate all of the Iraqi children.

Education is a value in itself, but it also helps refugee children -- many of whom have witnessed death and destruction -- deal with trauma, and it prepares them to become functioning citizens, either in a peaceful Iraq or as residents of another country.

Other refugee needs, such as food, medical care and livelihood, present similar challenges, but they can be resolved for a small fraction of the cost of our military operations in Iraq. There is a risk that Iraqi refugees will become the new Palestinians -- disenfranchised and targets for radicalization -- and another source of instability in the Middle East, where the U.S. already has too many enemies.

But American leadership, openness and generosity can help prevent that outcome. It is an investment we need to make -- and quickly.

Kenneth H. Bacon is the president of Refugees International.