Iraqi Refugees: Living in Limbo

In meeting Iraqi refugee children, I'm reminded that, as a child, Jesus himself was a refugee whose family fled death threats.

CAIRO, Egypt (CRS) - "We had to flee Iraq because of the violence," the father of four began.

"One day while I was at work, my wife was confronted by militia members with a warning: get out or you will be killed." He explained that he'd been targeted after reporting that a Shia sect's militia had planted bombs on the side of a nearby road.

His wife fled first with their children. They entered Syria on a tourist visa, living on the streets for four days. Eventually, the husband joined them and they headed for Lebanon.

They've been living in a poor neighborhood in southern Beirut for a while now. It is winter and very cold in their sparse concrete apartment. He cannot find work; his wife is occasionally employed as a domestic worker in a Lebanese household. But the pay can be as low as $3.25 a day, and their rent is $150.00 a month.

Their school-age children are not in school. There simply isn't enough busfare money to get them there. The husband's eyes are vaults of sorrow. He has no destination, no future in sight. He cannot return to Iraq because of the danger, and he cannot start a new life in Lebanon.

Like millions of other Iraqi refugees, this family has escaped death in their war-torn land only to find themselves living in limbo. As a snapshot of an ever-expanding humanitarian and moral crisis, this family's story highlights those realities with which Iraqis have to cope every day in exile: it is unsafe to return home, they cannot find work in neighboring lands, and they are running out of their savings, if they ever had them.

During a weeklong trip I and other Catholic sisters made to Lebanon and Syria with Catholic Relief Services this January, we saw the same common threads emerging when we visited Iraqi refugees. The refugees cannot attain legal status in their host countries. Traumatized by war and with little access to healthcare services, they are coping with chronic illnesses.

Many Iraqi children are not attending school, and some are working in dangerous situations to support their families. Iraqi women who are able to find day work are under-paid, and some are resorting to prostitution to buy food for their children.

With more than 4 million people displaced, Iraqis are the third largest and the fastest-growing refugee population in the world. Host countries such as Lebanon and Syria have experienced an enormous strain on their infrastructures as a result of the Iraqi influx. For example, rent prices in Syria have skyrocketed; food and oil prices have increased dramatically as well.

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The United Nations' refugee agency in both Lebanon and Syria describes the painstakingly slow pace of processing refugees for resettlement: there are a number of screening interviews, background checks, and medical exams before a refugee's profile is matched with the criteria of host countries like Australia. Even then, there is no guarantee the new country will accept them.

Although the U.S. promised to receive 7,000 Iraqi refugees by October 2007, only 1608 were resettled in the U.S. The 2008 quota of 12,000 is off to a slow start, with only 1324 refugees being resettled in the first three months (October to December) of the 2008 fiscal year.

Bright spots are few and far between, but they exist. During our trip, we met with humanitarian organizations, church groups, and women religious in Syria and Lebanon who are performing miracles with limited resources. Some of the women religious are running temporary shelters for Iraqi women and children.

Other Catholic groups are providing medical care, psychosocial support, legal services, and food. Some churches, receiving Iraqi Catholics who are fleeing violence specifically directed at Christians, are also offering makeshift social services with donations from parishioners.

These efforts are a lifeline for many Iraqis. However, a comprehensive strategy for saving and resettling Iraqi refugees is needed. We need to fund aid programs that help them, remove obstacles in the visa process, and increase the number of Iraqi immigrants the U.S. will accept. For some of us, it will mean opening our communities to them here in America.

In meeting Iraqi children whose futures are so uncertain now, I'm reminded that, as a child, Jesus himself was a refugee whose family fled death threats. I wonder how his family was treated in Egypt-did anyone welcome them? How did they struggle to survive in an unfamiliar land? What fears did they face? How long was their ordeal?

As I continue to reflect on the people I met during our days in Lebanon and Syria, I wonder: How many times did I meet our God in the Iraqi people? In the name of God who dwells among us as a refugee and in the name of the one human family, we must make room in our hearts and our communities for the Iraqi refugees.

Arlene Flaherty is a Blauvelt Dominican Sister and a program officer with Catholic Relief Services.

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Reprinted by Catholic Online with permission of Catholic Relief Services (www.crs.org)