Now that refugees are supposedly 'returning' to Iraq, Iraqis who do want to leave can be ignored

"Thousands of Iraqis whose support for the U.S. war effort in Iraq has put them and their families in grave danger at home are being excluded from a new fast-track system aimed at speeding up refugee resettlement in the United States for American allies, officials said Thursday.

The Bush administration within the next month will begin accepting refugee applications directly from the about 100 Iraqi employees of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and their relatives, letting them bypass an often-lengthy U.N. referral process in third countries where they must travel at great expense, they said.

But possibly tens of thousands more at-risk Iraqis — those who worked for private contractors, aid agencies or media outlets and their relatives — won't be eligible due to objections from the Homeland Security Department, which fears that terrorists might use it to slip into the country, the officials said.

Homeland Security is effectively blocking contract employees, like drivers, translators, technicians, from benefiting from the initiative by insisting they provide official U.S. references and sponsors before applying for resettlement, a more stringent standard than for direct hires and even those in the U.N. system, according to the officials."

:mad:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071130/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraqi_refugees

The BBC reported a couple of weeks ago that the "surge" in returning Iraqis was partially due to visas expiring and personal savings running out. Most of the returning refugees were leaving Syria, and the report made it clear that these refugees had to be escorted on the highways due to dangerous conditions.