Helping Iraqi Refugees in America and Abroad
Abood al-Khafajee says he's lucky. Out of the more than 2 million Iraqi refugees around the world, he's one of the 1,600 who have been allowed to settle in the U.S. in the past year.
Deborah Amos, who covers Iraq for NPR, spent time with al-Khafajee's family, now living in Brooklyn, N.Y. It's a new, unfamiliar landscape for the family members, who, for instance, had no idea what asparagus was the first time they saw it in a supermarket.
The family was forced to leave Iraq because al-Khafajee, who had worked as a translator for the U.S. military, was threatened. There are many Iraqis in similar situations, and one of al-Khafajee's daughters, Shaima, says she doesn't think the U.S. is doing enough to help others who were forced to flee.
Many refugees wind up stuck in a kind of legal limbo in places like Syria. They don't want to go home, but no countries will take them. Earlier this week, Deborah examined the problems facing these refugees and, in particular, their children. There are almost half a million Iraqi children in Syria, and their parents often can't afford school there, meaning a generation of Iraqi kids may go uneducated.
For its part, Syria says the international community is not doing enough to help. After leaving its borders open much longer than other neighboring countries, Syria imposed a strict visa requirement on all Iraqis on Oct. 1.
Now, as Deborah said to me, where will they go?
12:31 PM ET | 10-17-2007 | permalink
