US/Syria/Iraq

US official visits Syria to discuss Iraqi refugees

Article published on the 2008-06-25 Latest update 2008-06-26 05:41 TU

A UNHCR food distribution in Damascus.
(Photo: UNCHR/M.Bernard)

In an effort to increase the number of Iraqi refugees coming to the US, a senior US official held talks Wednesday in Syria, the country that houses the most of the estimated 4.7 million Iraqis who have been displaced since the start of the war in 2003. Syria was the fourth stop of a tour of the Middle East by James Foley, the coordinator for Iraqi refugees in the US State Department.

Foley already visited Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Syria is the highlight as it accepts the most of the over two million Iraqis who have left their country. But numbers are hard to come by. Peter Harling, a Middle East analyst with the International Crisis Group, told RFI that there is no consensus on how many Iraqis are in Syria.

“There could be 1.5 million, there could be significantly less,” he said. “But we’re talking at the minimum of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis that have a very tangible impact on Syrian society in terms of driving prices up, in particular, and creating a huge economic burden on the Syrian people themselves.”

“We recognise the considerable burdens that are shouldered here by the Syrian government and its people,” said Foley after his meeting with the Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister, Faysal Meqdad. “It is the conviction of the United States that we have a deep responsibility to… these refugees.”

The US has been criticised for not admitting more refugees of an invasion that it instigated. It is looking to admit 12,000 Iraqis by the end of this fiscal year, which ends in September. Since October 2007 it has admitted 4,742.

Processing Iraqi applications to go to the US has been slow because of Syrian restrictions on how many interviewers it will allow in the country. This is Foley’s second visit as refugee coordinator. Following his visit last year, Syria allowed a few US immigration officials to go and interview Iraqi refugees.

The US does not have an ambassador in Damascus, and visits from US officials are rare. Peter Harling says that Foley’s visit doesn’t necessarily represent any thaw in the relationship between the two countries. “This is more part of an ongoing process,” he said. “The US has been very slow in responding to the refugee process… It’s progressively getting up to speed.”