Syria Bars Iraq Refugees, Crisis Worsens

WITH BC ME GEM SYRIA IRAQI REFUGEES IN A BIND - Iraqi refugees gathering in front of the offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR) to register at the UN agency on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2007. Syria has admitted more than one million Iraqi refugees since the US-led invasion of Iraq, many of them fear that new regulations imposed by Syrian authorities in which Iraqi citizens should leave the country for at least 30 days after a six-month stay, will force them to go back to war-torn Iraq where they face possible death. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi). (Bassem Tellawi - AP)

Saleh said he applied for resettlement at the U.N. agency in July but has received no answer. "If the Syrians ask me to leave next week, I will stay here illegally. I cannot go back to Iraq," he said.

Khazaal Karim, who worked at the Information Ministry under Saddam Hussein, is in a similar bind. He fears that if he returned, he would be killed like dozens of journalists in the past three years. His visa and that of his large family have expired but he is also afraid to go to the authorities.

"If I am forced to go to Iraq for a month, I will be dead for sure," he said.

The U.S. State Department last week announced a study panel to look at Iraq refugee issues and report back on how to better focus U.S. assistance. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also authorized the top U.S. diplomat in Syria to discuss the refugee problem with the Syrian government, apparently in an effort to provide help.

But a handful of U.S. lawmakers have pressed for more urgent action. They note that since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the United States has permanently resettled only 466 Iraqi refugees, including 202 last year.

"We have a clear obligation to stop ignoring it, and help chart a sensible course to ease the refugee crisis," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a Democrat and war critic, wrote in a weekend piece in The Washington Post.

The U.N. wants the United States and other nations to do two things: agree to take more Iraqis permanently, and also send aid to ease the financial burden on Arab countries supporting large numbers of Iraqis.

The U.N. classifies most Iraqis as having only "temporary protection status," rather than classifying them as permanent refugees _ presumably because it assumes most will return to Iraq once fighting ends. It says it is focused on permanently resettling only the most vulnerable Iraqis.

But because the violence continues unabated and most Iraqis seem unlikely to return soon, many fear that overtaxed Mideast countries will face a refugee crisis for the foreseeable future.

The situation in Syria, in particular, is acute. Prices of apartments and food have skyrocketed since 2003 because of the influx of people, squeezing many Syrians.

Like most Iraqis here, Louaay al-Naqashabandi is scared that the new measures, despite Syrian promises of no deportation, will force him to return to Iraq. If that happens, he says, "I will be sacrificed."

The Sunni Arab lived in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad before fleeing six months ago.

"If I am ever forced to leave, I will stay at the border with my wife and two sons," said the bearded al-Naqashabandi, who is 26. "I am scared of (Shiite) militias and gangs. They threatened me with death and burned my house."