the point.

This blog was created to highlight the challenges for Iraqis seeking asylum outside of Iraq as well as its internally displaced people and current diaspora. It was started out of concern for what I feel is a very underdiscussed issue, one whose urgency is growing exponentially as the war goes on. As Iraq has become one of the most dangerous countries to live in in the world Iraqis hoping to leave face exceptional challenges, not only due to a trend of european countries in recent years to tighten their immigration policies but also because of a refusal of many countries to acknowledge that Iraq is a country at war, which complicates the status of those that are seeking refuge.

Iraqi refugees and internally displaced total about five million. As the refugee crisis has begun to be recognized in the past year or so, the scale and speed of action on behalf of countries involved in Iraq does not reflect either their capacity or the severity of the crisis, nor do their priorities reflect their responibility as actors who have been directly involved on the ground in Iraq since 2003. In 2007 the United States took in more than eight times the number of Burmese than Iraqis, and more than three times as many Somalis and Iranians respectively. That year the US set the goal to resettle 12,000 Iraqis (of which 1600 actually arrived in the US,) while the target set for the resettling of displaced Bhutanese(of which there are a total of 106,000 in the world) in the US in the same year was 60,000. Meanwhile the UK, whose population is roughly one fifth the size of the US' has pledged to take in 200 a year, with a total of 24 actually recorded in 2007. Deportation flights from the UK are now being organized for not only failed asylum seekers from Kurdistan, but those from central and southern Iraq as well.

Meanwhile the Iraqi government is promoting and paying for the returns of Iraqis who have fled the country while services for its current displaced are severely lacking.

I chose the name of the url because it first popped in my head from the documentary of the same name. I also chose it as a reference to my concern that we are going to see iraq fatigue in the media and in public consciousness, that as atrocities continue they will be taken for granted as normal and will be mentioned less and less and this little piece of webspace exists to help combat that.

Groups linked to in the sidebar do not necessarily have my endorsement. I have been critical of some of them in my posts, but I'm leaving any related info up for people to judge for themselves.

God bless Iraq and Iraqis.

Last edited October 1st, 2008.