U.S. Anti-Terrorism Laws Hold Up Asylum Seekers / WaPo

[Demeter]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/12/AR2007081201013.html?wpisrc=newsletter

More than seven months after the Bush administration promised help to a group of foreign nationals whose applications for asylum or refugee status have been hindered by strict interpretation of anti-terrorism laws, only a handful of the applicants have had their cases resolved.

In January, officials in the departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would soon sign waivers helping refugees in camps outside the United States who had been barred entry under the USA Patriot Act and the Real ID Act because they had provided "material support" to armed groups such as the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka -- even though some of those groups have not officially been designated terrorist organizations. The waivers would also help applicants who were forced to aid some terrorist groups under duress.

Advocates say that more than 1,000 asylum seekers have been blocked because of the strict interpretation of the anti-terrorism laws. Since the administration's promise, only four asylum seekers and five refugees have been resettled after fleeing ethnic and religious persecution in their countries and arriving in the United States.

"It is unconscionable that the Bush administration has so meagerly used its waiver authority," said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the chief sponsor of legislation aimed at correcting material-support provisions. "These are victimized people who meet every other standard for admission as refugees, but they are excluded because they were forced against their will to provide material support to illicit groups.