Memo to Iraqi refugees: you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.

[WilliamPitt]

...oh, and yeah, sorry about wrecking your country and stuff. Now go away.

Passport rule change in US keeps Iraqis out
By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | February 7, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The US government last month stopped accepting all but the latest version of Iraqi passports, effectively barring hundreds -- potentially thousands -- of Iraqis with valid US visas from entering the United States, including some students at Boston-area universities.

The move has stranded Iraqi families around the world and made it more difficult for countless others to flee the chaos-ridden country, according to Iraqi officials.

In January, the United States said it would no longer accept most previously issued Iraqi passports because they were too easily forged. Instead, Iraqis entering the United States have to have newly issued, electronically readable passports. But none of Iraq's 50 embassies around the world has the machines required to produce the new passports, Samir Sumaida'ie, Iraq's ambassador to the United States, said in an interview yesterday.

Sumaida'ie said the State Department gave the Iraqi government no time to prepare for the change, announcing on Jan. 8 that, effective immediately, the new passports would be required. He said it would be months before the embassies receive the new machines and training needed to produce the new kind of passport

Now Iraqi citizens are being told that the only way to get a valid passport is to travel to Baghdad. But Sumaida'ie acknowledged that it would be an extreme hardship for most Iraqis abroad to make such a trip.

(snip)

Since the new policy went into effect, Iraq's embassy in Washington has been flooded with calls from Iraqis around the world, some of whom spent their savings to buy a plane ticket out of the chaotic capital, only to be told to go back home because their visas were issued in passports that are now considered invalid. Even an Iraqi diplomat at the United Nations who had traveled out of the country was turned back, despite her valid diplomatic credentials.

More: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/02/07/passport_rule_change_in_us_keeps_iraqis_out/

[happy5]

1. K&R, and they have to go to Baghdad!

Let me get this straight here. They have to go to Baghdad - the absolute hell on Earth right now - to get a passport so they can Iraq and go to the U.S. or elsewhere!

That's some F-ed shite right there!

[madrchsod]

2. not only the usa.."My Advice to My Family is to Suck It Up and Die"

http://twentyfourstepstoliberty.blogspot.com/
24 Steps to Liberty

February 1--"My Advice to My Family is to Suck It Up and Die"

[matcom]

3. read this this morning

i'd say unbelievable but *sigh*

[KharmaTrain]

4. More History Revisited...

I sat in on the late "Crossfire" in Summer '02. The guests were "Iraqi" national...INC plants...who painted what a great picture a "Free" Iraq would be. How the "entrepenurial" spirit already built in to the Iraqi people would flourish and this was used as the basis for the "hearts and flower" astroturfing Chalabi and others tried to stovepipe. Surely, they said that night, thousands of Iraqis living abroad were anxious to return and lead the reconstruction effort. The corporate media couldn't get enough of these scenarios...as if to convince themselves that this invasion was "gonna be alright". Now look where we are.

Senator Kennedy has brought up the Iraqi ex-patriot situation and the debate was shut down in the last Senate. Hopefully something can restart soon as the flight will increase as the bloodletting does. When I read Riversbend, I keep hoping for the day I'll see where she's finally escaped to a safe haven and away from the hell she's carefully described for the past 4 years. I'm sure she's just the tip of the iceburg.

Many of us see the writing on the wall here. When Iraq collapses...and it will...there will be a flood of all types of refugees that will not be welcome in a neighboring country, will find it tough going in the already crowded gateways in Europe and will have to be re-located to the United States...just like we did with the Vietnamese and Laotians who were left behind after the fall of Saigon.

The boooosh regime won't even acknowledge these people as it would signify yet another "setback"...or admitting the situation isn't as bad as we know it is. These people are truly invisible. Here's hoping Senator Kennedy renews his call for some kind of amnesty/relocation program for the hundreds of thousands of refugees this war and its ethnic cleansing have and will create. Time is critical.

Thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention as this human tragedy is sure to get worse.

Cheers

:toast:

:kick:

[LeahMira]

5. History repeats...

As the St. Louis steamed toward Havana from Hamburg, Germany, with nearly 1,000 Jews fleeing the Nazis aboard, Recha Weiler desperately nursed her dying husband, Moritz.

While other passengers enjoyed the elegance of the civilized cruise after the repressions and humiliations of Germany, Weiler spent most of the voyage in her cabin with Moritz.

But her efforts failed. The university professor died aboard the ship and was buried at sea.

An estimated half of the passengers were to die later, after both the US and Cuba rejected their pleas for refuge and the cruel 40-day journey sent them back to Europe to face the Nazis.