EVERETT -They watched U.S. troops rumble past their homes in Humvees and Strykers and saw Baghdad’s statue of Saddam Hussein topple.
That’s when they were promised a new beginning: democracy.
Since then, they’ve fled Iraq by the millions, to refugee camps in Syria and Jordan, to wait.
Now, refugee advocates say it’s likely that they’ll continue waiting, even though President Bush announced in March that as many as 7,000 Iraqi refugees living in camps in Syria and Jordan could arrive in the United States this year.
Everett, home to a sizable Iraqi community, could be slated to receive some of those refugees.
“There is potential for some to come, but the likelihood is not great because of the enhanced security procedures that will need to be in place,” said Jan Stephens, director of Lutheran Community Services NW, an organization that resettles refugees in Western Washington.
Federal officials say they’ll have to create a new security system to screen Iraqis before they come here, Stephens said. That’s in addition to security screenings already in place.
“There are countries in Africa where there is a process in place, and it still takes years for them to get here,” Stephens said. “This new process isn’t even created yet.”
Everett is home to the state’s largest Iraqi community, numbering at least 500, local Iraqis said. Most of Everett’s Iraqis fled their homeland in the 1990s. They were among Hussein’s opponents and faced death if they remained in Iraq.
It’s unlikely that Iraqis in Everett have relatives who are languishing in Syria and Jordan’s refugee camps, said Watah al Rikabi, the teenage son of Adil al Rikabi, who often speaks for Everett’s Iraqi community.
“We haven’t heard of any,” Watah al Rikabi said.
Most of Everett’s Iraqis have relatives who remain in Iraq, he said.
Aid organizations say the war in Iraq has created the gravest refugee crisis so far this century, but politics prohibit U.S. officials from taking action.
“We’re trying to develop a democracy, but people are leaving and we’re taking them as refugees?” Stephens said. “It’s a contradiction.”
Fewer than 70 Iraqis came as refugees to the United States since last October, said Sean Garcia of Refugees International. Just one Iraqi refugee came in April.
An Oregon lawmaker introduced a House of Representatives bill this month to expand the flow of Iraqi refugees to the U.S. to 50,000 people.
The law is an attempt to raise awareness, but it likely won’t make any difference unless federal officials make it a priority to create an effective security screen, Garcia said.
“The president has that power, but until that happens, we’re very pessimistic about numbers,” he said.
Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kapralos@heraldnet.com.
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