Chaldean Federation of America (CFA) on the Plight of Iraqi Christians and Operation-R4; an Update

January 24th, 2007

CFA is proud to continue it’s 25 years of service to the Chaldean Community in the US and in the homeland. Our organization is unique in it’s mission. Our focus and the resources we offer fill the critical and unmet needs of Iraqi Christians affected by the sectarian violence and ethnic cleansing in their ancestral land. CFA is attempting to create a safety net for Iraqi Christians who are fleeing violence, whose lives are at risk, have no government, constitution or militia to protect them and, up to this point have had little if any access to humanitarian aid. The Federation is focused on identifying and helping individuals, families and communities that are in extreme danger in their countries of refuge. Among these are victims of massacre and terror. They include widows, orphans, rape victims, torture survivors, and targets of genocide. Often such people find themselves in places where they are not accepted. Undocumented and unwelcome, they fall through the cracks of international aid efforts. Our people in Diaspora lack basic human rights and have desperate psychological and physical needs. Up to this point our Iraqi Christian refugees have had nowhere to turn.
Since the May 2006 launch of Phase I of the R-4 Refugee Initiative (Research, Rescue, Relief and Resettle), the CFA has: (1) developed and validated it’s survey identification tool;(2) extracted and analyzed key data on the factor precipitating flight from Iraq and on the conditions refugees are facing within countries of refuge; (3) developed a comprehensive research report on refugees across 30 countries; (4) disseminated the findings to key non-governmental (international humanitarian) organizations, US legislators, key commissions of the UN (specifically the UN High Commission on Refugees-UNHCR), and community and faith-based organizations countrywide. A copy of Wave 1 report is available.  

CFA’s Phase II focuses on legislators and those who make decisions to admit refugees in mass numbers. In this Phase we are seeking persecuted group admission (P2 Status), family reunification admission (P3 Status), or both, or may be a one time refugee admission special program authorized by the Congress such the designation of the 20,000 unallocated reserve admission numbers for our refugees. Since the numbers of our people fleeing Iraq is rising dramatically, CFA cannot be dependent on the P1 Status for it is too little, too slow, too painful and problematic for our refugees. However, we are continuing to compile information from surveys in order to document that they have been persecuted religiously, ethnically and/or politically in order to fit the basic requirement for priorities P2 and P3, i.e. to meet the refugee definition first.

Throughout Phase I and II, CFA has built substantial linkages through it’s membership and networking with the Refugee Council USA comprised of key humanitarian relief and faith-based organizations (including the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), World Relief (WR), Church World Service (CWS), U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB), Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS), and International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC). CFA is particularly grateful for the faith-based organizations USCCB, JRS and HIAS lead in contributing to and advancing the position statement advocating for an adjustment in the Immigration/Refugee status of those Iraqi-Christian refugees.

From September to December 2006, CFA’s staff has traveled internationally to bring the plight of the Iraqi-Christian refugees to the world’s attention. As part of that outreach effort, we have traveled to the UNHCR conference on refugee’s consultation in Geneva, Switzerland, to the US Dept. of State meetings in Washington DC, to Chicago for Dept. of Homeland Security Asylum officers training, to Beirut, Lebanon for refugee resettlement planning and strategy and visits to the Australian Parliament. Presently one of the CFA’s directors is visiting the region in order to assess the conditions and the needs of our people in the field.

In addition, on Tuesday January 16, 2007 on the Capitol Hill, CFA delegation participated in the US Senate Full Committee on Judiciary session on “The Plight of Iraqi Refugees” by submitting a full testimony on the subject which became part of the Committee official records.

As of this writing, the CFA has:

Identified, through the sponsorship of relatives, over 4,000 refugee cases, representing in excess of 12,000 Iraqi Christian refugees across 30 countries;
In concert with professors and researchers, Drs. Stuart A. Karabenick (the U of M) and Phyllis A. Noda (EMU), developed a comprehensive proposal, Project Legacy, designed to meet the needs of refugees and their children awaiting resettlement or repatriation in the five host countries of highest concentration. This project will ensure a better integration for these refugees when they arrive in the country of final settlement (Executive Summary is available);
Reinforced our associations with research associations and key members of the Michigan delegation to the US Congress;
Thousands of these refugees are fleeing because many of them at one time have been affiliated or provided help in some way to the U.S. Troops in Iraq. They have been called traitors and received threat notes, therefore they fled their homeland. The U.S. Refugee Admission Program does not recognize their services and the administration has done nothing to resettle them. CFA is trying to assist in the plight of these brave people. Because of the vicious sectarian violence, hundreds of thousands of Iraq Christians migrated to northern Iraq seeking better secure grounds. Currently, CFA is also looking into options of how to help those Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
Heightened Public Awareness through our broadcasts on NPR Fresh Air, interviews with the Boston Globe, Washington Post, the Catholic News Agency, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Associated Press, 60 Minutes, Scandinavian News Center (Finnish TV), The English Guardian and as cited in the testimony of Nina Shea (Vice Chair of US Commission on International Religious Freedom) before the Congressional Committee on Human Rights (December 21, 2006) and then published in the National Review Online (NRO).
Future plans include continued outreach, awareness building, program development and fundraising from public and private sector sources to alleviate suffering in countries of refuge and to prepare them for optimal integration within the countries of their final resettlement. Together, with community and humanitarian organizations, we are confident that we will provide life-saving help to dispossessed people who have fled war and intense insurgency and persecution, and who because of their religious faith have no place to call home and no means to survive with dignity.