Witnesses warn: Iraqi refugees pose a looming humanitarian crisis

Published: 2008-05-02

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The short version of the situation was in one line of Anastasia Brown's testimony to a House subcommittee hearing: "The plain and simple truth is that the United States is not doing everything in its power to avert a looming humanitarian crisis in the Middle East." Brown, the director of refugee programs for Migration and Refugee Services of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was among witnesses May 1 describing the situation of 2.2 million Iraqis living as refugees, primarily in Syria and Jordan, and another 2.7 million "internally displaced persons," living in Iraq but unable to return to their own homes. At the joint hearing of two Foreign Affairs subcommittees -- on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight and on the Middle East and South Asia -- witnesses and members of Congress cautioned about letting the current situation fester. "Years from now, I can imagine people pointing to the lack of a U.S. response to the refugee crisis as a turning point for a new generation of radicals in the Middle East," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.

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