Great News Everyone!

[Panzerfaust]

Tens of thousands of Iraqis could come to U.S. in '09

By Susan Cornwell 1 hour, 27 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has surpassed its goal of admitting 12,000 Iraqi refugees this year and expects more, perhaps tens of thousands, next year, the State Department said on Friday.

The United States expects to admit a minimum of 17,000 Iraqi refugees in fiscal 2009, which begins October 1, the department's senior coordinator for refugees said. Thousands more Iraqis and their family members could arrive via a special visa program for people who worked for the United States or its contractors.

"I think you'll see the U.S. government admitting over the course of fiscal 2009 tens of thousands of Iraqis into the United States," coordinator James Foley told reporters.

Up to 3,000 could come from Baghdad, where the United States launched interviews this year, he said.

So far this year 12,118 Iraqi refugees have arrived and another 1,000 are booked to travel to the United States by the end of this month, when the U.S. fiscal year ends, he said.

This marks a huge leap from just 1,600 Iraqis who were admitted in the previous year, a number that drew widespread criticism from refugee groups who said Washington should do more to help solve a crisis affecting millions of Iraqis since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

But it is still lower than the number some other countries have taken. Sweden, a country of 9 million people, has admitted over 40,000 Iraqis since 2003.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimates 2 million Iraqis are living abroad, mostly in neighboring Jordan and Syria. More than 2.5 million are internally displaced.

Foley called on the government of oil-rich Iraq to do more to help Iraqi refugees abroad as well as plan for returning Iraqis by addressing their needs for security, social services and property compensation.

So far, he said, Iraq has only spent about $25 million to help its refugees abroad, and provided about $200 million for an initiative to help returning refugees. The latter amount was "rather small" considering the number of Iraqi refugees and the improving security situation inside Iraq, Foley said.

"One cannot rule out in these situations the possibility that the refugees in large numbers themselves will decide it's time to go back, but will the Iraqi government be ready for that? That's what we have to prepare for I think," Foley said.

The United States spent over $318 million in humanitarian aid for Iraqi refugees this year, Foley said. Washington sought support from other donors, "particularly in the region, not to mention, the government of Iraq itself."

Foley said he was grateful that Syria, a country with which the United States has strained relations, had agreed to a new facility for refugee processing, which would enable Washington to handle larger numbers of refugees.

"Despite the vagaries in our bilateral relationship which all are familiar with, I think we have managed to agree that for humanitarian purposes we will together make this happen for the sake of the Iraqi refugees," he said.

[Hoggage_54]

We'll take the rich, educated and/or skilled here in Canada. You guys can have the rest.

[Kärnfysikern]

Dont complain, one single suburb of stockholm(södertälje) has recieved as much iraqi imigrants since the war started as the entire united states....

http://www.voanews.com/english/archi...TOKEN=52035929

Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, more than four million Iraqis have fled their homes. About half of them left the country, altogether. Most of these refugees remain in neighboring countries, in particular Syria and Jordan, but others have sought sanctuary farther afield. Sweden has long been a haven for Iraqis and is home to more than 80,000 of them, including some 9,000 who have sought refuge since the war began. Mandy Clark reports from the Swedish city, Sodertalje, which has taken in more Iraqi refugees than the entire United States.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...040904391.html

Sweden, which has one of the world's most welcoming refugee policies, has become the new home of 40,000 Iraqis since the war began in 2003. Last year alone, more than 18,000 Iraqi refugees came to Sweden.

[beefjr22]

Well this sucks

[Panzerfaust]

This only serves to tear down each society's structure more and more. It does nothing but inject foreign ideology into a countries way of life further breaking it down to shit. Just another way of the Elite moving us all to a one world system of no borders, no countries.

Sweden is ****ing retarded, I bet the Swedish citizens are pissed off big time but like American citizens, they probably have no voice in the matter.

So whats it like Karn? Still in Sweden?

[stallion_1]

damn

that means that not only do we have to learn spanish but also iraqui

damn

[Kärnfysikern]

This only serves to tear down each society's structure more and more. It does nothing but inject foreign ideology into a countires way of life further breaking it down to shit. Just another way of the Elite moving us all to a one world system of no borders, no countries.

Sweden is ****ing retarded, I bet the Swedish citizens are pissed off big time but like American citizens, they probably have no voice in the matter.

So whats it like Karn? Still in Sweden?

Yeah most avarage swedes are indeed pissed off. But ALL the major political parties refuse to even talk about the imigration. So the issue is dead, anyone raising it is imidietly branded as a racist by the media. One party wanted to change the law so that imigrants comitting violent crimes should be expelled from sweden. Even that the media claimed was racist. All this of course means the right wing semi nazi party is gaining followers, just like in the rest of europe.

I dont mind imigration though, as long as it is proportional to the population of the country. I dont even mind the idea of having mosques in sweden, they would annoy me no more than churches, even though that pisses alot of swedes of. Im the least conservative guy there is and I think culture is ever adapting and changing, so changes due to imigrants can be a good thing. But close to 100 000 iraqi imigrants in a country with a population of 9 million is obviously retarded, especialy when we have quite high unemployment rates.

I moved from sweden a couple of months ago, but thats only because I couldnt find any decent PhD position in sweden.

[Pooks]

karn.. where r u now?

[Kärnfysikern]

The Netherlands

[spywizard]

Dont complain, one single suburb of stockholm(södertälje) has recieved as much iraqi imigrants since the war started as the entire united states....

http://www.voanews.com/english/archi...TOKEN=52035929



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...040904391.html

do they keep their stonings and beatings in the homes?? or are they in the streets yet//???

have you been awakened in the am with calls to prayer??

[Panzerfaust]

Yeah most avarage swedes are indeed pissed off. But ALL the major political parties refuse to even talk about the imigration. So the issue is dead, anyone raising it is imidietly branded as a racist by the media. One party wanted to change the law so that imigrants comitting violent crimes should be expelled from sweden. Even that the media claimed was racist. All this of course means the right wing semi nazi party is gaining followers, just like in the rest of europe.

I dont mind imigration though, as long as it is proportional to the population of the country. I dont even mind the idea of having mosques in sweden, they would annoy me no more than churches, even though that pisses alot of swedes of. Im the least conservative guy there is and I think culture is ever adapting and changing, so changes due to imigrants can be a good thing. But close to 100 000 iraqi imigrants in a country with a population of 9 million is obviously retarded, especialy when we have quite high unemployment rates.

I moved from sweden a couple of months ago, but thats only because I couldnt find any decent PhD position in sweden.

This type of behaviour will only be tolerated so much longer before the people react in anger and violence.

[Tony Q]

like i dont pay enough taxes for all the other pieces of shit that live here..They will probably get free everything and jobs... Thanks American tax payers

[Panzerfaust]

like i dont pay enough taxes for all the other pieces of shit that live here..They will probably get free everything and jobs... Thanks American tax payers

Hey don't be racist, they are entitled to live off you (the American taxpayer). I mean, after all you did attack their country.

[Tony Q]

Im not racist... i hate all the white trash i support also

[Panzerfaust]

Im not racist... i hate all the white trash i support also

[spywizard]

Im not racist... i hate all the white trash i support also

That's called a bigot

and using the term "white trash" is the same as calling someone a nig***