Immigrant Detention at Hutto watch the video.

This two-minute Freedom Files video short provides a shocking glimpse into
conditions at a Texas facility to detain immigrants run by the Department of
Homeland Security. Of the approximately 400 detainees at the Hutto Detention
Facility, many are children who belong to refugee families seeking political
asylum in the U.S. after escaping persecution in their country of origin.

The video introduces viewers to children like two-year-old Angie and her
older sister Nixcari, who had been confined for months in the bleak,
barbed-wire encased Hutto facility, where children wear prison garb and are
held in small cells for the majority of each day. Recreational time is
severely limited as are educational opportunities. Access to medical, dental
and mental health treatment is inadequate. From one mother who was confined
with her 12-year-old: ".a psychological trauma my daughter and I will carry
with us for the rest of our lives."

Toronto Star
Refugee crisis rattles Iraq

As war enters fifth year, escalating humanitarian woes remain unnoticed by much of world
Mar 20, 2007 04:30 AM
Tim Harper
Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON–Americans enter the fifth year of the Iraq war today amid renewed warnings that the 2003 invasion is sparking a humanitarian crisis unnoticed by much of the world.

"I don't think anyone has a good grasp of the breadth of the problem we are facing here," said Dana Graber, who is working with displaced Iraqis in Jordan for the International Organization for Migration.

As the violence in Iraq continues unabated, Graber predicted yesterday another million Iraqis will be uprooted by a war that has already forced 2 million from their homes to neighbouring countries, putting particular strain on services in Syria and Jordan.

Another 1.7 million have been internally displaced, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Those dealing with this burgeoning crisis say more and more Iraqis are fleeing their country without the means to support themselves, with some 40,000 pouring into Syria each month, according to the UN.

In Jordan's capital Amman, the population has been swollen by 30 per cent by the Iraqi influx, pushing up rents and food costs, straining health care and educational resources and courting a backlash from Jordanians.

The UN World Food Program last week launched an appeal for $1.7 million (U.S.) to feed Iraqis in Syria and the UNHCR is seeking $60 million in aid to deal with the displaced in Damascus and Amman, as well as Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey.

Iraqi refugees are expected to double to 40,000 in Europe this year and the U.S. has agreed to admit 7,000 this year, up from a mere 466 last year.

Ottawa has not yet responded to an appeal from Washington to open its door to the displaced.

"They are arriving here with the most basic of needs, food and shelter," Graber said from Amman. "More and more are living without proper health care or proper sanitation."

The UNHCR, in appealing for funding earlier this year, said it had planned to help resettled refugees after some stability returned to Iraq.

"In 2006, however, spiralling violence led to increasing displacement," it said in a statement, "necessitating a reassessment of UNHCR's work and its priorities throughout the region ... providing more help to the thousands who are fleeing every month."

In remarks to the nation yesterday, U.S. President George W. Bush again appealed to Americans to show patience, but there is precious little patience among a restive U.S. electorate.

The war has already claimed 3,220 U.S. lives and estimates of Iraqi deaths range from 60,000 to 650,000, according to one study. More than 24,000 Americans have been wounded.

By the end of this year, the price of the war in the U.S. is expected to hit $500 billion.

Polls released to mark the anniversary painted a black picture of life for war-weary Iraqis.

More than six in 10 Iraqis say their lives are going badly according to a poll done for ABC News, the Washington Post, USA Today, the BBC and ARD, a German television network. That is double the percentage who characterized their lives that way in November 2005.

The poll of more than 2,200 Iraqis also found about half believed the Bush surge of some 30,000 U.S. troops will only worsen the security situation.

For the first time, more than half said they did not believe they were better off now than they were before the invasion.

Against this grim backdrop, Bush is promising to veto any legislation that comes out of the Democrat-led Congress which would set a "date certain" for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Debate on a Democrat resolution which would withdraw U.S. troops by the end of August 2008 is set to begin Thursday.

"It can be tempting to look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude our best option is to pack up and go home," Bush said.

"That may be satisfying in the short run, but I believe the consequences for American security would be devastating."

He said these are early days of his troop surge plan aimed at securing Baghdad and success will take months but first there will be "good days and ... bad days."

His spokesperson, Tony Snow, said the Democratic bill will be vetoed so the House leadership should just sit down and negotiate something palatable to the White House.

"It is a withdraw-the-troops bill, not a fund-the-troops bill," Snow said. "It would also force failure of the mission in Iraq and forfeit the sacrifices made by our troops."

But Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman John Murtha, a leading proponent of setting a "date certain" for U.S. withdrawal, said there is no reason to believe the White House when it says chaos will follow a U.S. departure from Iraq.

"What has the White House said all this time?" he said on MSNBC. "The White House said there's weapons of mass destruction, the White House says we can do this with less troops, the White House says mission accomplished.

"Why would I believe what the White House says?"

Globe and Mail
16 March 2007
Free of airport limbo, Iranian embraces Canada

JONATHAN WOODWARD

VANCOUVER — After 10 months in a Moscow airport sleeping on cold floors, eating scraps from passengers and bathing in the departure lounge toilets, an Iranian refugee and her children finally landed in Canada Thursday.

Zahra Kamalfar collapsed with shock and happiness into the arms of her supporters, and a brother she hadn't seen in 13 years, mere moments after she descended an escalator into the arrivals area of the Vancouver International Airport.

“Canada, thank you so much,” Ms. Kamalfar, 47, said in stilted English, to an assemblage of news media and airport staff, before she stumbled to the floor, crying and shaking.

Her 18-year-old daughter, Anna Kamalfar, stood up to the microphones with her brother Davood, 13, in their mother's place, and said they looked forward to a better life in Canada than they had in Iran.

“I want a bright future for myself,” Anna said.

“I don't think about anything. I feel free now. I will see the sea, the sky, the sun. I say to everyone: Freedom is very important. Thank you, Canada.”

However, before the family's ordeal was over, the RCMP extended Ms. Kamalfar's legal limbo in airports when they stopped her for about an hour for allegedly smoking on the plane, an Air Canada flight via Toronto. An RCMP spokesman said charges were possible, but none had been laid.

The story of Zahra Kamalfar's journey to Canada spans two years, four countries, many legal appeals and a nearly interminable wait in the departure lounge of Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow.

Ms. Kamalfar and her husband, Iman, were Dervishes, members of a branch of Sufism that believes in mystical rituals. The Shah of Iran had granted them land. In 1979, when the Islamic Revolution overthrew the Shah, the Kamalfar's politics and religion suddenly became unpopular.

In 1986, Mr. Kamalfar was arrested for handing out leaflets calling for the return of the Shah, and was imprisoned for two years. The family lay low, and Ms. Kamalfar ran a boutique selling women's clothes while raising their two children. But in 2001, they returned to passing out leaflets, protested against Iranian President Mohammed Khatami and the death of several university students, and converted to Christianity.

In 2004, Mr. and Ms. Kamalfar were arrested again. Ms. Kamalfar was violently interrogated for “collaborating” in anti-government activities, and she heard through fellow inmates that her husband was killed while in police custody.

The next year, Ms. Kamalfar arranged for a 48-hour-release from prison, and obtained false travel papers. She and the children fled overland to Turkey and booked a flight to Canada.

The flight took them to Moscow and then Frankfurt, where her travel papers were questioned. She was sent back to Moscow, and held at a detention facility for 13 months.

Ten months ago, that facility was shut down and dozens of people claiming refugee status were immediately deported. The European Court of Human Rights put a stay on her deportation order after an appeal by a U.S. lawyer.

Unable to return to Russia, and without a country that would accept her, Ms. Kamalfar and her children were stuck in the Moscow airport.

“Aeroflot [Russia's international airline] gave her vouchers, and they got what little they could out of the food kiosks and slept on the floor,” said Washington lawyer Eileen O'Connor. “They had to wash in the bathrooms. When we met them they had blankets, because the airport gets very cold in the winter.”

Ms. O'Connor and other lawyers made an appeal to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees on the family's behalf.

“The hardest thing was to prove her story and get the UNHCR to listen,” lawyer Olga Anisimova said on the phone from Russia.

Communicating with Ms. Kamalfar was nearly impossible, Ms. Anisimova said. It wasn't until a Russian doctor heard of her case through the media and gave her a cellphone that she could receive calls from the outside world.

She wasn't supposed to have the cellphone, and had to be vigilant to avoid Russian officials. And people she believes were Iranian agents attempted to contact her.

But once her brother, who arrived in Canada as a refugee from Iran eight years ago, had talked to her on the phone, he got in touch with the Iranian Federation of Refugees, who called Ms. O'Connor's law firm.

Ms. O'Connor got in touch with Las Vegas lawyer Zohreh Mizrahi, who spoke Farsi and could interview Ms. Kamalfar and draft an appeal to the UNHCR.

On Dec. 21, she was granted refugee status. The families and the lawyers heard late last week that Canada had accepted the family.
“We are so happy,” said her brother, Nader Kamalfar, as he waited at the airport with supporters carrying signs and balloons. “All my sister wanted was to see the sun. We thank God this has ended this way.”

Globe and Mail
16 March 2007
Ottawa cool to Iraqi exodus
UN, U.S. urge action on helping refugees

ESTANISLAO OZIEWICZ

Despite urgent entreaties from Washington and the United Nations refugee agency, the Canadian government is giving no indication it is willing to fling open its doors to refugees fleeing war-torn Iraq.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says the exodus of hundreds of thousands of desperate Iraqis is the largest population movement in the Middle East in 60 years and there is no end in sight "in the face of extreme violence marking today's Iraq."

The United States recently announced that it would resettle about 7,000 Iraqis referred by the UNHCR and would contribute $18-million (U.S.) to the agency's special appeal for Iraq.

This announcement also followed a public appeal by Ellen Sauerbrey, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for migration and refugees, for Canada to make Iraqi refugees "a priority in their resettlement policy, because this is an area of tremendous need and vulnerability."

But Marina Wilson, a spokesperson for the federal department of Citizenship and Immigration, said she is not aware of any plans to resettle Iraqis who have been driven from their homes and are now overburdening neighbouring Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

Ms. Wilson made the statement after questions about the Iraqi refugee crisis were put to Immigration Minister Diane Finley's office, which declined a request for an interview with her.

Ms. Wilson said the department expects to receive Iraqi applications for refugee status solely on a case-by-case basis from some of its Middle East offices.

A spokesman for Ms. Finley said only that the department expects to receive "additional" UNHCR referrals of Iraqi refugees later this year. So far it has received none.

At present, very few Iraqis are able to make it to Canada on their own in order to launch a refugee claim.

Last year, only 177 Iraqi cases were referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board for adjudication.

By contrast, 9,065 Iraqis sought asylum in Sweden in 2006 and that number is expected to more than double to 20,000 this year. Sweden is asking other countries to share the burden.

Canada's reluctance to get involved is unwelcome news to Hani al-Ubeady, 33, who fled Iraq after the 1990 Persian Gulf war and now works as a refugee-resettlement worker in Winnipeg.

"We need to fast-track the process to bring some Iraqis here to Canada," he said. "The victims of this whole war are Iraqi civilians and those civilians have no refuge to escape this violence but to escape Iraq.

"Life for them in Syria and Jordan is unbearable. It is very hard for them, getting [residency] permits, and is a strain financially."

Nanda Na Champassak, of the Ottawa office of the UNHCR, is holding out hope that Canada will respond -- either with money, a resettlement program or both -- before next month's conference in Geneva to address "the humanitarian dimensions of the Iraq situation."

Canada.com
[small error in the article below - advisory panel members resigned days - not weeks - after Fleury resigned]

Refugee backlog grows as Harper government fails to appoint adjudicators

Joan Bryden, The Canadian Press
Published: Monday, March 12, 2007

OTTAWA -- Thousands of refugee claims are bogged down in a growing backlog because of the Harper government’s failure to fill vacancies on the Immigration and Refugee Board.

More than a third of the positions on the board are currently vacant as the government prepares to change the appointment process, giving the immigration minister a greater voice in choosing adjudicators.

When Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Tories took power a year ago, there were only five vacancies on the IRB. By last July, that had grown to 18. Today, 43 of 119 board member positions are vacant.

As well, 17 positions have been eliminated over the last year.

Over the same period, the average length of time it takes to process a refugee claim increased to 12.3 months from 11.7 months.

More ominously, the number of pending claims - those at varying stages of the refugee determination process - jumped to 23,495 by the end of 2006, an increase of 3,000 over the previous year.

Not all those pending claims can be considered backlogged, however. Board spokesman Charles Hawkins says that for optimal efficiency it’s useful to have 15,000 to 20,000 claims wending their way through the system at any time.

Still, using that criteria, a backlog of at least 3,495 refugee claims has developed over the last year. And that’s following a banner year in 2005 in which the IRB, for the first time in a decade, managed to reduce the backlog to essentially zero.

Hawkins said the backlog swelled in part due to “lower productivity towards the last half of 2006 just because of the lack of decision makers.” He added that there was also a slight increase in the number of refugee claims filed.

Potential appointees have been screened and identified by the IRB but “appointment of candidates is the prerogative of the government,” Hawkins said.

Immigration Minister Diane Finley’s office had no comment on the mounting backlog and offered no explanation for the tardiness in filling vacancies at the IRB.

However, Liberal immigration critic Omar Alghabra said the government appears to be stalling on appointments until changes are made to the process that will give the minister more power over the selection of adjudicators.

He noted that Finley has signalled her intention to adopt a recent recommendation from the Public Appointments Commission, which proposed streamlining two different appointment advisory bodies into one and giving the minister a bigger say in choosing adjudicators.

That, said Alghabra, “gives credence to the theory that the government is trying to push its own friends and agenda in the appointment process.”

Just prior to release of the commission’s report, the respected chairman of the IRB, Jean-Guy Fleury, tendered his resignation. While he cited personal reasons, speculation was rife that Fleury quit because of months of tension with the government over the appointment process.

A few weeks later, five members of the existing advisory panel on IRB appointments resigned, openly protesting what they view as the impending politicization of appointments.

For them, the proposal to give the minister more power over appointments, was only the last straw. One of the five has said the Conservative government has been interfering in the process for months, refusing to reappoint adjudicators and rejecting qualified candidates simply because they had some link, however tenuous, to the previous Liberal regime.

Harper has fended off such criticism, maintaining that his government is simply trying to clean up the patronage mess left by the Liberals.

But Alghabra said it’s “ironic” that Harper appears intent on stacking the IRB with partisan appointments, after winning election on a campaign promising a higher ethical standard and an end to patronage. He said it’s hard to imagine any other explanation for letting so many vacancies go unfilled.

“There’s no shortage of qualified candidates and there’s certainly no shortage of files that are waiting to be examined. So what are we waiting for?”
© The Canadian Press