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An estimated 500,000 Iraqis have fled the war
at home and settled in Jordan.They're considered guests
by the government, not refugees, and aren't allowed to work.
Tens of thousands of Iraqis have come here for assistance:
the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
For security reasons, we can't show you the faces
of the hundreds of people who come to the UNHCR
every day to register. They are given numbers, which are
called over the loudspeaker when it's their turn.
Imran Riza is the UNHCR representative in Jordan.
His job requires a strong dose of diplomacy; whether
coordinating with the Jordanian government to allow Iraqis
access to medical care, or lobbying the governments
of other countries to provide asylum for Iraqis.
He has plenty of work.
I began by asking Imran Riza about how the UNHCR
balances its obligation to protect Iraqis with its relationship
to the Jordanian government.
In the Jordanian context, what this means is
trying to expand what we call the protection space.
Jordan is not signatory to the convention.
Jordan does not have asylum legislation.
So at a certain level you would think
that there are a lot of problems there.
On the other hand, Jordan has had a lot of experience
with refugees and refugee flows, and has been a very
hospitable country over the course of its history.
How do you address that, because it's looking increasingly
like the UNHCR and the Jordanian government are planning
for a longer-term stay for the Iraqis.
We have to plan for at least a medium-term stay
given the way the situation is in Iraq.
Even though that we are having handfuls of people,
a few hundred, returning every month already.
Generally what we're hearing from the bulk of the Iraqi
population here is that they don't feel that it's yet time
to return. They don't feel it's sustainable, they don't feel
it's secure, they don't know what they'll do. They don't
know what's going to happen in terms of property
restitution and issues like that.
So in that context, there is a demand on resettlement.
Many people do want to get resettled, and the demand is
much more than the spaces that are actually available,
which causes the big challenge for us of course, which is
to try and identify the most vulnerable, the most in need of
that durable solution resettlement.
And somehow deal with the frustration of all the others
who are not on that track, but are still in limbo
and not seeing where their futures are.
Because of that large number of persons that will be resettled
to the U.S., the expansion of our program has been very
much related to U.S. resettlement. We've managed.
In 2006 we submitted 530 persons for resettlement.
In 2007 we submitted over 8,000.
These sorts of things, there's lots of progress on.
No, the Jordanians are not going to give nationality
or local settlement possibilities to Iraqis, and I guess
we just have to understand that and we don't consider
that one of the durable solutions that can apply
in this situation for Iraqis in Jordan. It's resettlement,
it's voluntary repatriation. In the meantime, we have a
temporary situation that we're trying to expand the
protection and assistance aspects of it as much as possible