By Walter Pincus / Washington Post
The State Department cannot resettle in the United States about 25,000 Iraqi interpreters and other refugees who worked for the U.S.-led coalition over the next two years because of limits on the number of applications that can be reviewed, according to Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte.
Human rights agencies, led by Refugees International, say roughly that number of refugees are in danger because they were employed by the U.S. government, the military or their contractors.
But in a July 16 letter to former ambassador Frank G. Wisner, who represents the groups, Negroponte wrote that "there are inherent limits to refugee processing capacity in the region that would not accommodate the substantially higher resettlement numbers you are proposing."
Wisner, in a July 3 letter to Negroponte, had called on the Bush administration to resettle 12,500 Iraqis in each of the next two years. Assuming each would bring two family members, the total influx each year would be about 37,500 people.
"Most of these have left or are in the process of leaving the country and face an urgent need of assistance and protection as their resources run out," Wisner wrote.
"Those who suffer as a consequence of violence in Iraq demand our special attention," said Wisner, who served as U.S. ambassador to India, Egypt, the Philippines and Zambia as well as Defense Department undersecretary for policy.