World Refugee Day

Floor Speech

WORLD REFUGEE DAY -- (Extensions of Remarks - June 20, 2007)

* Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, today is World Refugee Day, a day of honoring the courage and raising the plight of more than 8 million refugees and 23.7 million internally displaced persons around the world. This year, on the sixth anniversary of the United Nations-designated World Refugee Day, organizations in hundreds of countries will come together to focus global attention on those refugees who have been displaced by natural disasters or were forced to leave their homes, native countries, and loved ones due to the political, ethnic or religious oppression and persecution they would have faced otherwise.

* The United States historically has led efforts to assist various refugee populations, as exemplified through U.S. efforts to assist Vietnamese refugees in the late 1970s. Now, in the 21st century, the U.S. has a particularly compelling reason to focus on the Iraqi refugee crisis. Approximately 2 million Iraqi refugees have fled persecution, violence, threats of kidnapping and death threats, mostly moving to Syria and Jordan. The threats have been dire for ethnic and religious minorities. At least 1.9 million people are displaced within Iraq. Many of these 3.9 million have been targeted due to their work for the U.S. Government, NGOs or the media.

* There have been important steps taken in Congress to address the concerns of refugees related to Afghanistan and Iraq, such as encouraging the provision of special immigrant status for translators or interpreters serving with Federal agencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, since 2003, the U.S. Government has allowed only 466 Iraqi refugees to enter the U.S. It is important that the U.S. initiate more active measures to assist these refugees, such as increasing the number of Iraqis that are brought into the resettlement program. During a recent trip to the Middle East, I heard stories of Iraqi refugees and the dire threats that forced them to flee their homeland.

* Madam Speaker, in addition to spotlighting the situation of Iraqi refugees, it is vital that the international community continue to shine a spotlight on the situation facing refugees from and displaced persons in Burma. The military dictatorship continues its campaign against the ethnic peoples through forced labor, the use of rape as a weapon of terror, destruction of food sources, destruction of over 3,000 villages in the last few years, and the use of ethnic peoples as human land mine sweepers. Unfortunately, certain countries believe it is in their interest to keep this regime in power--I would heartily disagree. The refugee and displacement crisis in Burma could be resolved immediately if the regime were to step down and allow the rightfully elected leaders of Burma to take office.

* World Refugee Day is a day for the international community, governments and citizens alike, to show our common concern for refugees and displaced persons. Most people in the world would love to stay in their homeland, but frequently conflicts and other situations force them to leave. Our country was founded by people fleeing oppression. The U.S. must continue to be the global leader in refugee protection in the Middle East, in Southeast Asia, and around the world.

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