Hearing of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe-CSCE Partner States and Neighbors Overwhelmed by Iraqi Refugees: Band-Aid Solution to Implosion in the Middle East?
Statement
Hearing of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe-CSCE Partner States and Neighbors Overwhelmed by Iraqi Refugees: Band-Aid Solution to Implosion in the Middle East?
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REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA): Thank you very much, Chairman Hastings. I thank you for your kindness in allowing me to join you in this important meeting today. This is an extremely important issue and it hasn't been getting as much attention as it deserves, so I'd like to comment you for your leadership in this matter and all that you've been doing.
In fact, with the help of Chairman Hastings, I have recently sent a letter to President Bush, signed by 89 members, expressing our deep concern over the plight of displaced Iraqis.
I'd like to thank our panelists here today, Ambassador Foley, whom I've had the opportunity to meet in some of his other assignments. And I'd like to thank Ms. Scialabba for being here on this panel today.
I'd like to share with you some of the letter that we all signed that went to the president. That letter said, rarely does confronting a crisis align our moral and national security interests as closely as does providing assistance to the Iraqis displaced by violence.
There are few more important tests of our foreign policy than our leadership in response to the growing crisis confronting the displaced population of Iraq. The displacement crisis will get worse, if ignored, and we look forward to the president's support as we work to address this issue in Congress.
I am optimistic that the amount of support we're receiving on the letter signifies the amount of congressional will we will have to appropriately address these problems.
I hope this letter to the president will continue to the process that we are taking part in, as we are today, addressing the plight of the millions of refugees and internally displaced persons whose lives have been scattered around the Middle East.
I also want to briefly mention some legislation that I've recently introduced which will help to give context to the questions that I will have for the witnesses.
Let me just say that while I recognize the role that you're playing, Mr. Ambassador, in all of this, my bill that asks for -- it's called the recovery and subject of Iraq act, and would address, again, the growing crisis confronting the displaced population by creating an Iraqi displacement coordinator in the executive office of the president to engage U.S. diplomatic resources in addressing the crisis, requiring the coordinator to create a long-term, durable strategy to address the displacement crisis, requiring the coordinator to harmonize international effort to address the crisis, encouraging affected governments to support their own populations and requiring a report from the coordinator on the progress of the strategy and the evaluation of the conditions confronting the displaced.
It is clear that any solution to the problems in Iraq must include an organized effort to return the displaced Iraqis to a safe and stable environment. This bill, of course, will not enforce refugees to return against their will. Rather, it begins a long planning process necessary to prepare for eventual voluntary returns of the Iraqis.
The creation of the high-level Iraqi displacement coordinator would send a strong signal that the United States is committed to working with the governments of the region to address the humanitarian crisis.
I thank our witnesses for being here today and I certainly thank our chairman and I very much look forward to working with the administration in this coming year, as well as with my fellow members of Congress, to appropriately address the Iraqi displacement crisis.
I was not here for all of your testimony, Ambassador Foley, and as I briefly thumbed through it, I see that you do describe the seriousness of the displacement. It was just a few days ago that I got information about the plight of many of the women and the families who are fleeing Iraq, into Syria, and maybe into Jordan, who have exhausted all of their resources and have turned to prostitution. And women and families who are taking turns to go out to prostitute themselves in order to feed themselves.
Also, we have found that, for many who have gone to Syria and to Jordan and have come back to Iraq, they have found that their homes have been taken over and they have no place to live and they're on the streets. So I'm further focused on the proposition that we must do more.
Again, I hope that I can stay long enough to ask a few questions, but I thank you for the testimony that you have given and I yield back to the chairman. And thank you, again.
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REP. WATERS: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'm going to submit my questions in writing, also.
My questions will relate to the right of the refugees to be able to work in these countries that they have migrated to. I think there's a 1951 convention that mandates that the refugees be able to work. My questions will also include questions about children and their education and the health services that are supposedly available to families that may not be available.
The questions that I will be submitting are questions, again, about the right to work, about education, about health care and basically about the plight of these refugees inside other countries and a lack of enforcement to see to it that their basic rights are met and that they have an opportunity to have a decent quality of living.
I won't be able to stay for the rest of the hearing, unfortunately. I've got to get a plane, if American Airlines has not canceled mine.
But I will submit those questions in writing and perhaps in your discussion with other members here, you may be able to touch on some of that, because I know these are issues that we're all concerned about.
Thank you very much.
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