U.S. must do more for Iraqi refugees

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Today is World Refugee Day, when more than 70 countries around the globe are commemorating the humanity of 33 million people displaced inside and outside their countries and the inhumanity that has forced them to leave their homes.

The Scandinavian countries are launching a campaign, "Let's Keep Them Safe," aimed at discouraging forced repatriation of refugees and asylum-seekers. Angola is holding a poetry contest to raise awareness about sexual and gender-based violence. Brazil will host a soccer tournament, Nepal is sponsoring a film festival, and Romania has organized a handicrafts bazaar.

If any events are scheduled in Iraq, there is no record of it. For the 2 million Iraqis who are internally displaced and the 2.2 million more who have sought refuge in neighboring countries, it will be another day to best keep their heads down.

Iraq has been called the world's fastest-growing refugee crisis. The largest numbers - 1.2 million, at last count - are in Syria, with another 750,000 in Jordan, 200,000 in the Persian Gulf states and 100,000 in Egypt. As an estimated 50,000 more arrive per month, the neighboring countries have begun to construct new barriers, physical and bureaucratic, to entry. Including the 2 million internally displaced Iraqis, nearly 15 percent of the Iraqi population is displaced inside or outside the country.

America has a long and proud tradition of resettlement and is still the largest refugee resettlement country in the world, though numbers have fallen significantly since 9/11 and its aftermath. In the years following the Persian Gulf war, the United States accepted more than 30,000 Iraqi refugees. From 2003 to early this year, we have resettled fewer than 500 Iraqi refugees.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.refugee20jun20,0,946531.story?coll=bal-iraq-headlines