Click photo to play
Length: 6:21
ANDERSON COOPER: As we
touched on briefly at the top of the hour, for the
first time in five years, the number of refugees
worldwide rose last year, to nearly 10 million,
largely because of the crisis in Iraq.
Tonight, nearly two million Iraqis are internally
displaced; 1.5 million are refugees. It's the largest
exodus of people in the Middle East in
half-a-century. And the vast majority have fled to
Syria and Jordan.
And America? Well, the State Department says the U.S.
has given refuge to just 701 Iraqis over the last
four years. And most of them had begun the process
before Saddam Hussein's government fell.
You might think that Iraqis who have risked their
lives to help the U.S. would be assured of safety
here in America. But many of them say that help isn't
coming fast enough. And, tonight, we're asking, why
not?
Here's CNN's Michael Ware.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Despite
appearances, this man considers himself lucky.
His name is Uday, and he's one of the less than 1,000
Iraqis welcomed into the United States since the
beginning of the war. Just after the fall of Baghdad,
he was thrilled to help the Americans as an Army
translator. But, just 35 days into the job, his car
was stopped in the street by three men.
(on camera): They shot you in the face, and they shot
you in the arm.
UDAY, IRAQI REFUGEE: Yes. Yes. No, they want to shoot
my head, you know? But I put my arm like this.
WARE (voice-over): In Iraq, working for the Americans
can mean signing your own death warrant. Retribution
from Sunni insurgents and Shia militia is severe. But
the State Department's official advice, even for
those shot, threatened or with family members
kidnapped, is simply to get out of Iraq.
(on camera): The military didn't help you?
UDAY: No.
WARE: The American government didn't help you?
UDAY: Nobody.
WARE (voice-over): Uday wasn't rescued by the Army,
but by a chance encounter with this woman, running a
tiny charity to get surgery for wounded Iraqi
children.
ELISSA MONTANTI, FOUNDER, GLOBAL MEDICAL RELIEF FUND:
There wasn't any support coming from the government,
coming from anywhere. Uday was on his own.
WARE: Kirk Johnson is on a one-man crusade to save
hundreds of others. Now a civilian, after working for
a year in Iraq with the State Department's aid
agency, USAID, he's culled a list of more than 400
Iraqi translators, like Uday, now at risk who need
rescue.
KIRK JOHNSON, FORMER USAID WORKER: I don't know why
it's taking so long, because we're usually the
leaders in the world at resettling refugees. Yet, for
whatever reason, with these particular refugees, we
seem to have forgotten how to do what we do best.
WARE: Since the war began, according to the State
Department, only 701 Iraqis have made it to U.S.
shores. And, of those, but a few are victims of the
war; the rest, refugees from a regime that fell four
years ago, Saddam Hussein's.
JOHNSON: These people have been raped. They have been
kidnapped. They have had family members killed, all
because they were identified as working for the
United States government.
WARE: So far, he says, not one of his 400-plus list
has made it out.
JOHNSON: I have never been more ashamed of my
government now. Those Iraqis that worked for us, when
I see them fleeing without even anything other than a
sort of "Good luck" from us, it turns my stomach.
WARE: While pumping billions of dollars a week into
the fight, the U.S. has offered a comparatively
meager $150 million this year to boost ailing support
services in the countries like Syria and Jordan awash
with these desperate Iraqis.
And, of the four million displaced Iraqis around the
world, America has so far only brought in a relative
handful into the country, while other Western
countries, like Sweden and Australia, have taken in
tens of thousands.
Why does the country that started the war lag so far
behind? The answers are in Washington. Ellen
Sauerbrey is the Assistant Secretary of State
responsible for assisting these refugees.
(on camera): Has America met its profound obligation
to these Iraqis?
ELLEN SAUERBREY, U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE
FOR POPULATION, REFUGEES, AND MIGRATION: Americans do
care. And we do feel that moral commitment. Are we
moving as quickly as we need to? Are we finding the
people that need our assistance as quickly as I wish
we were? No. But we are moving forward now.
WARE (voice-over): Sauerbrey says it's a delicate
balance. America recognizes the humanitarian need,
but, she says, there are added security concerns for
bringing in refugees from a country the U.S. is still
fighting.
The process just now put in place of granting an
Iraqi refugee status in the United States takes four
to six months, and those who work directly with the
U.S. government in Iraq are fast-tracked. But
Sauerbrey says it's difficult to find them, a claim
disputed by Kirk Johnson.
And, while the U.S. recently said it expects to take
in some 2,500 Iraqis into the country this year,
Sauerbrey suggested the government could take even
more.
SAUERBREY: There is no cap on the numbers.
WARE (on camera): So you will bring as many as is
needed?
SAUERBREY: We will be bringing people in as quickly
as we can get them through security clearance.
WARE: No one will be left behind?
SAUERBREY: It may take time.
WARE (voice-over): That, it seems, is a profound
understatement. Just last month, only one Iraqi was
cleared to arrive in the U.S.
JOHNSON: They still have a chance to save these
people's lives. They're still living. They're running
for their lives. But the game isn't over yet.
WARE: It's only just begun for Uday.
If you're wondering why we haven't told you his last
name, it's because he asked we didn't, out of
security concerns for both him and his wife and four
children. That's because they're still in Iraq. They
have just been granted asylum, but because of the
ongoing violence, it's unclear when they will be able
to leave.
Michael Ware, CNN, Washington.