Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

U.S. visas urged for Iraqi staff

|
|
 
  
Published: July 22, 2007 at 9:21 AM

WASHINGTON, July 22 (UPI) -- There is growing concern Iraqis employed by the U.S. government will flee Iraq if they are not guaranteed eventual safe passage to the United States. 

Ryan C. Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, wants immigrant visas granted to all Iraqis employed by the U.S. government in Iraq, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

In a letter to Undersecretary of State Henrietta H. Fore, Crocker wrote Iraqi staff members are targets for kidnapping and murder.

"Unless they know that there is some hope of an (immigrant visa) in the future," Crocker said, "many will continue to seek asylum, leaving our Mission lacking in one of our most valuable assets."

Crocker's request comes as the Bush administration struggles to respond to the estimated 2.2 million Iraqis who have sought refuge in neighboring countries since sectarian fighting spiked last year.

The United States has admitted 133 Iraqi refugees since October, despite predicting it would accept 7,000 by the end of September, The Post reported.

Topics: Ryan C. Crocker
© 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 27
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
View Caption
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego, California watches confetti rain down as she wins the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee championship, May 31, 2012, in National Harbor, Maryland. Nandipati successfully spelled the word .* guetapens *, meaning to lure or ambush. UPI/Mike Theiler
fark
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...
Man killed in Spencer fire. The lava lamps must have ignited the blacklight posters
Passenger jet crashes into apartment building in Nigerian capitol. Over 150 princes, bank officials,...
I'll see your zombie apocalypse, and raise you "swarms of deadly spiders" invading a town in India...
Photoshop this woman at the wheel
New book is full of girls in their bedrooms, will be read by people who need to have a seat right...