WASHINGTON (AFP) — US senators Tuesday vowed to cut through red tape barring thousands of Iraqi refugees from the United States, in an attempt to save those who risked "an assassin's bullet" by helping Americans.
Legislation was introduced in Congress days after it emerged that US ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker had complained at the sluggish pace of processing refugees at risk because they worked with the United States.
"America has a fundamental obligation to assist the Iraqis who have courageously supported our forces and our effort in Iraq and whose lives are in peril as a result," said veteran Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy.
"The target of the assassin's bullet is now on their back, and our government has a responsibility to try to save their lives."
The legislation would give Iraqis facing potential persecution because of ties to the United States the chance to apply directly for admission to the country, rather than forcing them to chance a perilous flight to safety through Jordan or Syria.
The bill, supported by a bipartisan coalition of senators, would also establish a special immigrant visa for Iraqis who worked for the US government in Iraq for at least one year after the US invasion in 2003.
The legislation also directs the State Department to send diplomatic officers to its embassy in Baghdad to administer the programs.
Republican Senator Sam Brownback, a long-shot presidential candidate, said the United States must also do more to address the wider refugee problem sparked by raging violence since 2003.
"This growing refugee crisis in and around Iraq of 4.5 million people is the largest displacement problem in 60 years," Brownback warned.
"People are becoming displaced at 60,000 per month; no shelter, no food, no health care, no education."
Officials said Monday Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was keen to appoint a refugees czar to handle the thousands of Iraqi refugees who worked for the US government and now fear reprisals by insurgents.
In the fiscal year ending on September 30, the US government has so far admitted about 900 Iraqi refugees, compared to a target of 7,000.
In Europe, Sweden alone has admitted between 80,000 and 120,000 Iraqis, according to the government in Stockholm, which has tightened up its conditions for granting asylum.
The Washington Post reported that Crocker had raised the issue in two cables in the past two months.
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