CFA PRESENTS DATA ON CHALDEAN REFUGEES TO US DEPARTMENT OF STATE

April 2nd, 2007

The CFA’s eight months of concentrated outreach and advocacy has begun to show significant results. Executive Director Joseph Kassab’s recent meeting with Ellen Sauerbrey Assistant Secretary of Populations, Migration and Refugees for the US Department of State has moved the cause of more than 200,000 Chaldean refugees closer to resolution. At the March 22, 2007 meetings in Washington, DC, Mr. Kassab presented the officials of US Dept. of State and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with comprehensive data for aprox.12, 000 refugees whose relatives here in the US submitted application for potential reunification.

As of this date, the CFA has processed 3552 Cases representing 11,769 individuals, located in 31 countries of refuge. Of note are the growing concentrations in Syria (1865 cases); Jordan (1156 cases); Turkey (178); etc. The locations of potential sponsors are nearly as diverse as the countries to which the refugees have fled. The CFA’s survey identified the 3,552 cases of potential sponsors (family) dispersed across the 12 states with 2030 from Michigan: 749 from California; 690 in Illinois; 46 being the majority states. At this reporting time, the CFA has identified over 1,000 or thirty per cent (30%) of the Chaldean refugees as having protected status, through the United Nations. Sixty-four percent (64%) of the refugees are immediate family members of the potential sponsors. 90% reported data as to Educational Levels. It appears to indicate that the sample of potential refugees are relatively well-educated group. The data provided to the US Department of State and the United Nations High Commissioner detailed each of the refugees’ families’ reasons for flight from Iraq, the status of their lives in over 30 countries of refuge, and demographic data on educational levels, employment histories and language(s) spoken. The data, organized by country of refuge will be helpful to interview and hopefully expedite the resettlement and reunification of the refugees with their relatives stateside. In addition, on Thursday March 29, 2007, Mr. Kassab provided an in-service training session to the Dept. of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Asylum officers in Washington DC as an effort to increase the awareness on the background and the plight of Iraqi Christians.