Syria Allows U.S. To Screen Iraqi Refugees

Syria has agreed to allow U.S. interviewers into the country to screen Iraqi refugees for admission to the United States, clearing a major obstacle to the Bush administration's resettlement program, The Associated Press has learned.

The move follows a visit to Damascus Oct. 30 by senior U.S. envoys who won permission for Department of Homeland Security staff to travel to Syria to vet Iraqi refugees awaiting clearance to enter the United States, officials familiar with the matter said Thursday.

Syria, which is home to between 1.2 million and 1.4 million Iraqi refugees, had for months refused to issue visas to the interviewers amid deepening tensions between Washington and Damascus over alleged Syrian support for extremists, interference in Lebanon and suspect nuclear activity that appears to have prompted an Israeli airstrike.

The agreement is to be announced by Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch in congressional testimony Thursday afternoon, the officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Welch had not yet made the announcement.

They said the trip to Damascus by James Foley, a career diplomat, and Lori Scialabba, a top immigration official with Homeland Security, had been instrumental to securing the agreement. It was not immediately clear if the interviewers had been granted the visas yet or when they would travel.

Refugee advocates briefed on the Syrian decision welcomed the step, but said it was critical for the United States to keep up high-level engagement with Syria and other countries in the region that are sheltering more than 2 million Iraqis who have fled violence in the country since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

"This is obviously very good news," said Jacob Kurtzer, a congressional advocate for Refugees International. "We're very happy, but it really does draw attention to the need for a continuous high-level diplomatic presence in Syria and the rest of the region."

The United States does not currently have an ambassador in Syria, which the State Department has long designated a "state sponsor of terrorism," and visits there by senior U.S. officials are rare.

Aside from the Iraqi refugees in Syria, there are 750,000 Iraqi refugees in Jordan, 100,000 in Egypt, 54,000 in Iran, 40,000 in Lebanon, 10,000 in Turkey and 200,000 in various Persian Gulf countries, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Of the total, the U.N. has so far referred about 12,000 of those refugees to the United States for resettlement but bureaucratic logjams and logistical hurdles have hamstrung U.S. efforts to admit them. The administration admitted only 1,608 Iraqi refugees this past fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30.

The United States plans to admit 12,000 refugees in the current fiscal year, but just 450 were allowed in during October, far less than the monthly average needed to reach the target.

The administration has conceded a moral obligation to assist Iraqi refugees but the slow pace of admissions has sparked criticism from refugee advocates and lawmakers.

The blame has been placed on bureaucratic slowdowns, including bickering between the State Department, which is in charge of refugee resettlement, and Homeland Security, which must screen all refugees for admission. Those from Iraq are subjected to additional security checks because of fears of terrorism.

In September, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced the appointment of Foley and Scialabba to clear the logjam that has hampered admissions.