A Senate hearing Tuesday called attention to the growing plight of Iraqi refugees. An estimated 100,000 Iraqis are fleeing their violence-wracked nation each month.
On Tuesday, Sami (not his real name), testified before a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, using a screen to protect his identity. He was a translator for the U.S. military in Iraq until he heard that his name had been posted on the walls of mosques, labeling him a traitor. And then came the attack:
"I was in a car traveling through a Mosul neighborhood when a suicide bomber in a car directly behind me blew himself up," Sami said. "I was hit by shrapnel in the face. Bloodied and dazed, I am fortunate to be alive. Following this brush with death, I fled Iraq."
But translators and other Iraqis who have worked for the U.S. are hardly the only ones who have left. According to Kenneth Bacon, who heads the group Refugees International, some 1.7 million Iraqis have been displaced from their homes but remain in Iraq. Another 2 million Iraqis have fled the country, settling mainly in the neighboring states of Jordan and Syria.
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