Bipartisan Senators submitted a bill on Tuesday to urge the U.S. government to admit more Iraqi refugees who have worked for the United States in Iraq.
The bill would also establish a special immigrant visa for Iraqis who worked for the United States government in Iraq for at least one year after the Iraq war in 2003.
Moreover, the bill also directs the State Department to send diplomatic officers to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad to administer the programs.
The State Department said Monday that it would appoint an Iraqi refugees overseer to handle the processing and resettlement of Iraqi refugees.
According to a report by the Washington Post, Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, complained that red tape is holding as many as 10,000 Iraqi refugees from entering the United States and urged U. S. government agencies to speed up the processing.
During the current U.S. fiscal year ending on Sept. 30, the United States has so far only admitted about 900 Iraqi refugees.
According to U.N. figures, an estimated 4.2 million Iraqis have fled their homes because of the ongoing sectarian violence.
Source: Xinhua
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