US forms Iraq refugees task force after criticism

WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Reuters) The US State Department said it had created a task force to make sure the United States is doing ''its share'' to take in Iraqi refugees following criticism in Congress that it accepted only 202 last year.

Among other things, the task force will study whether the State Department should emulate a Defence Department programme that gives preferential immigration treatment to Iraqis who are threatened because they have worked for the US Defence Department in Iraq.

About 3.7 million of Iraq's 24 million people have either fled the country for Syria, Jordan and other nations or left their homes for safer havens within Iraq, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR.

About 50,000 Iraqis flee their homes every month amid severe sectarian violence.

The United States has accepted 466 Iraqi refugees since 2003, the year the US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.

At a congressional hearing last month, lawmakers criticized the fact that United States took in 202 Iraqi refugees last year and pressed a senior official on what more could be done.

''It's a low number,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday, saying the task force would address ''what can the United States do to do its share to take in those individuals in the region who are classified as refugees?'' Asked if the United States was doing its share, he replied: ''We want to try to answer that question for ourselves.

''Clearly there is a need that exists and there are problems that need to be addressed and we want to take a look at (it) to see if what we are doing currently is appropriate to the need as well as to answer the question: are we doing what we should be doing?'' McCormack said the task force would work immediately with UNHCR to provide humanitarian aid to refugees in neighboring countries as well as to identify those who might be in danger if they were to return to Iraq.

Two senior Democratic senators welcomed the task force's creation but said the administration had moved too slowly.

''Sadly, as with so many other aspects of the Iraq war -- from the growing threat of the insurgency to the need to provide adequate armor for our troops -- the administration has taken far too long to respond to a looming crisis,'' Sen Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts said in a statement.

''It is a matter of the highest moral responsibility for the United States to do all we can to assist Iraqi men, women and children displaced by this war, particularly those brave Iraqis who provided services to the U.S. military and now fear for their lives,'' he added.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said the Bush administration had been slow to react.

''The number of Iraqis resettled in the United States so far has been minimal,'' he said. ''This task force is a hopeful sign and it can move us forward as long as it doesn't waste time pondering the obvious.'' Reuters SRS VP0422