Photojournalist David Snyder, on assignment for CRS, sent this report from Lebanon.

A view of the Zeatrieh neighborhood of Beirut, which has become a magnet for Iraqi refugees fleeing to Lebanon. Photo by David Snyder for CRS

I spent the day today in Beirut, meeting with Iraqi refugees receiving assistance through the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center. It’s not my first time here, nor is it my first time with the staff of the center. I was in Lebanon in 2006, when fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants displaced tens of thousands here. Caught up in the conflict, thousands of migrant workers, many of them Sri Lankan, flocked to the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center for help. For days I watched as the staff worked to process paperwork for panicked and frightened workers, seeking to flee the country.

Today the tide is moving in reverse. With support from Catholic Relief Services, Caritas is helping Iraqi refugees, headed through Lebanon, bound for anywhere but back to Iraq. I met families today in the neighborhood of Zeatrieh – a cramped network of side streets that houses hundreds of Iraqi families. Most have little, some have nothing, and almost all have overstayed the visas that helped them escape Iraq.
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Two Iraqi refugee boys outside a social services center in Beirut, Lebanon. Photo by David Snyder/CRS

Representatives from Catholic Relief Services are participating today in a forum at the National Press Club in Washington that is highlighting the plight of the 2 milliion Iraqis who have been displaced by the war. CRS is co-sponsor of the event, Villanova Law Schools Ryan Forum on Law and Public Policy.

Many Iraqi refugees have fled to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt, where they live as “illegal immigrants” and are unable to get jobs, schooling for their children or even basic medical care for their families. As they try to start new lives, they are forbidden to work in many cases, and shut out from services that citizens receive. These refugees wait out the days — hoping against hope that they’ll get visas to third countries.

Catholic Relief Services is working through our partners in the Middle East, like Caritas Lebanon, to provide food, medical care and help with rent to thousands of refugees. Mark Schnellbacher, our CRS Regional Director for the Middle East, and Najla Chadra of the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center, participated in today’s panel.

CRS is also working to bring this issue to greater visibility here in the United States, particularly among American Catholics. Our CRS Advocacy staff has kept our grassroots legislative network informed on this issue and urged them to support appropriate legislation addressing the crisis. Earlier this year, CRS sponsored a delegation of eight women religious to Syria and Lebanon, where they saw first-hand the conditions in which these Iraqi refugees live and the challenges they face. They returned to the U.S. and mobilized to raise awareness of Iraqi refugees’ suffering, speaking in their congregations, universities and the media, as well as briefing members of Congress. And after speaking here today, Najla is scheduled to speak about the situation for Iraqis in Lebanon to several more groups in the Northeast.

After a CRS-sponsored trip to Lebanon and Syria, eight women religious from the U.S. have mobilized to raise awareness of Iraqi refugees’ suffering.

The Catholic sisters, drawn from various religious orders, made home visits to Iraqis desperate for medical care, rent, jobs, and school for their children. They visited with Catholic Relief Services partners like Caritas Lebanon, learning more about day-to-day realities for the refugees. Returning in late January, the sisters have spoken to their congregations, universities and the media about what America can do to help Iraqis who fled the violence in their home country.

Last Wednesday, two of the nuns briefed approximately 75 congressional staffers on the needs of Iraqi refugees during a session in the Capitol Building. Simone Campbell, a Sister of Social Service, and Anne Curtis, a Sister of Mercy, shared stories of the Iraqi families they met, many of whom are not allowed by their host countries to work. Attendees included staffers from the offices of Senators Obama, McCain and Durbin.

The sisters urged Congress to increase funding for United Nations and other programs that help Iraqi refugees, as well as to accept more Iraqis as immigrants to the U.S. “Iraqis have run out of their savings and are getting desperate,” Sister Simone said in emailed bulletins during the January trip. “Some have decided to return to Iraq and have been killed. Others are trying to work in the underground economy” in their host countries, she continued.

The sisters will keep pressing for action. “We feel very good about the briefing,” said Sister Simone when Wednesday’s meeting concluded. “Iraqi needs are so great, and there are things our government can do to alleviate their suffering. Somebody is listening.”