VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAM #1064/01 0671200
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 081200Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7551
INFO RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD PRIORITY 4731
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 2588
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 3002
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS PRIORITY 3519
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 0574
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0486

C O N F I D E N T I A L AMMAN 001064 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
NOFORN 
 
FOR PRM A/S SAUERBREY 
ALSO FOR G, NEA, PRM, CA AND S/I 
CAIRO FOR DOETSCH 
FROM REGIONAL REFCOORD AMMAN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/08/2017 
TAGS: PREG PGOV PHUM SY IZ JO
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR PRM A/S SAUERBREY'S MARCH 13-16 
VISIT 
 
REF: A. PRM/ANE DAR OF 03/06/07 
     ¶B. REIMER-GREENE EMAIL OF 03/02/07 
     ¶C. AMMAN 786 
     ¶D. AMMAN 703 
     ¶E. AMMAN 644 
 
Classified By: CDA Daniel Rubinstein for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Embassy Amman welcomes your visit, and looks 
forward to building upon your discussions with key Jordanian 
officials and Ambassador Hale in recent days in Washington to 
advance our dialogue with the GOJ on the needs of Iraqis in 
Jordan, as well as the other refugee issues of mutual 
interest such as UNRWA programs for Palestinians.  The 
government's anxiety about the Iraqi refugee issue remains 
high, and its impasse with UNHCR over the latter's decision 
to recognize Iraqis from south and central Iraq as prima 
facie refugees, which prompted UNHCR to suspend registration 
operations last week, remained unresolved at OOB March 8, 
although post understands that UNHCR official Radhounne 
Nouicer will be in Amman on March 12 to address this issue 
with the GOJ.  Other issues are also changing the protection 
landscape; they are largely related to the confusion over the 
GOJ's willingness to recognize identification documents 
issued by the UN, and controversy over Iraqi passports.  FM 
Khatib has offered to meet with UNHCR's team, and we can 
report positive movement on our assistance objectives.  FAFO 
expects to sign an agreement with the GOJ March 12, and to 
start work on the first serious effort to survey the needs of 
Iraqis in Jordan that same day.  This is a critical step in 
our efforts to secure Jordan's active participation in the 
April Geneva conference and to open "operational space" for 
our IO and NGO partners.  END SUMMARY. 
 
UPDATE ON PROTECTION ISSUES 
--------------------------- 
 
¶2. (C) PRESERVING FIRST ASYLUM: Post has been working to 
clarify a number of confusing reports that have emerged in 
recent weeks that suggest entry requirements may be evolving. 
 The Director of the Minister of Interior's Office, Nasser 
Ramadeen, refuted to us local media reports that claim Jordan 
is on the verge of changing its visa-on-entry scheme and will 
soon require Iraqis to apply for Jordanian visas in Baghdad 
(as Egypt and Lebanon already require).  Our MOI contacts 
uniformly confirm that the GOJ has followed our lead on 
passports, and no longer accepts Iraq's old &S series8 due 
to the same security concerns which led the USG to adopt this 
measure. 
 
¶3. (C) According to Embassy Amman's Iraq Support Unit, 
immigration officials at Jordan's airports are starting to 
enforce the new passport rules.  However, our contacts at 
Jordan's one official land crossing with Iraq (Karama-Trebil) 
have told us that they are still accepting the "S" series 
passports, and are prepared to continue to do so until June 
¶1.  As previously reported in ref E, Jordan is not permitting 
entry to most unknown Iraqis between the ages of 18 and 35. 
Figures on entry and exit are becoming increasingly difficult 
to secure; the most current available are those reported in 
ref E.  The understanding reached by the Ambassador with the 
GOJ last month to secure the entry to Jordan of 100 direct 
referrals from Embassy Baghdad to the US Refugee Admissions 
Program (see ref C) continues to function well. 
 
¶4. (C) IDENTIFICATION: In addition to no longer being able to 
enter Jordan on an "S" series passport, consistent with the 
U.S.'s own procedures, Iraqis now require "G" series 
passports to regularize their status if they are already in 
Jordan.  NOTE: According to UNHCR Jordan, the Interior 
Minister orally informed visiting UNHCR HC Guterres in 
February that approximately 150,000 of the Iraqis in Jordan 
were legal residents.  END NOTE.  While the Iraqi Embassy in 
Jordan has said that it will take applications for the new G 
series passports, there are also reports that it may be 
reneging on this promise.  As in Syria, PRM's NGO partners 
report that a black market has emerged around this gap; 
couriers are now reportedly charging $2,000 to travel to 
Baghdad to file an individual passport application.  We 
understand that Jordan's MOI plans to engage the Iraqis on 
 
this issue this week. 
 
¶5. (C) DEVELOPMENTS ON UNHCR REGISTRATION: Over the last 
week, it has also become more difficult to determine whether 
identification documents issued by UNHCR are recognized forms 
of protection.  The dispute over UNHCR's new registration 
practices and attestation letters (refs A-B) remains 
unresolved as of COB March 7, and UNHCR's decision to suspend 
registration also remains in effect, pending negotiations 
with the GOJ.  We understand from UNHCR Jordan that Foreign 
Minister Al Khatib has offered UNHCR MENA Director Radhounne 
Nouicer a meeting the week of March 11.  In the meantime, 
UNHCR's Jordan office is seeking GOJ permission to resume 
issuing letters using its pre-February 2007 text which 
identifies the bearer only as an asylum seeker -- as opposed 
to a refugee in its current attestation letter -- and which 
have a validity of six months in line with the UNHCR-Jordan 
MOU.  According to UNHCR's senior protection officer, the 
Iraqi community is unaware of this dispute, and demand for UN 
identification, which started to rise steadily in 2005, 
remains high.  UNHCR Jordan reports that most Iraqis who 
approach their offices have overstayed their permission to 
remain in Jordan, and are seeking identification that they 
believe will legalize their status.  Prior to 2005, Jordan 
upheld a 2003 MOU that UNHCR negotiated in advance of the war 
that granted blanket "temporary protection" status to all 
Iraqis in country.  END NOTE. 
 
¶6. (C) ALLEGED RISE IN DEPORTATIONS AND DETENTIONS: UNHCR 
Jordan is also ramping up its efforts to investigate reports 
of detentions and deportations.  It is concerned that senior 
MOI and MFA officials who convoked UNHCR Representative Breen 
on March 1 suggested in that meeting that the GOJ might begin 
treating the new attestation letters that UNHCR has issued to 
Iraqis in Jordan since February 6 as "null and void." 
Approximately 2,000 Iraqis in Jordan hold these disputed 
letters.  Anna-Marie Deutschlander, UNHCR's Senior Protection 
Officer in Jordan, confirms two new cases of Iraqis holding 
the new attestation letters who have been deported from 
Jordan: one individual contacted UNHCR,s hotline from the 
Jordan-Iraq "no man's land" on March 3.  The second 
individual was deported from Queen Alia on March 5.  UNHCR 
has requested information from the GOJ on these two cases but 
has not yet received a response.  This brings to five the 
total number of cases in which Iraqis holding UNHCR 
documentation were deported before UNHCR could confirm their 
refugee status in Jordan in 2007. 
 
¶7. (C) Prior to this dispute, UNHCR's Jordan office had 
already alerted its headquarters in Geneva to what it 
considers to be a spike in detentions of Iraqis in Jordan. 
Although the GOJ has sometimes informed UNHCR Amman when it 
detained Iraqis bearing UNHCR documents, the GOJ is under no 
obligation to do so.  Deutschlander told refcoord March 5 
that UNHCR's most recent internal detention report confirmed 
70 Iraqis registered with UNHCR had been detained from 
February 17 to March 1, out of a population of anywhere 
between 500,000 and 1 million.  This is up from an average 
UNHCR detention investigation caseload of 20 cases per month 
over the previous 12 months.  NOTE: The Jordanian legal aid 
NGO MIZAN plans to release a report on detention of Iraqi 
refugees in Jordan in 2006 within the next seven days.  END 
NOTE.  While UNHCR Amman has hired additional eligibility 
officers to conduct detention investigations on a full time 
basis to respond to this reported increase, its response time 
is constrained by the terms of UNHCR's bilateral MOU with the 
GOJ.  Unlike ICRC, UNHCR can only access individual detainees 
after receiving written permission from MOI. UNHCR reports 
that MOI is taking four to five days to respond to their 
requests; prior to February, MOI response usually came within 
48 hours.  UNHCR thinks this is a simple caseload issue, and 
not a deliberate effort to impede access. 
 
¶8. (C) The unintended consequence, however, is that UNHCR 
protection officers have discovered in a number of cases that 
Iraqis they have sought to interview have been moved to new 
facilities by the time access requests are granted.  In 
addition, senior UNHCR staff in Jordan are watching what they 
believe may be a new pattern of detention.  In 2006, the 
majority of Iraqis whose detention was investigated by UNHCR, 
 
were found by UNHCR to have been arrested by local police on 
work or immigration violations.  In the last two weeks, UNHCR 
has encountered several cases of Iraqis held by the General 
Intelligence Directorate.  UNHCR reports that Iraqis held by 
GID are detained under an "administrative hold" category.  As 
such, the GOJ is not obliged to inform UNHCR of the reasons 
for their detention.  That said, UNHCR has successfully 
conducted interviews with two Iraqis detained by GID; those 
interviewed were Shi'a who believe they were detained for 
proselytizing.  Deutchlander reports that MOI's Refugee Unit 
recently explained to her that the GOJ is detaining Iraqis 
increasingly on security grounds; her interlocutors 
reportedly told her the GOJ is concerned about forged 
passports, and are particularly worried by reports that a 
large number of "S" series Iraqi passports were issued to 
Iranian agents (ref C). 
 
ASSISTANCE: CLOSING THE PERCEPTION GAP KEY TO OPENING 
OPERATIONAL SPACE 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (C) The reports that some refugee advocacy groups, NGOs 
working in Jordan, and the western media are starting to 
produce on the plight of vulnerable Iraqis in Jordan paint a 
picture that diverges widely from the perception of the GOJ, 
which views Jordan as a poor country, destabilized in the 
past by refugee flows, that has extended itself considerably 
for Iraqis (refs C-D).  As reported in refs A-E, UNHCR has 
been unsuccessful to date in moving its discussions with the 
GOJ beyond its protection mandate towards a discussion on the 
role international assistance could play.  Some senior UN 
officials based in Amman, including UN Deputy SRSG for Iraq 
Jean-Marie Fakhouri (whose humanitarian mandate the UN 
recently expanded to include neighboring states), are likely 
to tell you that the GOJ is actively working with the GOI to 
secure "safe havens" inside Iraq to preclude the need for 
more population movements to Jordan.  As we reported on 
February 14 (ref B), the GOJ has assured Post that it will 
allow Iraqis to access essential services as national 
resources permit, and we are seeking meetings with the 
Ministers of Education and Health during your visit to pursue 
that opening. 
 
¶10. (C) PROSPECTS JORDAN WILL JOIN THE APRIL CONFERENCE: A 
key question is whether Jordan will ask for those resources 
in Geneva in April.  Further to ref A, UNHCR Jordan reports 
that senior officials from the MFA International Organization 
Department and the Ministry of Health have both declined to 
respond to UNHCR's request for an estimate of the impact 
Iraqis are having on the GOJ, or specific sectoral proposals, 
until basic differences over registration are resolved. 
Importantly, however, FAFO's Middle East Coordinator Age 
Tiltnes told refcoord March 7 that he expects to sign a 
formal agreement with the GOJ on March 12 that will enable 
FAFO and its Jordanian partner (the GOJ Bureau of Statistics) 
to commence work the week of your visit.  Separately, 
Norway's Ambassador to Jordan told refcoord March 6 that her 
government has responded positively to Jordan's request for 
funding for this survey.  NOTE: Tiltnes reports that 
FAFO-SARG negotiations to conduct a similar household survey 
are still ongoing.  END NOTE. 
 
¶11. (C) SOME JORDANIANS RAISING CREDIBILITY OF GOJ STUDY: 
Some Jordanians are calling for the GOJ to take additional 
steps to ensure the FAFO mission succeeds.  Jordanian Red 
Crescent Society President Dr. Al Hadid told visiting PRM/ANE 
Director Albright February 22 (see septel for full trip 
report) that he is concerned that Iraqis will fear that 
cooperation with FAFO will result in their deportation, and 
is urging the GOJ to issue a "public amnesty."  Jordanian 
editorialist Fahd Al Khaytan issued a public call for the GOJ 
to stop deporting Iraqis who do not pose a security risk, and 
"exempt Iraqis who have violated the terms and conditions of 
their residency from paying fines before the Norwegian 
organization starts its work" on March 6. 
 
¶12. (C) LIMITED INFORMATION ON VULNERABILITY: The FAFO study 
getting underway is the first serious assessment of the 
conditions Iraqis are facing in Jordan.  Little accurate 
information on their economic and social conditions ) and 
 
the extent of poverty, child labor and forced prostitution, 
if any - among Iraqis in Jordan is currently available. 
Rapid assessments carried out by NGOs who are actively 
supporting Iraqis in Jordan confirm these problems are 
present, but most of the survey work is dated, and mapping 
work is too limited to credibly estimate the size of the 
population that is extremely vulnerable.  In the study that 
CARE International carried out for UNHCR in late 2003, from a 
random sample of 3200 Iraqi respondents, 45% were found to 
include unaccompanied minor status, female headed-households, 
unaccompanied elderly, mentally disabled and individuals 
having a medical or psychological condition needing 
intervention.  Most NGOs, including PRM's current assistance 
partner for vulnerable Iraqis in the region, ICMC, report 
that refugees' economic status is changing: over time poorer 
groups are arriving and those in country are increasingly 
relying on remittances from the diaspora as undocumented 
labor carries a risk of deportation. 
 
¶13. (C) ACCESS AND NEED FOR NGO ADVOCACY: Data on the numbers 
of Iraqis who are accessing GOJ services is also limited. 
The best information currently available emerged from UNHCR 
HC Guterres' visit to Jordan in February.  According to UNHCR 
Jordan, an official at the Ministry of Education orally 
informed Guterres that there were 40,000 foreign students in 
Jordanian schools in 2006, of which 12,000 are Iraqis. Of 
that number, 9,000 are in private schools.  However, due to 
continuous amendments to its admissions policies, it appears 
that many of the 3,000 Iraqis who were enrolled in public 
schools are now being asked to leave, according to Iraqis 
refcoord interviewed, caseworkers with PRM's ICMC "EVI" 
project, and UNHCR staff in Jordan.  Many Iraqis who were 
successful in enrolling their children in public schools at 
the start of year promised to present evidence of legal 
residency; several months into the school year they are being 
forced to withdraw their children, according to caseworkers 
with our ICMC/Caritas Jordan EVI project and Save the 
Children USA.  Given the GOJ's very real resource constraints 
and overcrowding in public schools, distance learning via 
satellite broadcast, combined with standardized testing that 
will be recognized, may be faster short term options. 
 
¶14. (C) NGOs operating in Jordan my address some of the 
health needs of vulnerable displaced Iraqis, but lack the 
capacity to educate those Iraqi children who are currently 
not attending school in Jordan.  Numerous NGOs are conducting 
rapid assessments in Jordan to respond to PRM's request for 
proposals.  However, many are not registered in Jordan and 
could require advocacy with the GOJ.  It may be feasible to 
encourage GOJ streamlining of its registration processes with 
the Ministry of Trade and Industry, or seek permission to 
allow NGOs to operate under the offices of a Jordanian group 
like the Hashemite Charitable Organization, which continues 
to manage UNHCR's one remaining border camp. 
 
UNHCR RESETTLEMENT WORK PROCEEDING NORMALLY 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶15. (C) While UNHCR registration activities are suspended, 
the agency's resettlement work is proceeding normally, 
according to UNHCR Jordan's representative.  UNHCR is using 
the time it would normally devote to registering Iraqis to 
conduct in-depth training for the 18 new registration staff 
UNHCR has hired in Jordan.  UNHCR reports that crowd reaction 
to the suspension has been muted, due largely to UNHCR's 
decision to blame the suspension on technical problems 
associated with UNHCR's computers.  UNHCR has made efforts to 
call all Iraqis who had scheduled registration appointments 
to assure them that they would be given priority when 
operations were resumed.  UNHCR believes that it can make up 
the 300 appointments it has been unable to conduct this week 
comparatively quickly now that registration staff are fully 
trained. Positive results from the recent DHS circuit ride, 
particularly news that the U.S. might accept Palestinians 
from Iraq who were admitted to Jordan in 2003 to USRAP, will 
be received positively and may help to defuse UNHCR-GOJ 
tensions. 
 
Visit Amman's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/amman/ 
 
RUBINSTEIN