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From the President’s Desk New Hope and New Life Over the past three months, LIRS has been working hard on behalf of a group of nearly 1,000 refugees from Burma on the island of Guam. Guam? How did people from Burma ever get there? The answer tells a lot about the desperation and resourcefulness of refugees, and about how we who would help them must be equally resourceful. There's no mystery about why refugees would have to flee from Burma. The military rulers of that nation, which they have renamed Myanmar, have kept an iron hold on power. They ignore the results of the free elections they lost in 1990, keep the democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi under strict house arrest, and detain and torture their opponents. Religious and ethnic minorities are particularly vulnerable. The refugees on Guam are nearly all Christians from the Chin, Kachin and Karen ethnic groups. There are also some ethnic Burmese who are Buddhist. All tell horrific stories of persecution. But why Guam? It turns out that, in order to promote tourism to this far-flung American outpost in the western Pacific, the United States adopted a visa waiver program for certain Asian nationalities. Burma was on the list. Desperate refugees who had passports and could gather the resources for an air ticket took advantage of this loophole and simply flew in. By the time U.S. authorities realized what was happening and revoked the visa waiver, nearly a thousand refugees from Burma had arrived. Many partners have responded generously to the needs of the group. LIRS has taken the lead in negotiating with the INS and with other federal partners. Church World Service has played a key role in drawing attention to their plight and continues, with LIRS, to advocate on their behalf. World Relief and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights have also made important contributions. The local church community on Guam-Baptists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics and others-has tried to provide food, clothing and financial assistance. In the United States the Chin Freedom Coalition is taking the lead among several ethnic communities to mobilize assistance. The governor of Guam and Guam's congressional delegate responded sympathetically and have urged a generous federal response. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has responded in a professional and generous manner, releasing those who were initially held in immigration detention and expeditiously processing asylum applications. So far, the approval rates are over 90 percent, and this even though the refugees have filled out the forms themselves without benefit of legal counsel. What happens from here? The refugees on Guam do not fit easily into the standard operating modes for processing either refugees or asylum seekers. Because they are on U.S. territory, the State Department's systems for refugee processing do not apply. Nor is the group eligible for regular refugee travel loans. INS has had to supplement its small Guam staff to process the cases of those who have fled Burma, as well as the cases of some 100 Chinese asylum seekers. The U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement is exploring how it can help in providing temporary support and community integration assistance for the group from Burma. We in the voluntary agencies are identifying their relatives or other contacts in the United States, to help prepare the ground for reception and services. The long road of the refugees from Burma is not nearly over. Yet as we and they come out of the darkness of Lent into the resurrection light of Easter, it is fitting that the prospects look bright for this group of refugees to find freedom.
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