Iraqi refugees have started arriving in New Jersey as part of a nationwide resettlement program to bring 12,000 Iraqis to the United States by the end of next month.

A refugee resettlement program run by the Diocese of Camden has placed five Iraqi families in recent months -- a total of 19 people -- in Camden and Atlantic counties, according to Catholic Charities, Diocese of Camden, Executive Director Kevin Hickey. He expects to receive an additional 25 to 50 refugees by Dec. 1, and find homes in the area.

"The United States has a moral obligation to Iraqis," Hickey said. "There are consequences to military action, and this is one of them . . . We're really looking to the communities of South Jersey to lend a hand."

The Camden Diocese places about 200 refugees a year, and it has taken in Iraqis as part of the State Department's push. All the Iraqi families placed so far are living in low-income housing while the diocese provides them job assistance. Each family has someone who speaks English, and their legal paperwork and working documents are in order, Hickey said. One of the men placed in Camden County is a doctor, so Hickey said he hopes to pair him with a local doctor to mentor him for the medical profession.

"America is a little bit fearful of the stranger," Hickey said. "Employers, once they take a chance, they find these people have a tremendous work ethic."

Nearly 9,000 Iraqi refugees have arrived in the United States so far, about a quarter of them over the past month, according to a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR.

They are among the 12,000 Iraqi refugees that the U.S. government has agreed to accept by the end of its fiscal year on Sept. 30. An additional 5,000 are being sent here under a special visa program for Iraqis who have worked with the U.S. military, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Department of State.

Larry Yungk, a senior resettlement officer in the United Nations' refugee organization's Washington office, said most of the Iraqi refugees are coming to the U.S. from secondary countries including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey.

Those nations have absorbed the majority of the estimated 2 million Iraqis who have fled their homeland since the conflict began. The organization estimates more than 2 million people are also displaced within Iraq.

Most Iraqi refugees don't want to resettle as far away as the U.S., according to Yungk. He said those that come to New Jersey and elsewhere are among the most vulnerable and the least likely to return to Iraq after the war ends.

"Most anybody, when they leave their country, their first choice would be to go back home if they could," Yungk said. "If you look at these groups coming here, they're among the most unlikely to go back, and those having the most trouble."

Yungk said most of the Iraqi refugees that are sent to the U.S. either have family ties here, have been victims of violence, are in women-headed households in families where the men have been killed or kidnapped, are among those who fear reprisal for assisting U.S. forces, or are afraid to return to Iraq because of religious or political persecution.

New Jersey is not usually a major destination for refugee resettlement.

Officials say the high cost of living and social service systems that are already overburdened in large urban areas are among the reasons why most refugees are often sent to smaller towns and cities across the U.S.

An official from the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration says New Jersey has received 65 Iraqi refugees since Oct. 1. He did not know how many Iraqis would be sent to here in the coming weeks.

To be eligible for resettlement in the U.S., Iraqis -- like all refugees -- must first be granted refugee status by UNHCR. Those designated for resettlement in the U.S. are then screened, interviewed and approved by the Department of State. The State Department then refers each case individually to different resettlement agencies across the country. They come here as legal immigrants eligible to work and receive government benefits.

Catholic Charities is just one of the agencies in New Jersey that handles refugee resettlement. Other religious-based groups of various denominations have refugee programs, as do some private social service agencies and nongovernmental organizations.

Hickey said the Camden Diocese runs the largest Catholic Charities refugee resettlement program in the state. He said the program has been helping the recent Iraqi arrivals settle throughout Atlantic County.

"It's a wonderful program," Hickey said. "This is possibly our most biblical program -- in the sense of welcoming the stranger."

Staff Writer Joseph Gidjunis contributed to this report.

Associated Press