On Fox News' Special Report, Hume omitted key Syrian action from report on flow of Iraqi refugees

During the "Grapevine" segment of the November 5 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, Fox News Washington managing editor Brit Hume reported, "A worker at the Iraqi Airways office in Damascus [Syria] says the flow of refugees from Iraq to Syria has almost reversed." Hume continued, "Once-full flights from Baghdad are now virtually empty, and flights headed the other way have considerably more passengers." Hume was reporting the Iraqi government's assertion that "more than 3,000 Iraqi families that were driven out of their Baghdad neighborhoods have returned home in the past three months because of the decline in sectarian violence." However, Hume did not report that Syrian officials recently began requiring people entering Syria from Iraq to obtain a visa first, which has reportedly eliminated the flow of refugees from Iraq into Syria almost entirely.

According to an October 21 New York Times article, "Syria has closed its borders to all but a small group of Iraqis and imposed new visa rules that will legally require the 1.5 million Iraqis currently in Syria to return to Iraq." The Times article reported that while experts do not expect that Syria will deport Iraqi refugees already in the country, "[t]he immediate effect has been to cut the flood of refugees to a trickle, no more than a hundred people a day, according to the United Nations," down from the "2,000 to 4,000 Iraqis [who] have fled into Syria every day" for the past year.

The Times further described the Syrian restrictions:

Syria announced the new rules this summer and said they would take effect on Sept. 1. But it postponed their implementation and continued to accept refugees until Oct. 1. Under the old visa rules, Iraqis entered Syria without restriction and were allowed to remain for three months. Damascus has avoided any announcement about the policy since it took effect, leaving refugees and United Nations officials in a haze of uncertainty.

Under the new rules, Iraqis must apply for visas at the Syrian Embassy in Baghdad. Only academics, merchants with commercial interests requiring travel to Syria, and taxi and truck drivers qualify for visas.

The immediate effect has been to cut the flood of refugees to a trickle, no more than a hundred people a day, according to the United Nations. Over the long term, it means that Iraqi refugees who overstay their three-month visas to Syria may have to make the dangerous trip back to Baghdad and apply to return under the new visa requirement, which disqualifies all but a handful.

By contrast with Hume's account, a November 3 Associated Press article reported that "[p]art of the inflow [of Iraqis returning from Syria] can be attributed to stiffening of visa and residency procedures for Iraqis by the Syrian government." The article then reported that the head of the Iraqi Airways office in Damascus said that, in the AP's words, "the flow of Iraqis has almost reversed" and that "[w]hat were once full flights arriving from Baghdad now touch down virtually empty."

Also, in contrast with Hume's report on the Iraqi government's claim that 3,000 families had returned to their homes in Baghdad, a November 4 article on CBSNews.com, by CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey, reporting from Baghdad, noted that the number of displaced persons in Iraq reportedly increased in the last month:

Over the weekend the Iraqi government announced that more than 3,000 Iraqi families driven out of their Baghdad neighborhoods by sectarian violence have returned to their homes in the past three months. On the other hand the Iraqi Red Crescent Society will release a report this week showing that the number of IDPs, internally displaced persons, in Iraq now tops 2.3 million, an increase of 16 percent in the last 30 days. Sixty-five percent of them are children.

From the November 5 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:

HUME: And now the most interesting two minutes in television: the latest from the "Political Grapevine."

The Iraqi government says more than 3,000 Iraqi families that were driven out of their Baghdad neighborhoods have returned home in the past three months because of the decline in sectarian violence. One businessman says before he and his family fled to Syria, streets were deserted by mid-afternoon and shops were closed.

He says now stores stay open until 10 at night, and the U.S. military, working with the neighborhood council, is handing out $2,000 grants to new and returning shop owners.

A worker at the Iraqi Airways office in Damascus says the flow of refugees from Iraq to Syria has almost reversed. Once-full flights from Baghdad are now virtually empty, and flights headed the other way have considerably more passengers.