As the U.S. occupation of Iraq continues, a panel hosted by the David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy today hopes to inform students about the growing Iraqi refugee crisis.
UCLA School of Law alumna Kalyanee Mam will present the trailer to “Between Earth & Sky,” a documentary she is working on with her partner David Mendez that focuses on the plight of those displaced by the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Sarnata Reynolds, refugee program director for Amnesty International USA, said that estimates and extrapolations by several groups place the number of Iraqi refugees at 2.2 million. She added that there are also about 2 million Iraqis who have been internally displaced.
Reynolds, who is also chair of the Iraqi Refugee Working Group, is working with that coalition and with Amnesty International on efforts to allow more refugees into the United States, to support refugees and asylum seekers already in the system, and most importantly, she said, to reopen Iraq’s borders.
“Right now they’re trapped inside Iraq, and they have no way to get out,” she said.
Reynolds said that the trailer is “the beginning of a very powerful film.” She added that it is important for viewers to see “the experience of displacement and what that can do to a person, what that can do to a family.”
“Between Earth & Sky” was inspired by Mam’s interactions with colleagues when she first went to Iraq to work on reforming commercial laws. After hearing about the hardships of first living under Hussein’s regime, then under the American occupation, Mam began helping coworkers file refugee applications.
Mam also bought a microphone and began recording their stories with her computer. When she returned to the United States, she realized that the stories in the audio files needed to be told in a more visual form.
“I realized around the end of May that I needed to do something to tell the world ““ and especially Americans ““ to tell the stories of my friends,” she said.
Mam decided the best way to convey those stories would be through a documentary, so she went to Jordan last September to gather footage for a trailer.
As she and Mendez raise funds for the film, Mam is also visiting college campuses in order to tap into an audience ready to help refugees.
“We really believe that students are the ones who are willing and able and who have the time and capacity … to really do something,” she said.
Following the four-minute trailer, Mam will participate in a discussion moderated by Professor David Kaye, executive director of the School of Law’s International Human Rights Program.
The other two panelists will be Reynolds and Anwar Aljebir, an Iraqi refugee whose family is still in Iraq.
“The Iraqi refugee problem is really at a crisis point right now and has been for several years,” Kaye said.
He said the panel will discuss issues from different perspectives and will touch topics such as the responsibility of countries to refugees, the moral obligation of the United States, and the effects of war on the individual lives and families that have been disrupted.
Epstein Program Director Catherine Mayorkas said the audience will receive a handout identifying various ways in which students can become involved in supporting refugees. The Epstein Program, part of the UCLA School of Law, was created to respond to the problem of students drifting away from public interest once they had attended law school.
“I think the principle goal of the program is to nurture a public interest-oriented service community,” Mayorkas said. She said that the program has helped students sustain their commitment, but also added that law students outside of the program are also staying involved in public service.
Mam, who was involved in the Epstein Program while at the School of Law, contacted the program about screening the trailer and hosting the panel.
She and Mendez hope to film the planned 90-minute documentary in Jordan and Syria by early March.
Mam said that students interested in helping can volunteer their time to work with refugees, inform others about what they have learned, or write to Congress.