Washington: A measure to provide special visas for Iraqis who risked their lives to help the United States is heading to President Barack Obama.
In a rare instance of bipartisanship, the Senate passed the measure by voice vote on Thursday, just hours after the House had approved the bill the same way.
The special visa has allowed more than 12,000 Iraqi contractors, interpreters and others who aided US efforts, and their family members, to move to the United States since 2007.
It expired earlier this week, with an estimated 2,000 applications still in the bureaucratic process.
"We have a moral obligation to stand with Iraqis who stood with us during a time of war, and with this bill headed to the president tomorrow we are demonstrating that we will not abandon our Iraqi partners," said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, who worked with Sen. John McCain, a Republican, on the measure.
The programme was created during the worst years of the Iraq war, with Iraqis who helped US forces facing targeted killings, death threats and other forms of harassment. The goal was to resettle them in the United States faster than the often protracted general refugee process might allow. More than 90,000 Iraqis have moved to the US as refugees, though the process can take months or years.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat, said many translators and guides ignored their own safety to help US soldiers.
"By all accounts, thousands of these people performed critical tasks faithfully, if not flawlessly," he said in a statement.
"We made an implicit promise to protect them when the American presence was scaled down, and they risked their lives to help us. Now, many are threatened on a daily basis by enemies of the United States with very long memories. We need to fulfill our promise to get them out of harm`s way."
PTI
