The Neocons' ill-starred invasion of Iraq has created the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world, according to Refugees International, a Washington-based NGO. 1,000 Iraqis are being internally displaced daily because of sectarian violence according to Geneva-based International Organization for Migration. According to the U.N.'s High Commissioner for Refugees, up to 2,000 Iraqis a day are going to Syria and an additional 1,000 a day to Jordan. These countries, along with Lebanon, are now closing or restricting their borders to Iraqis after having accepted hundreds of thousands of refugees. So far the neocons have been able to ignore the plight of refugees but now that Arab countries are saturated, a full-blown refugee crisis, possibly requiring massive camps of hundreds of thousands, may be inevitable.
Refugees International recently completed a month-long mission to Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan to examine the fate of Iraq refugees. Here are some facts to ponder:
According to the UN, 2.3 million refugees have left their homes in Iraq. 1.8 million of these refugees have sought shelter in other countries.
40,000 Iraqis leave each month for Syria alone and numbers are likely to be similar for Jordan.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees' (NHCR) budget in Syria this year amounts to less than one dollar per refugee.
"'Iraqis who are unable to flee the country are now in a queue, waiting their turn to die,' is how one Iraqi journalist summarizes conditions in Iraq today."
Syria and Jordan are "rapidly becoming overwhelmed" by the massive influx of refugees. Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria do not allow Iraqi refugees to work, nor are these countries signatories to the 1951 Refugees Convention. Iraqis in Jordan live in constant fear of deportation and face increasing difficulties in renewing their visas. According to Refugees International, as of November 2006, only Syria is still admitting Iraqi refugees.
The situation of Palestinians from Iraq and Kurdish refugees is particularly dire. Palestinians from Iraq have been singled out and sentenced to death by fatwa by sectarian groups and militias. In 2003, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) counted 30,000 Palestinians in Iraq. According to current (11/06) estimates, approximately 25,000 of these Palestinians have either fled or been killed. As Syria has closed its borders to Palestinians from Iraq, refugees have nowhere left to run. Over three hundred of these refugees now live in a no man's land between Iraq and Syria.
Here is a typical refugee's story:
Fatima moved to Damascus in 2003, fleeing professional and gender persecution. A secular Shi’a, she lived in Baghdad with an aunt and uncle, working as a hairdresser. The salon where Fatima worked began to receive threats from armed groups because they were cutting women’s hair in a public place. Shortly thereafter, the salon was attacked, and Fatima quit her job out of fear for her safety. Her uncle similarly began to lecture her on the inappropriate nature of her work, so she moved out of their home to a building in Baghdad where single women lived. Unfortunately, militias soon began to threaten the building, believing that women should not live alone. At this time, women began to be kidnapped and killed around Baghdad, further raising Fatima’s fears.
She decided to sell her jewelry to raise money, and together with three other single women, she left for Syria. In her three years in Damascus, Fatima has found herself isolated in a society which is skeptical of single women. She has been able to scrape by cutting hair for neighbors, but has been unable to find steady work. She feels that she could settle permanently in Syria, but is desperate to work in order to support herself. As Syria does not give work permits to Iraqi refugees, she is considering moving anywhere that will take her.
http://www.refugeesinternational.org...
The following are Refugees International's recommendations for immediate action:
Donors immediately and significantly increase their funding to UNHCR and UNRWA, as well as to other agencies assisting refugees from Iraq;
National governments assist the Syrian and Jordanian governments in absorbing Iraqi refugees that continue to arrive there in massive numbers. Syria in particular needs international support to continue to keep its borders open;
Arab governments immediately agree to host the Palestinians stranded in Al Tanf and Al Ruweisheid, as well as other Palestinians fleeing Iraq. Should Arab countries refuse to do so, they must accept resettlement in third countries as a potential solution for these groups.
Western governments begin to accept referrals for the resettlement of extremely vulnerable individuals, including Palestinians from Iraq seeking refuge in the future.
http://www.refugeesinternational.org...
Wondering what you can do? Me too. Refugees International's "Ways You Can Help" page has some good suggestions.
A small portion of the five billion dollars a month that is currently spent on the Iraq war (8/2005) would go a long way toward helping Iraqi refugees. As the "liberators" of Iraq, both the United States and Britain (along with Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, and Uzbekistan) are responsible for the refugee crisis they have unleashed.
The situation grows more desperate and more volatile with each passing day...