Jordan and Syria struggle to cope with huge influx of Iraqi refugees by Amnesty / BBC News / UNHCR 12:17am 20th Mar, 2007   16.4.2007    Iraq refugee crisis warning. (Reuters)    Amnesty International is calling on western countries to help avoid a humanitarian crisis in the Middle East where four million Iraqis have been uprooted by the conflict.    The London-based human rights group called on the United States, the European Union and others to help Jordan and Syria, whose governments are struggling to care for some two million Iraqi refugees who have fled their homeland. Another 1.9 million are displaced within Iraq, many in the past year marked by suicide bombings and sectarian violence.    The appeal came ahead of a two-day international conference in Geneva, opening on Tuesday, called by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to confront massive needs in the region.    "The Middle East is on the verge of a new humanitarian crisis unless the European Union, US and other states take urgent and concrete measures," Amnesty said in a statement. Malcolm Smart, head of Amnesty International''s Middle East and North African Program, said Syria and Jordan had borne the brunt of the refugee exodus so far, "but there must be a limit".    "It is vital that other governments now step in and deliver ... direct assistance to ensure that the refugees are adequately housed and fed, and have access to healthcare and education in Syria, Jordan and the other (host) countries," he said.    From 40,000 to 50,000 Iraqis flee their homes each month in an exodus linked to pervasive violence, poor basic services, a loss of jobs, and an uncertain future, according to the UNHCR.    Sectarian tensions between majority Shi''ites and long dominant Sunni Arabs erupted after the bombing of a Shi''ite shrine in Samarra in February 2006, adding to widespread insurgency violence and prompting many to leave their homes.    "Those who have fled are becoming increasingly desperate as they and their host communities run out of resources," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told reporters before the Geneva meeting. "We hope to hear commitments on all of these aspects next week because the international community needs to focus collectively on a whole range of humanitarian needs," he said.    Although the gathering is not a donor conference, UN officials hope that it will put pressure on Western states to provide more financial help and take more Iraqi asylum-seekers.    Amnesty urged the United States and EU member states to set up "generous settlement programs" to take in the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees, often in need of costly medical care.    "Such resettlement programs should go far beyond token numbers and should constitute a significant part of the solution to the current crisis," it said.    Several thousand Iraqi refugees were accepted by so-called third countries last year, according to UNHCR, which hopes to find 20,000 resettlement places this year.    20 March 2007    The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says there has been an "abject denial" around the world of the humanitarian impact of invading Iraq.    The UN faces an enormous task in helping countries such as Jordan and Syria cope with the huge influx of Iraqi refugees, a spokesman said.    He said the international community had to step in to help address their food, health and education needs.    Syria says it is home to 1.2 million Iraqi refugees, with up to 800,000 in Jordan. Damascus has repeatedly called for help to deal with the problem.    UNHCR spokesman Peter Kessler said: "There has been an abject denial of the impact, the humanitarian impact, of the war, the huge displacement within Iraq of up to 1.9 million people who are homeless because of the war, and those people who are homeless and never got back to the homes after Saddam Hussein was overthrown."    Many of the refugees need considerable support, and about a quarter of them are children who need education.    Many need food and healthcare, some need counselling because of the violence they have experienced or witnessed, while others need jobs.    "There"s a need for governments to come in and address the health, the education, all the needs," Mr Kessler said.    "Food aid needs as well are becoming vital because the population is becoming further and further impoverished since they cannot work.    "So clearly in every area, there"s a need to support what the main host governments are doing and then to gird ourselves for what could be, if the war is prolonged, an increasing movement further westwards."    Displaced inside Iraq    On top of that, almost two million more people are displaced inside Iraq - people who have fled their homes to escape the violence.    That number, too, is steadily growing, the UN says, with some provinces feeling overwhelmed and attempting to close their boundaries to refugees from other areas.    Many Sunni Arab and Shia people have been forced to flee from mixed areas to districts where their respective communities are in the majority.    A number of Arab Iraqis have moved to the autonomous Kurdish area in the north, where the security problems are less severe.    Most of the people killed in Iraq"s violence are men. Their deaths leave households headed by women who struggle to survive the loss of the main breadwinner, says the BBC"s Jill McGivering.    The public distribution system within Iraq is no longer providing a safety net for these people in the way it used to. All these factors encourage the flow of people into other countries.    On top of all this, the Iraqi economy is still shattered, unemployment is high, and basic servcies like water and electricity are still grossly deficient.    Neighbouring countries such as Jordan have a keen interest in stopping Iraq from disintegration, for fear that the already high number of refugees going to Jordan will increase substantially.    March 20, 2007    UNHCR inviting 192 nations to upcoming Iraq humanitarian conference. (UNHCR)    The UN refugee agency has invited ministers from nearly 200 governments to a conference in Geneva next month aimed at forging an international approach toward meeting the enormous humanitarian needs of millions of people uprooted by the conflict in Iraq.    UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that invitations had gone out to 192 governments, 65 international organisations and some 60 non-governmental organisations for the April 17-18 international humanitarian conference on refugees and displaced in Iraq and neighbouring countries. The ministerial-level meeting will be held in Geneva"s Palais des Nations, the European headquarters of the United Nations.    "It will examine the humanitarian dimensions of the displacement crisis, identify the enormous needs, and seek to forge a common international effort to address those needs, including through sharing the burden that"s now being borne by neighbouring states," Redmond said. "It will also seek targeted responses to specific, urgent humanitarian problems, including immediate solutions for those who are particularly vulnerable both inside and outside Iraq."    Some 2 million Iraqis are now in neighbouring countries in the region, many of whom were uprooted prior to 2003, he said. Syria has more than 1 million Iraqis and Jordan an estimated 750,000. Both countries have carried an enormous burden and deserved more support from the international community, Redmond said.    Much more humanitarian help also had to be focused on the estimated 1.9 million Iraqis who remain displaced inside their own country, many of them in increasingly desperate conditions.    "While many were also displaced before 2003, we estimate that just since the beginning of last year – and particularly since the Samara bombing of February 2006 – nearly 730,000 Iraqis have become newly displaced by sectarian violence," Redmond said. "They and millions more Iraqis are facing severe hardship."    The UN Assistance Mission in Iraq estimates that more than 15 million Iraqis are now considered extremely vulnerable – including refugees, displaced people, those facing food insecurity, widows, disabled people and others. Reaching help and safety in neighbouring countries is becoming increasingly difficult, he said. Many of those who have fled to other parts of Iraq have run out of resources, and host communities are also struggling to absorb increasing numbers of displaced.    An estimated 4 million Iraqis are dependent on food assistance. Only 60 percent have access to the public food distribution system. The chronic child malnutrition rate is at 23 percent. Some 70 percent of the Iraqi population lack access to adequate water supplies, while 80 percent lack effective sanitation. The unemployment rate is over 50 percent.    "About a third of UNHCR"s $60 million appeal for the region – more than half of which has so far been raised – is aimed at providing help to tens of thousands of the most vulnerable of these internally displaced people inside Iraq," Redmond said. "Compared to the overall needs, it"s a drop in the ocean. And providing that help is extremely difficult because of the dire security situation in much of the country."    He said UNHCR"s staff in seven locations in Iraq (Baghdad, Suleymaniyah, Dohuk, Erbil, Kirkuk, Nassiriyah, Basra) work with a network of at least 17 different partners, including the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration.    "Our UNHCR colleagues there are overwhelmingly Iraqi and they bravely work under what could best be termed remote management," he said. "This operating structure is pretty much unique to Iraq and UNHCR recently hosted a meeting here in Geneva with other humanitarian agencies to share ideas on how we can better provide humanitarian assistance in such a difficult and dangerous environment."    Despite the many limitations and in the face of enormous needs in Iraq, the work done by UNHCR and its partners inside Iraq has still managed to benefit tens of thousands of internally displaced people and the families and communities caring for them. The agency"s programmes include the provision of shelter assistance and non-food aid items and the operation of 14 legal assistance centers throughout the country where the displaced can get various kinds of support, including the transfer and replacement of basic documents. Such documents are vital because without them, food rations can be withheld and governorate authorities can prevent access by internally displaced people to even the most basic of services.    "With displacement continuing at an estimated rate of up to 50,000 a month, the humanitarian needs are growing by the day and we need to do everything we can to try to get help to desperate people," Redmond said. Visit the related web page
	Next (more recent) news item
	Next (older) news item