Did
you know that the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization
for Migration reported in 2007 that there are almost 5 million Iraqis
who have been displaced by the violence in their country? FIVE MILLION
PEOPLE out of a total population of 27 million people. Give or take,
that's one in every five people. At that rate, if the same thing
happened in the US, there would be at least 60 million displaced
people. It'd make New Orleans look like a cake walk.
About half of the
displaced Iraqis are still in Iraq, having been forced from their homes
to seek shelter in hopefully less hazardous parts of their own country.
In mid-2007, Iraq was declared by Refugees International to be the
"fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world".
As for the people who have left Iraq, they often have no idea what the
future holds for them. Many have wound in Syria, the only country that
initially placed no restrictions on Iraqi immigration. According to UN
statistics, as of early 2007, Syria had taken in about 1.25 million
displaced Iraqis. Beyond that, the UN reported 500,000 Iraqi refugees
were in Jordan, as many as 70,000 in Egypt, up to 60,000 in Iran, about
30,000 in Lebanon, approximately 200,000 spread across the Gulf states,
and another 100,000 in Europe, with a final 50,000 spread around the
globe.
With
the bulk of the Iraqi refugee population in Syria reaching 1.5 million
people toward the end of 2007, and making up as much as 10% of the
country's overall population, the Syrian government changed the visa
regulations in October 2007,
making it more difficult for Iraqis to obtain Syrian visas and then
limiting their stay to just three months.
On February 15, Syrian
President Bashar Assad promised
that no Iraqi refugees will be forced out of Syria while their country
remains a dangerous place to live. Assad made this promise to UN High
Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres. The two met during a Middle
East tour that Guterres is making in an effort to get more assistance
for the refugees.
"We received reassurances from his excellency the president and
the government that, independent of their legal status in Syria, Iraqi
refugees will not be pushed back into Iraq against their will and that
the asylum space will be preserved in Syria for Iraqis," said Guterres. In the last few months there have been reports that Iraqi refugees were
beginning to return to their country but there are no clear figures on
this and a trend has not been confirmed. The Iraqi Red Crescent said in January that almost 45,000 Iraqi
refugees in Syria had returned home between September and December
2007. However, those figures have been disputed.
More importantly, the explanation media give for this return is that people are deciding it's safe to move back to Iraq.
Many
of the Iraqi refugees in Syria are
not allowed to work legally.That means that meeting basic living needs
for food and shelter can be very difficult. Despite what so many of us
think, the average refugee does not get any help with these
necessities.The story is the same in many of other countries where Iraqis have fled
to.
An article in Al Jazeera said, "the constant stream of those escaping violence
has put a strain on Damascus. Rent in many Syrian cities has rocketed by about 300%".
Needless to say, many Iraqis who fled to Syria have used up their
savings and are finding they have no other choice but to return to
Iraq, regardless of the situation.Who would have believed the conflict would continue for so long?
However, according
to Refugees International, Iraq's struggling government
recently warned it can't accommodate large numbers of returns. Many of
those who have returned were subsequently displaced again.
Anyone can dispute the fine points of
this post - how many refugees are in what countries, how many are
internally displaced, how many are returning. The fact remains that as
much as one-fifth of the Iraqi population has had to move as a result
of the ongoing violence.
CNN reported on February 13 that last week, US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice authorized the US Embassy in Damascus to talk to the
Syrian government about the flow of Iraqi refugees, but made clear it
was not the start of a broader conversation on Iraq. Finally.
Also on February 13, the US State Department said the Bush administration hopes to resettle about 7,000 Iraqi refugees
to the US THIS YEAR.
According the Human Rights Watch, the US accepted 1608 last year.
On
Wednesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Guterres to
outline a new US program for Iraqi refugees, which includes $18
million for additional funding for UNHCR to assist with resettlement of
refugees in other countries and humanitarian aid.
The
decision comes amid pressure from the US Congress and the
international community to do more about the growing refugee crisis.
Hold your representatives accountable for these promises the administration has made.
That's 7,000 Iraqis resettled in the US in 2008 and $18 million in additional UNHCR funding.
