Iraq remains one of the most dangerous places in the world. Its refugee
crisis is worsening. According to the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR), since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003,
an estimated 4.7 million have been displaced both within and outside
Iraq and for many the situation is desperate.
A new report by Amnesty International, Rhetoric and reality: the Iraqi refugee crisis,
says that the international community continues to fail to respond to
the crisis in a meaningful way. Countries like Jordan and Syria host
most of the refugees but are simply not equipped to meet the needs of
all those arriving.
Syria alone may be hosting more than a million refugees. As of 2007,
only 1 percent of the total Iraqi displaced population was estimated to
be in the industrialized world.
To mark World Refugee Day, Amnesty International has called on the
international community and, in particular, those states who
participated in the US-led invasion of Iraq, to take real steps to
alleviate the suffering of those displaced. The organization said these
countries must urgently act on their responsibility to assist the host
nations and humanitarian organizations operating in the region to
support the large numbers of refugees.
"Many refugees are finding it difficult to survive," said Philip
Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and
North Africa Programme. "They are banned from working and unable to pay
rents, buy adequate food for themselves and their families, or obtain
medical treatment. Those lucky enough to escape Iraq rely on savings
which, for many, are rapidly running out."
Many families are destitute and facing impossible choices and new
risks, like having to resort to child labour and the prospect of being
forced through circumstances to undertake "voluntary" return to Iraq.
Humanitarian agencies cannot cope with growing demands as more refugees
need help with the basics to survive. The UNHCR had planned that by the
end of the year it would be distributing food to around 300,000 people
in Syria alone. However, the agency recently announced that inadequate
funding means that, by August 2008, it will not be able to "cover all
basic health needs of Iraqis, and many serious and chronically ill
Iraqis will not be able to receive their monthly medication."
Current food aid for 150,000 refugees in Syria and Jordan could be
reduced, forcing many Iraqis "into further destitution and raise the
likelihood of higher malnutrition rates and increased child labor."
Amnesty International believes it is imperative that the international
community increase its contributions to humanitarian agencies such as
UNHCR, as well as to the countries hosting Iraqi refugees. Furthermore,
there must be a real and sustained effort to resettle vulnerable
refugees, such as those with serious medical conditions, to countries
where they will receive adequate care.
Manal (not her real name), a refugee living in Damascus, told Amnesty
International in February 2008 that three of her children, aged between
six and 15 years, work so the family can survive.
Her six-year-old boy sells chewing gum in the street, for about one US
dollar a day; her 10-year-old daughter sells chewing gum about three
days a week; her oldest son polishes shoes, for the equivalent of about
US$2 a day. Her daughter is the only one who goes to school. The family
fled to Syria in 2006 after their house in Baghdad was damaged by
explosions.
Despite claims among the international community that an "improvement"
in the security situation in Iraq has led to people "voluntarily"
returning, in reality, most return because they have run out of money
and can no longer survive. They return despite the real danger to their
lives.
Apart from failing to provide adequate practical and financial support,
some states are also rejecting the asylum claims of Iraqis at an
alarming rate. More European states are deporting rejected
asylum-seekers to Iraq, including countries like Sweden, once a
positive example to its European neighbours. Some states are using
indirect ways to return people to Iraq, for example cutting off
assistance to rejected Iraqi asylum-seekers and therefore forcing them
to return "voluntarily".
The failure to respond to the crisis is contributing to the severe
deterioration of human rights protection for individuals forced to flee
their homes in search of safety. Support is desperately needed so that
host countries in the region can meet their own responsibilities in
allowing access to all those fleeing violence and human rights abuses.
