Print

Mail

wiki links

Iraqi refugee crisis escalating: Amnesty

The Iraqi refugee crisis in neighboring countries could spread unless the US and the EU take urgent measures, a human rights group said yesterday.

Several million Iraqis have been driven from their homes because of the spiraling violence since the US-led invasion in 2003 and the years of oppression under former president Saddam Hussein.

The bulk of refugees have gone to Syria and Jordan, placing a strain on both countries with escalating prices of housing and goods and stretching health care and other basic services to the maximum.

A two-day UN conference starting today in Geneva will address the growing numbers of people fleeing Iraq to escape daily suicide bombings, abductions, house evictions and other atrocities which have made the country one of the world's worst refugee crises.

"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 to assist the more than 3 million people forcibly displaced by the conflict in Iraq," London-based Amnesty International said.

The UN refugee agency estimates that around 2 million Iraqis have fled to neighboring countries, including many uprooted before 2003. In addition, some 1.9 million people have been displaced within Iraq, according to the agency.

Amnesty called on governments to set up generous resettlement programs: "Such resettlement programs should go far beyond token numbers and should constitute a significant part of the solution to the current crisis."

The conference is the first global attempt to address the Iraqi refugee crisis.
This story has been viewed 1588 times.