Middle East News
PREVIEW: EU ministers to discuss new ways to help Iraqi refugees
Apr 19, 2007, 17:27 GMT
Luxembourg - European Union interior ministers, who are due to mull over new ways to help refugees from strife-torn Iraq on Friday, are expected to focus on assisting EU countries hosting Iraqi refugees.
The EU is under pressure from aid agencies to take in more refugees from Iraq which would ease the burden for neighbouring countries such as Syria and Jordan.
Syria is hosting 1.2 million Iraqis and Jordan 750,000 Iraqi refugees.
Sweden is expected to use the EU meeting in Luxembourg to press for more solidarity in hosting Irqai refugees.
More than 9,000 Iraqis have found refuge in Sweden which grants refugee status or other protection to almost all Iraqi asylum seekers.
Some 20,000 Iraqis applied for asylum in the EU in 2006 - compared to 2005 an increase of 77 per cent. EU officials expect the numbers to rise this year.
The European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, said earlier this week that it was ready to give financial help to EU members hosting Iraqis seeking refuge in the 27-nation bloc.
However, it did not give an indication of the aid funds involved.
The commission has also said that the number of Iraqis seeking refuge in the bloc was too small to invoke EU rules under which all asylum seekers would have to be accepted temporarily without going through the usual asylum procedures.
It was up to EU members to decide whether they would accept refugees fleeing the strife-torn country, the commission has said.
International human rights groups have urged the EU to be more generous on resettlement and help Iraq's neighbouring countries cope with the growing influx of refugees from Iraq.
'The EU must do something, we are talking about an imminent humanitarian crisis ... that is fuelling further instability in the region,' the groups warned earlier this week.
But the commission has said that it was backing United Nations calls to provide a resettlement of Iraqi refugees to asylum countries only to the most vulnerable refugees.
Given the huge numbers of uprooted Iraqis, their permanent integration in asylum-granting states was not a solution, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said earlier this week.
Iraqi refugees should voluntarily return to their home country once conditions allow, Guterres said at a recent international conference on the humanitarian crisis in Iraq.
The commission has allocated 6.2 million euros to help Syria and Jordan cope with the influx of Iraqi refugees and a further 1 million euros to support UN humanitarian aid for those two countries.
Another 4 million euros would be provided for displaced people inside Iraq, according to the EU executive.
The UN estimates that at least 1.8 million Iraqis are displaced inside the country.
Under EU rules adopted in 2001, temporary protection will be provided immediately to refugees from outside the EU 'where there might be a risk that the standard asylum system will be unable to process this influx without severely damaging it.'
The legal tool was developed following the conflicts in former Yugoslavia. However, EU member states have not yet used the rules.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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EXPEL THE NEO-CRUSADERS FROM ALL ISLAMIC LANDS!Apr 19th, 2007 - 20:48:46
The people of Iraq, especially the Shias and the Kurds, were horribly mistreated under Saddam Hussein’s brutal dictatorship. As evil as the secular-minded Baath Party regime was, Iraq was a safer and more stable place than it is since the neo-Crusaders invaded the country in an effort to steal the oil and placate the Middle East for those racist Zionists in Israel. Clearly, the latest U.S. military strategy is a failure, as the carnage continues unabated. George W. Bush's devilish War on Terror is a horrific nightmare for the world. Over 4,000 dead U.S. troops and contract workers. Over 20,000 Americans injured, many horribly disfigured for life. Nearly 200,000 Muslim non-combatants dead. One way or another the U.S./U.K. neo-Crusaders will leave Iraq and Afghanistan. Osama Bin Laden’s message of February 2003, as reported in BBC News about the U.S. not having the courage and conviction to defeat radical Islamists will prove to be prophetic. The U.S./U.K. Coalition forces will flee Iraq and Afghanistan in terror (pun intended). Millions of innocent Muslims may die as martyrs in the process, but the situation will become untenable for the cowardly Occidentals and the devilish invaders will eventually be forced into a shameful retreat and it will be recorded in history as a great Islamic victory over the Crucifixer armies. A pro-Iranian, anti-Israeli Shia Islamic state will be established in Iraq and the Taliban will retake Afghanistan. The Viet Cong lost many thousands more warriors than the French and the U.S. did, but their objective was reached, the Occidental imperialists were kicked-out of Vietnam. So it shall be soon in Afghanistan and Iraq, the cost may be great but the Materialists will be expelled. The Western nations should treat the Muslim peoples with justice and equity, and then there will be peace for all. But this will perhaps never happen because the Occidental man has a propensity for war. Let us hope that this Neo-Crusader madness stops when Bush and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair are both out of office. Bush and Blair have chosen to lead Christendom into a war against ALLAH, His Prophet, Islam and Muslims; as with past Crusades the Muslims will win! Insulting Islam and Muslims does not at all help the neo-Crusader soldiers who live each day afraid of dying and being maimed, nor does it heal the broken hearts of the soldiers’ whose women are cheating on them while they serve overseas. Bush’s War on Islam is proving to be a terrible waste of human lives and money. Radical Islam is the only obstacle preventing the Occidentals and their bastard child Israel from economic and social domination of the world. But The Light of Islam will never be extinguished. Islam is the fastest growing religion on earth. Muslims around the world are turning away from the devilish ideologies, philosophies and schisms of the West and seeking answers and guidance in the teachings of Islam. The Muslim populations in North America and Europe are growing much faster than any other faith. The heroic Egyptian martyr, Lieutenant Colonel Khalid al Islambuli said it best, “ISLAM FOR THE WORLD!”
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