Amnesty calls for international help for Iraq refugees (Roundup)

Sep 24, 2007, 13:01 GMT

London - Amnesty International on Monday accused the international community of ignoring the flow of refugees from Iraq and warned that continuing to do so would spark 'greater political instability across the wider region.'

In a report published in London, Amnesty called on countries to meet their 'moral obligation' and 'shoulder a fair share' of the millions of refugees who have fled their homes, especially to neighbouring Syria and Jordan.

According to Amnesty, an estimated 2,000 people per day are leaving Iraq in what the organization said was now the world's 'fastest-growing displacement crisis.'

Syria had now hosted 1.4 million Iraqi refugees, while Jordan had given shelter to more than 500,000. An additional 2.2 million displaced people remained in Iraq.    

Especially Britain, as one of the leaders of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, should be helping to alleviate the crisis. It was 'staggering' that Britain had instead forcibly returned more people to Iraq than any other European country, said the report.

   It warned that the lack of support from the international community could lead Syria and Jordan to tighten their borders, thereby cutting off escape routes for those trying to flee the violence.

'The desperate humanitarian situation of displaced Iraqis, including the refugees and those who remain within Iraq, has been largely ignored by the world,' said Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa Programme.

'A deepening humanitarian crisis and greater political instability across the wider region are looming, unless the international community meets its obligation to shoulder a fair share of the responsibility for protecting and assisting Iraqi refugees,' he said on presenting the report.

'We are very concerned that the new visa requirements being introduced by Syria and Jordan will prevent Iraqis receiving the protection they need. We urge both governments to keep their borders open to those fleeing for their lives,' said Smart.

However, other states had to do more to assist these two countries by providing increased financial, technical and in-kind bilateral aid to enable them to meet the health, schooling and other needs of the refugees, while at the same time accepting greater numbers of especially vulnerable refugees for resettlement.

Amnesty International also called for ongoing assistance from the international community to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as well as national and international humanitarian organizations to enable them to continue to provide and expand their current work to protect and assist Iraqis in need.

The report said that between 2003, when the US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, and 2006, the number of Iraqi refugees resettled in third countries fell by more than half, despite rising political violence. According to UNHCR, 1,425 Iraqi refugees were resettled in third countries in 2003 but only 404 in 2006.

'The international community must accept a shared responsibility by resettling Iraqis from Jordan and Syria, particularly the most vulnerable, in a more expedient manner with a view to increasing the overall resettlement quotas in third countries,' said Smart.

In particular, the countries making up the US-led multinational force were called upon to do more to help alleviate the plight of the refugees.