Syrian border restrictions bite hard in Iraq

Oct 5, 2007, 14:04 GMT

Geneva - Commercial truck drivers and businessmen are the only people crossing into Syria since the imposition of tough new visa requirements, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said Friday, while more camps for the internally displaced were appearing within Iraq.

UNHCR spokesman in Geneva, Ron Redmond said of the visa regulations: 'This does effectively close the last external refuge for Iraqis.'

Syria imposed the measures claiming it was at breaking point. It had received 1.4 million out of an estimated 2 million refugees that have left Iraq.

Any Iraqi who now wished to enter Syria needed to apply in Baghdad but only commercial, scientific, educational and transport visas were available. Jordan had already clamped down.

UNHCR said the numbers had fallen dramatically from 1,500 to 2,000 people a day crossing into Syria to just a trickle.

Hundreds of Iraqis within Syria were now contacting UNHCR concerned about their status as their three-month visas were due to expire. Foreign Ministry officials had issued assurances that no Iraqi refugee already living in the country would be forcibly returned.

The UNHCR report on asylum seekers published in September confirmed Iraqis were the largest nationality on the move, with Sweden the foremost recipient country.

More than 19,000 had sought asylum in the main industrial countries in the first half of 2007 compared with 22,200 for the whole of 2006. There were signs Iraqis were heading elsewhere with growing numbers turning up in Greece or were simply stranded.

'More and more Iraqis are going to spontaneous sites inside Iraq where you see the sort of sectarian division that is taking place, Sunni to Sunni, Shia to Shia,' said Redmond. 'We are seeing an increasing number of sites for internally displaced people springing up.'