With the violence in Iraq showing no sign
of abating, civilians increasingly suffer. The
United Nations estimates that 2.6 million Iraqis
have fled violence in their country since 2003 and
at least 40,000 more Iraqis are leaving their
homes every month. Two million have fled to
surrounding countries, while some 1.8 million have
vacated their homes for safer areas within Iraq.
Middle Eastern countries, Syria and Jordan
in particular, have
shown great generosity in
welcoming Iraqis in the past three years, but
that welcome is wearing thin. Other countries
throughout the Middle East, including Egypt,
Lebanon, Yemen, Iran and Turkey, are also seeing
increased flows.
The governments of these
host nations are reluctant to acknowledge publicly
a growing refugee crisis, and therefore provide
Iraqis with no official status and few social
services. The international community is similarly
in denial over the existence of an Iraqi refugee
crisis, and has provided few resources to address
the needs of this expanding population. There is
an essential need for host nations, supported by
donor governments and the UN, to establish
programs aimed at responding to the needs of Iraqi
refugees.
Why Iraqis are
fleeing "Iraqis who are unable to flee the
country are now in a line, waiting their turn to
die," is how one Iraqi journalist summarizes
conditions in Iraq today. While the United States
debates whether a civil war is raging in Iraq,
thousands of Iraqis face the possibility of death
every day all over the country.
All
Iraqis, whether Sunni, Shi'ite, Christian, or
members of other groups such as the Palestinians,
are threatened by armed actors. People are
targeted because of religious affiliation,
economic status, and profession - many, such as
doctors, teachers and even hairdressers, are
viewed as being "anti-Islamic".
On a
recent mission to Syria, Jordan and Lebanon,
Refugees International documented dozens of
stories of kidnappings for extortion, forcing
families to sell businesses, homes, cars, and
other assets to meet kidnappers' demands. Many
families had suffered multiple kidnappings,
further draining resources. These Iraqis fled the
country to escape further kidnappings, often
associated with sectarian violence, or the death
threats that often followed the kidnappings.
Given their genuine and credible fear for
their lives and the lives of their loved ones,
most Iraqi refugees are determined to be resettled
to Europe or North America, and few consider
return to Iraq an option.
While many
refugees from Iraq come from comfortable
backgrounds, as they are lucky to afford the great
expense of leaving the country, all face
challenges that quickly plunge them into a
subsistence existence. Many Iraqis have their
savings drained before even leaving the country by
paying ransoms for kidnapped family members.
The refugees' resources are further
depleted by their inability to work legally in
host countries. Jordan, Lebanon and Syria consider
Iraqis "guests" rather than refugees fleeing
violence. Though most refugees have marketable
skills, having worked as doctors, teachers,
architects, blacksmiths or hairdressers, they are
barred from practicing their trades.
Additionally, many of the refugees are
afraid to work for fear of having their papers
checked and then being deported back to Iraq.
These circumstances have plunged the Iraqi middle
class among the urban poor in Damascus, Amman and
Beirut.
Other than access to jobs, the No
1 need of Iraqi refugees is housing assistance.
Partly because of the large influx of Iraqis
seeking shelter in limited housing markets, rents
in Damascus, Amman and Beirut have increased in
the past three years, and constitute the largest
single expense for Iraqi families.
Access
to education for children is the second-greatest
need. Syria allows Iraqi children to attend public
schools but many families cannot afford the
required school supplies and uniforms. Jordan is
more restrictive than in Syria. While it does not
deny Iraqis access to schools, the government
conditions it on the availability of space and
gives headmasters case-by-case authority to admit
or deny children access. Lebanon does not allow
Iraqis to attend public schools at all, forcing
parents to enroll their children in private
schools.
Iraqis' medical needs are also
largely unanswered. In Jordan, medical services
are limited to emergency care. Syria gave Iraqis
free access to medical services until 2005; since
then they have been required to pay. All medical
services in Lebanon are private. Though local
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) do provide
clinic services for Iraqi refugees in all three
countries, demand far outpaces supply.
Mental-health needs remain largely unaddressed.
Stretched thin Host governments
are clearly stretched thin and no longer have the
capacity to provide medical, educational or other
services to Iraqis without international support.
Similarly, domestic NGOs and service providers do
not have adequate funding to provide support to
the growing refugee population.
The UN
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is not able
to fund implementing partners to provide services
either. Since it remains difficult for
international NGOs to register legally with Syria
and Jordan to provide services, there is little
international presence responding to the needs of
Iraqis, though a limited number of international
NGOs have plans to begin operations in the region.
International leadership is needed to develop a
coherent regional burden-sharing plan, and
international resources must allow host countries
to finance the basic needs of Iraqi refugees on
their territory.
More than 40,000 Iraqis
are arriving in Syria each month, and numbers are
likely similar for Jordan. For the time being,
Syria is maintaining its "open-door policy" to
Iraqi refugees in the name of pan-Arabism. In
addition to the influx of Iraqi refugees, Syria is
home to 450,000 Palestinians, and also provided
assistance and temporary shelter to hundreds of
thousands of Lebanese civilians
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