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Betrayed
The agony of Iraq's refugees
Gabriel Carlyle
In mid-October, the United
Nations reported that 2,000
Iraqis flee their homes every day.
2.2 million are refugees in their
own country, while more than
2.2m have fled to neighbouring
countries. (1m were displaced
prior to the 2003 invasion.)
4m refugees?
In Syria, the 1.2m Iraqi refugees
amount to 7% of the population;
while in Jordan, 500,000 Â
750,000 Iraqi refugees make up
perhaps 10% of the population.
A comparable inflow in
Britain would see 4m refugees
entering the country.
And Britain, one of the two
countries most responsible for
creating the largest refugee crisis
in the Middle East since 1948,
has done almost nothing to help.
$2bn crisis
The refugee crisis costs Jordan
and Syria an estimated $1bn a
year each. In contrast, in the first
seven months of 2007, Britain
contributed a paltry $20.3m to
humanitarian agencies operating
in Iraq and the region.
This is less than 0.5% of the
roughly £5bn it has spent on the
Iraq war over the past five years.
Solving the problem
In April, Amnesty International,
Human Rights Watch and the
Refugee Council called on the
British government to support
those countries in the region
that are sheltering the vast
majority of refugees from Iraq,
to create a major programme to
resettle Iraqi refugees in Britain,
and to suspend forcible deportations to Iraq.
All these proposals have been
ignored.
Kathy Kelly, the legendary US
peace activist just returned from
four months living with Iraqi
refugees in Jordan, will be on a
speaking tour 13-17 November,
including the 15 November London
launch of Sonia Azad's film of Iraqi
children refugees. See p16 for full
details or call 0845 458 2564.
(From the same number you can
obtain the latest Voices newsletter,
which contains crucial information
about Iraq and Afghanistan.)
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