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The Iraqi refugee crisis.

Article Excerpt
With the violence in Iraq showing no sign of slowing down, civilians increasingly suffer. The UN estimates that 2.6 million Iraqis have fled violence in their country since 2003 and at least 40-50,000 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 publicly acknowledge 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 queue, waiting their turn to die," is how one Iraqi journalist summarizes conditions in Iraq today. While the U.S. 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'a, Christian, or other groups such as the Palestinian, 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...

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