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bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
=== News Update ===
US occupation turns 3.7 million Iraqis into refugees
By James Cogan
23 January 2007
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported this month that the US
invasion and occupation of Iraq has forced one out of every eight Iraqis to
flee their homesmore than 3.7 million people. The agency described the
refugee crisis caused by the Iraq war as the worst in the Middle East since
the ethnic cleansing that accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948. The
Zionist military and paramilitary death squads drove an estimated 711,000
Palestinian Arabs from their land.
UNHCR estimates that two million Iraqis are now living outside the
countryincluding those who left before 2003 but have failed to return due
to the countrys catastrophic situation. Some 50,000 Iraqi émigrés returned
in 2005, but just 1,000 came back last year.
Another 1.7 million Iraqis have been internally displaced. At least 500,000
people fled their homes in 2006 as a result of US military repression and
the dramatic rise in sectarian violence between rival Shiite and Sunni
militias in the wake of the destruction of a prominent Shiite mosque in
Samarra last February. It is thought that 80,000 to 100,000 people are
joining the ranks of internal and external refugees each month.
The cause of the refugee crisis is the political, economic and social
collapse in Iraq after close to four years of US occupation. The UN Human
Rights Office report for the period November 1, 2006 to December 21, 2006,
stated: The civilian population remains the main victim of the prevailing
security situation, characterised by terrorist acts, action by armed
groups, criminal gangs, religious extremists, militias, as well as
operations by security and military forces. The resulting insecurity,
sectarian prejudice, and terror negatively and comprehensively affect the
enjoyment of basic rights and freedoms by the population at large. In
addition, growing unemployment, poverty, various forms of discrimination
and increasingly limited access to basic services, prevent most citizens
from realizing their economic, social and cultural rights.
The UN specifically condemned the actions of the US military: Armed
operations by the Multinational Forces-Iraq [the official title of the
US-led occupation forces] continued to restrict the enjoyment of human
rights and to cause severe suffering to the local population. Continued
limitations of freedom of movement and lack of access to basic services
such as health and education are affecting a larger percentage of the
population and depriving it of basic rights for extended periods of time.
Many Iraqis have felt they had no choice but to leave the country. While
there are no precise numbers, up to 800,000 are taking refuge in Syria;
another 700,000 in Jordan; 100,000 in Egypt; 40,000 in Lebanon; 50,000 in
Iran and a large number in Turkey.
The Iraqi refugees are being accorded no rights. The Jordanian monarchy
labels them as temporary visitors. It has not made any request for
international assistance and is not cooperating with agencies such as
UNHCR. Only 21,000 Iraqis in Jordan have been registered by the UN and just
800 have been recognised as refugees eligible for international resettlement.
Syria has also rejected calls for Iraqis on its territory to be recognised
as refugees and is treating them as tourists or illegal immigrants. Iran
has sealed its borders to any more Iraqis, while the Gulf States, such as
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, are refusing to allow them to enter their
territory at all. While doing nothing to assist refugees, Saudi Arabia has
allocated $500 million to construct a fence along parts of its
1,000-kilometre border with Iraq, to prevent terrorists and illegal
immigrants from entering. The fence will have security gates, guard posts
and electronic movement sensors.
The majority of Iraqi émigrés live in considerable hardship and a
significant proportion are sinking into complete poverty. Jordan charges
Iraqis for all services, including a $US225 fee for a one-year work permit.
Many families are reportedly sharing small apartments and paid employment
is difficult to obtain. Syria has now begun charging refugees for health
care and also limits their ability to work. More than 10 percent of Iraqi
families in Syria are headed by women due to the death, imprisonment or
disappearance of their men. UNHCR noted this month that there are
increasing reports of female Iraqi refugees being forced into prostitution.
The strain of the inflow on Jordan is leading to an ever-more restrictive
attitude toward the Iraqi refugees, who now make up 10 percent of the
population. This would be equivalent to the US taking in 30 million
refugees. Fearful of political unrest among the desperate émigré community,
Jordan has begun blocking entry to males aged between 17 and 35. It is
refusing to renew the visas of Iraqis already within its borders and has
stepped up deportations. As a result, Syria has become the primary
destination for Iraqis seeking to escape the carnage at home, with an
estimated 40,000 entering the country each month.
Many of those who have fled are secular Iraqis. It is believed that 40
percent of the professional middle class has left the country since 2003.
Many held positions in Saddam Husseins Baathist regime and have been
persecuted by the US occupation. They also face death or abuse at the hands
of both Sunni and Shiite religious fundamentalists. Members of Iraqs
Assyrian Christian minority have also left the country in large numbers. An
estimated 750,000 Christians have fled since the US invasion.
The US and British governmentswhich bear the responsibility for the war
and the subsequent humanitarian disasterhave refused to do anything about
the crisis. The US has accepted a total of just 466 Iraqi refugees since
2003. According to the British Home Office, 160 Iraqis were accepted by
Britain as refugees in 2005. The applications of another 2,685 were
rejected. In the third quarter of 2006, the period for which the most
recent statistics are available, the Blair government accepted only 10
Iraqi refugees, while rejecting the applications of 165.
The other major European powers have been equally restrictive. Draconian
regulations ensured that only 230 Iraqis were allowed to enter Germany last
year and just 13 into France. Sweden, by contrast, granted asylum to 8,951
Iraqis in 2006. The Australian governmentone of the main supporters of the
Iraq waraccepted 1,834 refugees from Iraq in 2005-2006, from more than
20,000 applications.
Within Iraq, hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs)
are relying on their extended families or charitable networks to survive.
There are close to 80,000 IDPs in the majority Sunni Arab province of
Anbar, which borders Syria and Jordan and is a major focus of the
anti-occupation insurgency. Many of the displaced have had their homes
destroyed by the US military during its operations to suppress the anti-US
fighters in cities like Ramadi and Fallujah. Others are Sunnis from Baghdad
and other areas seeking to escape sectarian persecution at the hands of the
militias and security forces loyal to the Shiite parties that dominate the
pro-US government. There are some 50,000 displaced in Baghdad itself.
This month, Mohammed Rubaie, a displaced Sunni in Baghdad, told the Los
Angeles Times that in October he was confronted by two gunmen dressed in
black, with the police backing them up. They were saying, Sunnis you
should leave now. Its the last warning to you all. Were going to burn
your houses one by one. When our neighbours house was burnt, I felt it was
time for us to leave.
Large numbers of Shiites have fled to the predominantly Shiite-populated
southern provinces of Iraq to escape equally brutal violence by Sunni
extremists. Nearly 40,000 arrived in Karbala last year alone. Other
southern provinces reported a 10-fold increase in the number of displaced
persons seeking housing and assistance.
The escalation of the war set in motion by the Bush administration this
month, which involves a massive increase in the violence in Baghdad, will
inevitably force many more Iraqis to flee. UNHCR, however, is expecting to
have just $US60 million and limited staff this year to respond to the
already enormous existing crisis.
source:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/jan2007/refu-j23.shtml
See Also:
<http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/jan2007/war-j22.shtml>For an
international mobilization of workers and youth against the war in Iraq
[22 January 2007]
<http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/jan2007/iraq-j20.shtml>The war in Iraq
and American democracy
[20 January 2007]
===
-muslim voice-
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