Refugees Lobby

Press Release:

‘The current exodus is the largest population movement in the Middle East since Palestinians were displaced following the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. Around one in eight Iraqis is displaced. UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies lack the resources to cope with the growing numbers of displaced and increasingly desperate Iraqis needing help both within and outside their country’.₍₁₎

Haifa Zangana an Iraqi author, chair of Iraqi Committee for National Media and Culture said: "No one in the peace movement takes comfort from the fact that they have been vindicated in their opposition to a war on Iraq. The US and the UK have turned Iraq into a disaster zone. Our people are being bombed, kidnapped, tortured and terrorised out of their own homes, livelihoods and homeland to live a life of squalor as refugees and now even this doorway is slamming shut in their faces. Is this the 'new Iraq' the occupiers talk about?”

Iraqi British women members of Solidarity for Independent and Unified Iraq ₍₂₎, an umbrella organisation of anti occupation activists, met the Ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic in the UK, H.E. Sami Khiyami last week. The women expressed their anxieties and concerns regarding the burgeoning problems of the Iraqi refugees.

The Iraqi women thanked Syria which was singled out for praise by the UN, for its generosity towards the Iraqi refugees and allowing them access to education, health and social support, despite the massive pressure this sudden influx has caused. Syria is reported by the UN to be hosting one million Iraqi refugees.

An estimated 1.8 million Iraqis are currently displaced within their country, while another 2 million have fled to nearby nations, mainly Syria and Jordan. The UNHCR believes that 40,000 to 50,000 Iraqis are fleeing their homes each month.
H.E. Mr. Sami Khiyami, the Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Syria in the UK said "The whole world needs to wake up to the magnitude of the Iraqi refugee problem, created as a result of the 2003 war on Iraq. Syria cannot be expected to deal with this exodus without assistance from the international community".
One Iraqi woman refugee told UN High Commissioner for refugees, António Guterres: "We had a good standard of living before in Iraq. We are educated people. We were well established, with jobs and stability and we owned houses and cars just like other people. Everything has changed now. Now we're living in the slums of Damascus in concrete-walled rooms that aren't even fit for human habitation. Our children can't go to school and many are reduced to begging in the streets."
It is puzzling that the mainstream British media remains largely silent on this mass exodus of Iraqis even after the UN High Commissioner for refugees António Guterres described it as a ‘major humanitarian disaster’.
Maha Sharif of the Arab Club of Britain said "While we do not want this crisis to turn Iraqis into the 21st centaury Palestinians, we have to come to the aid of our people who are fleeing a hell hole, where neither the most powerful army in the world nor the Iraqi government are seemingly capable of providing security and protection for the them".
Concerns were expressed regarding the recent tightening of the rules regarding entry and visa for Iraqis, but assurances were voiced by H. E. Mr. Khiyami that no Iraqis will be deported from Syria.
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(1) UNHCR report: Protection and assistance to Iraqi refugees in neighbouring States and to IDPs and non-Iraqi refugees in Iraq January 2007