Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Geneva (Agenzia Fides) - A meeting to discuss the dramatic humanitarian situation of displaced Iraqis opens today in Geneva organised by the UN High Commission for Refugees UNHCR.
The opening address by High Commissioner Antonio Guterres, will be followed by reports from the general under secretary for Humanitarian affairs and coordinator of emergency aid John Holmes, members respectively of the International Red Cross and the Red Crescent, and political representatives of Iraq, Syria, Jordan Iran, Turkey and the Arab league.
UNHCR says protracted violence in most of central and southern Iraq has forced hundreds of thousands to abandon their homes. The international community faces a much more serious and complex humanitarian situation than was foreseen when the US led invasion began in 2003. So far 4 million Iraqis have been forced to abandon their homes. Of these 1.9 million are now internally displaced, more than 2 million have fled to neighbouring Middle East countries and about 200,000 are in other countries.
Many fled before 2003, but many have fled since. In 2006, the largest asylum requesting group in the most industrialised countries of the world consisted of Iraqis, but 95% of those who have fled the country are still in the region.
UNHCR says in 2006 the number of displaced persons increased by 50%: a total 730,000 people moved from their places of origin in Iraq because of conflict and a dramatic increase in sectarian violence following the Samara bombing in February 2006.
With the initial optimism following the ousting of the Saddam Hussein regime in 2003, in the two years that followed some 300,000 Iraqi refugees returned home mainly from Iran - 27,000 assisted by UNHCR. But in 2006, hundreds of thousands left the country and only a few returned. And many more are preparing to leave. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 17/4/2007 righe 25 parole 258)
