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Iraq + 5 more

How to confront the Iraqi refugee crisis: A blueprint for the new administration

Attachments

"As I've said many times, we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in."
President-elect Barack Obama, July 2008

"[...] we will launch a major humanitarian initiative to support Iraq's refugees and people. But Iraqis must take responsibility for their country. It is precisely this kind of approach-an approach that puts the onus on the Iraqis, and that relies on more than just military power-that is needed to stabilize Iraq."
President-elect Barack Obama, March 2008

Introduction

Since the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003, millions of Iraqis have fled their homes. Today an estimated 750,000 to 2 millioni Iraqi refugees live in unstable situations in urban centers in the Middle East. For a more detailed discussion of different estimates of Iraqi refugee numbers, please read the footnote at the end of this blueprint. Palestinian refugees who were living in Iraq have been refused entry by all of Iraq's neighbors, and 3,000 are now stranded in camps along the Iraqi-Syrian border. Another 2.7 million Iraqis are internally displaced persons (IDPs) within their country; 1.7 million of these IDPs have fled their homes since 2003.

Forced migration from Iraq continues to occur, although at far lower levels than in 2006 and 2007. UNHCR in Syria reports that it has registered around 12,500 refugees who left Iraq in 2008. The recent brutal persecution of Christians in Mosul and tensions over Kirkuk and other disputed areas underscore the reality of ongoing gross human rights violations in Iraq and the potential for new refugee and IDP flows.

Preliminary surveys suggest about one-third of the displaced population fled generalized violence, while two-thirds fled targeted religious, political, or ethnic persecution, and in some cases were forcibly expelled from their property.ii In neighboring countries, Iraqi refugees have encountered both hospitality and hostility. For the most part, they enjoy freedom of movement and access to subsidized public health care and education, particularly in Syria. However most refugees cannot obtain work authorization and many refugees lack legal residence rights. In the past two years, as Iraqi refugees have exhausted their savings, the cost of living in host countries has rapidly risen. Human Rights First has observed the beginnings of frustration and fatigue among host communities in Syria as well as serious anti-Iraqi and anti-Shi'a discrimination in Jordan. With time, these tensions could aggravate instability in the region.

Based on field interviews conducted in Jordan in September 2007 and Syria in October 2008, Human Rights First believes that a high percentage of Iraqis who register with UNHCR do not see return to Iraq as a realistic option for the foreseeable future, and hope that registering with UNHCR will provide a path to resettlement in a third country. In the past two years, the United States has resettled about 15,000. In addition, 64,500 Iraqis made applications for asylum in industrialized countries in 2007 and the first half of 2008, primarily in Sweden, Germany, and Greece.

The situation for IDPs in Iraq is desperate. Problems include access to food rations, clean water, education, health care, income, and safe housing. Provincial leaders in safer regions of Iraq have prevented IDPs from entering their governorates and recently expressed desires to forcibly expel IDPs. Most IDPs rent shelter or live with extended family. A small percentage live in camps, and significant numbers of extremely vulnerable IDPs in Baghdad and other areas are squatting on public lands. The Iraqi government is pressing for imminent eviction of these IDPs, but lacks a clear plan for their alternative shelter.