AMMAN, Nov 17, 2009 (AFP) - The United States urged European countries and wealthy Arab states on Tuesday to boost their aid to the millions of displaced Iraqis, saying they did "far too little" to assist them.
"Our European friends and partners have done far too little to support the humanitarian assistance process for Iraqi refugees and displaced," US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration Eric Schwartz told a news conference in the Jordanian capital Amman.
"There are a number of wealthy governments in this region that can and should be doing much more to support assistance to Iraqi refugees and displaced, and to support the process of integration."
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated in 2008 that up to two million Iraqi refugees were living in neighbouring countries, most of them in Syria and Jordan.
A further 2.8 million Iraqis were internally displaced, the UNHCR said.
The UN agency, which has previously warned it may have to reduce or even suspend its programmes for Iraqi refugees due to inadequate funding, appealed last year for 261 million dollars for its Iraq operations.
"We will be talking to our friends and other donor governments about these issues in the weeks to come," said Schwartz, who is in Jordan as part of a regional tour that also takes in Iraq and Syria.
He added that this year the United States had provided nearly 400 million dollars to Iraqis in humanitarian assistance.
Last year, some 13,800 Iraqis were resettled in the United States, and this year the bar has been raised to 17,000, according to the Department of Homeland Security's US Citizen and Immigration Services.
Schwartz held talks with Jordanian Prime Minister Nader Dahabi, who "urged "more assistance to cope with the burdens of hosting hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees," the state-run Petra news agency reported.
Jordan estimates the costs of sheltering Iraqi refugees over the past few years at more than two billion dollars, and it has repeatedly asked the international community to provide more direct aid.
"We believe a safe, voluntary and sustainable return will be the solution, the durable solution for the majority of the refugees and displaced," Schwartz told reporters.
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Received by NewsEdge Insight: 11/17/2009 09:37:42
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