Iraqi refugees

[FireGarden]

America's actions in Vietnam brought the term "boat-people" into our vocabulary.

What about today's refugees?
There may be 1.4 million Iraqi refugees in Syria

Syria has a population of 20,314,747, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria

1.4/20 = 7 %

That is a huge commitment.
And yes, I know Syria doesn't officially class them as refugees. It can't afford to, it would mean greater responsibility. What it does is give them a place to live.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6956414.stm

In April, Syria asked the international donors’ conference for US $256 million over two years to help cover the cost of delivering basic services to Iraqis.

UNHCR has delivered US $45 million of this so far. Syrian officials say the Iraqi refugee crisis is costing the country around US $1 billion a year.

Britain is loathe to accept the interpreters we employed in Iraq. The US is still talking about accepting 7000 refugees. This is not good enough.

Does Bush think the world is going to judge the US by its muscle alone? How about its treatment of the refugee problem? Maybe the world will compare America's willingness to spend on war and its willingness to spend on care.

Jordan has taken in more than 700,000
population of Jordan: 5,924,000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan

That's more than 10%
Think of 30 million refugees in America. That's was Edward M. Kennedy's comparison last year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/29/AR2006122901066_pf.html

 

[Darth Rotor]

America's actions in Vietnam brought the term "boat-people" into our vocabulary.

What about today's refugees?
There may be 1.4 million Iraqi refugees in Syria

Syria has a population of 20,314,747, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria

1.4/20 = 7 %

That is a huge commitment.
And yes, I know Syria doesn't officially class them as refugees. It can't afford to, it would mean greater responsibility. What it does is give them a place to live.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6956414.stm



Britain is loathe to accept the interpreters we employed in Iraq. The US is still talking about accepting 7000 refugees. This is not good enough.

Does Bush think the world is going to judge the US by its muscle alone? How about its treatment of the refugee problem? Maybe the world will compare America's willingness to spend on war and its willingness to spend on care.

Jordan has taken in more than 700,000
population of Jordan: 5,924,000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan

That's more than 10%
Think of 30 million refugees in America. That's was Edward M. Kennedy's comparison last year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/29/AR2006122901066_pf.html

I think the political assumption in Washington is "Iraq will soon settle down and these people can begin to return home." That may or may not be based in reality, but I suspect that is the line being taken. That mind set would explain in part the lack of a policy to adress more than a token refugee flow. Consider how many Somalis recently came to America, over ten thousand.

This mind set from the same people who offered the mind set of "dead enders" and so forth.

DR

 

[Cleon]

They're not refugees, they're liberated.

 

[Segnosaur]

I do think that those refugees should be helped.

But, I am wondering...

- How many of these refugees were displaced due to insurgent activity, and
how many had left Iraq long before the invasion due to Saddam's oppression? (I know for example there was a large number of Marsh Arabs who moved to Iran to avoid Saddam's persecution). Not that such 'long term' refugees aren't worth helping, but it may change the way we help people.

- Did any former refugees return to Iraq following Saddam's downfall?

- How many displaced Iraqis are still living in Iraq, just not in their original homes?

Did a quick google search but couldn't quickly find the answer to those.

 

[Darth Rotor]

They're not refugees, they're liberated.

Indeed, just as some 12 million refugees from Mexico's squalor have been liberated from corruption and lack of opportunity.

DR

 

[Policenaut]

Are there any solid numbers on how many Iraqi's are trying to get into the US compared to how many have been allowed in?

 

[Darth Rotor]

Are there any solid numbers on how many Iraqi's are trying to get into the US compared to how many have been allowed in?

Not that I am aware of, but it occurs to me that Israel isn't letting in enough Iraqi refugees, just as they aren't letting in enough Darfurian refugees. They should take in at least 50,000, for goodness sakes. (this is a sarcastic ref to parky76's thread on Darfur's refugees.)



Oh, the inhumanity of it all!

DR

 

[FireGarden]

- How many of these refugees were displaced due to insurgent activity, and
how many had left Iraq long before the invasion due to Saddam's oppression? (I know for example there was a large number of Marsh Arabs who moved to Iran to avoid Saddam's persecution). Not that such 'long term' refugees aren't worth helping, but it may change the way we help people.

There were very few reports of refugees immediately after the invasion. In fact, refugee camps that had been prepared on the Jordanian border were empty. If by "long before the invasion" you mean after the previous war, then yes... There were plenty of refugees then. Especially after the Iraqis failed to get rid of Saddam on their own. (Having -- foolishly? -- gotten hold of the idea they were going to be helped).

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/AllDocsByUNID/36f07a9f0d56eba485256cf6007d4709

March 2003

Rows of near empty tents stand in the barren Jordanian desert, ready for a flood of Iraqi refugees that has not yet come.

[...] Jordan feared hundreds of thousands of people would flee to the kingdom with the onset of a U.S.-led war in neighbouring Iraq, but over one week into the fighting, no Iraqi refugees have appeared.

It is the same story in Iran and Turkey, two other neighbouring states where local officials, aid workers and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) have been racing to prepare for a possible exodus.

[...] "We are only eight days into the war, which is not a very long time. It is way too early to say we can relax now," said Kris Janowski, a UNHCR spokesman.

[...] This was the case in the 1991 war, when only some 60,000 Iraqis fled during the U.S.-led military campaign to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's invasion forces from Kuwait.

"In 1991, there was no exodus of people because of the bombing or because of the military intervention. It only happened when the (later) uprisings were put down by Iraqi forces," he said.

Over one million Iraqis fled to Iran from northern and southern Iraq, while some 500,000 camped out in freezing conditions on either side of the border with Turkey after Saddam's forces crushed revolts. Others went to Jordan.

I can't find data on the timing of the current exodus. But, from what I remember of the news as it developed, it began with the civil war. Which itself grew slowly until the bombing of the Mosque at Samarra.

- Did any former refugees return to Iraq following Saddam's downfall?

The currently US-backed Iraqi government, many of whom spent their exile in Iran and/or Syria. I don't have numbers for any others.

- How many displaced Iraqis are still living in Iraq, just not in their original homes?

From Edward M. Kennedy's article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/29/AR2006122901066_pf.html

Today, within Iraq, 1.6 million people have already fled or been expelled from their homes. An additional 1.8 million, fleeing sectarian violence, kidnappings, extortion, death threats and carnage, have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

That was Dec 30th 2006

 

[FireGarden]

I've not listened to this, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7466089

but the intro text is:

Weekend Edition Saturday, February 17, 2007

Since the U.S. invasion and overthrow of Saddam Hussein, nearly 2 million Iraqis have fled their country, and another 1.7 million are internally displaced, according to the United Nations.

Antonio Guterres, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, discusses the refugee crisis with Scott Simon.

 

[Gurdur]

In April this year, the USA promised to take in 20,000 Iraqi refugees.

To date, the actual number of Iraqi refugees the USA has accepted is 63. Sixty-three. The perceptive reader will note that it's already quite some time since April.

IOW, Sweden, who took no part in the Iraq2 war, has accepted to date far more Iraqi refugeess than the USA, by two orders of magnitude. Even Denmark has taken in more than the USA, by an order of magnitude.

Of course, the major countries for harbouring Iraqi refugees are Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Saudi Arabia & the Gulf states, Egypt and Jordan.