Skip to content or view screen version

Thousands Fleeing Iraq Daily in Silent Exodus

transmitter | 13.10.2006 20:02 | Anti-militarism | World

The U.N. refugee agency said thousands of Iraqis are fleeing the country every day in a "steady, silent exodus". While about 50,000 Iraqis returned home from neighbouring countries last year, only 1,000 did this year, thanks to the ongoing war and the increasing sectarian violence it created in the country.


The government of Iraq and UNHCR estimate that there are now more than 1.5 million people displaced within Iraq itself. Some have been displaced since the early 1990s, but the figure also includes more than 365,000 people who have fled their homes and communities since unidentified assailants destroyed an important Shiite Mosque in the town of Samarra in February.

Increasing internal displacement is also having reverberations outside Iraq, with more Iraqi arrivals monitored in neighbouring countries and beyond. "We estimate that up to 1.6 million Iraqis are now outside their country, most of them in Jordan and Syria. Others are in Iran," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said.

"Our staff [are] seeing about 2,000 people a day coming across," Mr Redmond added. "So it's more than 40,000 people a month just into Syria." Thousands more are moving on to Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, the Gulf States and Europe.

See also:
UNHCR worried about effect of dire security situation on Iraq's displaced
More than 300,000 Iraqis have fled their homes since Saddam's fall
Iraqi Refugees in Syria: Silent Exodus Leaves 500,000 in Need of Protection and Aid

transmitter

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

That is not an argument against the occupation of Iraq!

14.10.2006 12:19

That so called argument could easily be turned on its head by saying that if coalition troops pull out them there will be more ethnic cleansing in Iraq and more suffering without coalition troops to defend the Iraqi people.

The anti-war movement should think of some good sound solid reasons for the withdrawel of coalition troops rather than stating the results of the conflict which everyone knows already and which are neither agruments for or against the occupation.

Bring the war home

Weak, Plant

14.10.2006 16:26

"That so called argument could easily be turned on its head ..."

It could, but that would be quite a stretch. This is only happening because of the illegal Aggression of Bush/PNAc and Bliar. Amongst the exodus are the thousands of "allied" military personnel who do not feel they should be fighting an illegal war.

"The anti-war movement should think of some good sound solid reasons for the withdrawel of coalition troops"

Because they are only making things worse for the Iraqi People. Because their presence in Iraq is a flashpoint for violence, as acknowledged by the collective intelligence services of the US. Because the war is illegal, thus "just following orders" is a crime.



Neo-Fascists Getting Desperate