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Iraq warns of refugee ‘humanitarian crisis’

* Calls on the world ‘to support Iraq to overcome this difficult stage’

AMMAN: Iraq warned of a humanitarian crisis on Thursday as it appealed to the international community to help countries hosting hundreds of thousands of Iraqis uprooted by war.

“The Iraqi government calls on the international community, in particular neighbouring countries, to support Iraq to overcome this difficult stage,” said Mohammed al-Hajj al-Hmud, secretary general of Iraq’s foreign ministry.

“It’s their duty to provide all assistance to displaced Iraqis, ease their suffering and help them find a solution to their problem,” he told a conference in the Jordanian capital.

“The humanitarian duty calls upon all of us to look more seriously at the size of the problem and acknowledge that there is a real humanitarian crisis.”

Hmud urged host countries to “facilitate residency permits for Iraqis and ... enable them to stay until conditions are suitable for their return to their homeland” and provide them with better health and educational facilities.

He said some countries, which he did not identify, “deny entry to Iraqis and force them to return to Iraq” while others “detain Iraqis in airports for several days for investigation” before deciding wether to allow them in.

“We urge these countries to adopt clear mechanisms for entry visas or set parameters for the issue in cooperation with the UNHCR (UN refugee agency) in order to organise the entry of Iraqis,” he said.

The one-day conference hosted by Jordan is also attended by representatives from Syria and Egypt as well as observers from the UNHCR, Turkey, Iran, Russia, Japan, the European Union, the United States and Britain.

The United Nations estimates that some four million of Iraq’s 26 million people have fled the violence in the country, including those who left before the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

The UNHCR calls this the biggest wave of displacement in the Middle East since 1948, when the creation of Israel caused hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to take flight. It estimates that Syria hosts some 1.4 million Iraqis and Jordan about 750,000, including people who abandoned the country before 2003.

Jordan, which said hosting Iraqis costs the desert kingdom around one billion dollars a year, asked the international community to provide more direct aid to local ministries and agencies.

“This will help us continue our assistance to them and meet their educational and health needs,” Mkheimar Abu Jamus, secretary general of the interior ministry said.

Officially Jordan shies away from calling Iraqis on its territory “refugees” and has commissioned a Swedish group to survey their numbers and identify their status.

Although many commentators agree the influx of migrants has triggered concerns about inflation, job losses and the expansion of ghettos in Jordan, others blame the economic challenges on other factors.

A report by the University of Jordan’s Center of Strategic Studies this month blamed Jordan’s economic woes on “the end of subsidised fuel from Iraq, high international oil prices, exports of the domestic food supply and rising costs of food.”

The UNHCR has urged the international community to “put its money where its mouth is” and earlier this month it doubled to 123 million dollars its annual appeal to help boost medical care, shelter and other support for the Iraqis. afp

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