Iraqi refugee crisis reaches breaking point

A young Iraqi refugee at a registration centre outside Damascus Keystone

A two-day conference hosted by the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) has highlighted the mounting Iraqi refugee crisis in Syria and Jordan.

Delegates at the meeting in the Syrian capital, Damascus, warned that health and other basic services in the two countries were being overwhelmed.

Among those attending the conference, which ended on Monday, were the Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Swiss-run International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The federation said the response from donor countries to the crisis had so far been “disappointing”.

The IFRC launched an SFr18 million ($15 million) appeal in April for the more than two million Iraqis who have fled to Syria and Jordan to escape sectarian violence. To date it has received only a tenth of that amount.

“I think donor countries need to look at the situation a lot more seriously. They need to give a lot more money,” Saleh Dabbakeh, the IFRC’s regional information officer for the Middle East, told swissinfo.

Pressure on services

“There is a lot of pressure on all kinds of daily basic services. It’s not only health: there is a strain on education, housing and water. If major assistance is not provided to the two governments, then it becomes a very difficult and serious situation,” he added.

Dabbakeh said the number of Iraqi refugees in Syria was now estimated to have risen to more than 1.4 million and was increasing by between 25,000 and 30,000 a month. There are around 750,000 refugees in Jordan.

He said this translated into a ten per cent increase in the population in Syria and a 15 per cent increase in Jordan. Rents and food prices had “skyrocketed” in both countries, he added.

According to the IFRC, the Syrian Red Crescent, in cooperation with international organisations, has set up 12 “advanced” polyclinics in the country. But Dabbakeh said these each received up to 250 patients a day and were overcrowded.

Humanitarian crisis

The conference, which brought together international agencies with officials from Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq, ended with an agreement for relief efforts to be better coordinated. A package of recommendations will be issued later this week, said the United Nations.

The ICRC’s delegate in Damascus, Irenee Herbet, who attended the WHO meeting, described the situation in Syria and Jordan as a “growing humanitarian crisis”.

He said the summer months promised to be a difficult time for refugees who were placing their host countries under enormous pressure.

“Those [Iraqi refugees] that came a long time ago have seen their resources dwindle, and those that were not in need are now in need of basic services,” he said.

“Most of the newcomers sold all their assets in Baghdad or Iraq and they come with nothing. It is only getting worse with time.”

Last week Amnesty International called for urgent international action to prevent a humanitarian crisis that “could engulf the region”.

It said the situation for Iraqi refugees was dire and worsening by the day and that the Syrian and Jordanian authorities should not be left shoulder the burden alone.

swissinfo, Adam Beaumont

In brief

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has described the Iraqi exodus as the largest population movement in the Middle East since the displacement of Palestinians following the creation of Israel in 1948.

According to the IFRC, the majority of Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan live mostly in poor neighbourhoods, under very difficult living conditions.

Overcrowded accommodation with poor hygiene and sanitary conditions are the norm for a large percentage of the displaced population.

Switzerland and Iraqi refugees

In 2006 the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) provided SFr1.7 million to assist Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan.

This year the SDC is co-financing United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees programmes to provide food, medical care, shelter and protection.

In addition Swiss Humanitarian Aid experts have been made available to the UN Refugee Agency. Two experts – in construction and refugee protection – have been deployed in Jordan. Further deployments are planned.

The SDC budget to help refugees in Syria and Jordan is SFr2.5 million.

The Swiss government announced in May that it would not take in any more refugees from Iraq, preferring to help displaced Iraqi people on the spot.