The Iraqi refugee crisis has reached breaking point.
Millions of people are in limbo and all the international community can give us is a conference in Geneva. The Iraqi refugee crisis is intolerable; it has reached gargantuan proportions of disarray.
The region is faced with millions of people fleeing a country that is ripping at the seams. Not even a proxy state, but rather the whimsical delusions of the entire world.
Iraq is the world’s playground and everyone thinks they can kick with accuracy.
And if there could possibly have been anything left in this morass to bring the bile back up to the throat, it is the invaders’ complete apathy towards the total humanitarian disaster they have unleashed.
The countries that have invaded Iraq are barely opening their doors to the refugees they have created. Instead, these people are fleeing for their lives into neighboring countries. Syria has taken in 1.2 million, Jordan 500,000-750,000 and to a lesser extent Egypt which plays host to 150,000.
But how many Iraqi refugees did the United States accept in 2006?
202
Yet they will fly in a limbless boy for a prized photo opportunity. Even the Americans have realized how laughable that number is, and have promised to accept 7,000 this year. Still not even close.
As for the UK, an appeal by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Refugee Council to the EU and the US stated: “The UK has done nothing to allow Iraqi refugees displaced by the conflict the chance to resettle in the UK including people who have shown great loyalty and service to the UK in Iraq.
What price loyalty, eh?
Amnesty also said in a separate statement: “The Middle East is on the verge of a new humanitarian crisis unless the European Union, US and other states take urgent and concrete measures to assist the more than 3 million people forcibly displaced by the conflict in Iraq.
A conflict they created, lest we forget.
Immigration certainly is a thorny issue in the West. Elections are won and lost on proposed immigration policies. However, this particular case transcends the normal Western arguments on immigration, mainly because certain Western nations were directly involved in bringing this about and also because other nations are doing all they can and it’s time the West did too.
Yet it is countries that opposed the war, Germany and France, who seem more willing to offer assistance. It is expected that they will propose a financial package during the conference to “coordinate the international response to Iraqi refugees and internally displaced people in Geneva which ends today.
However the monetary assistance they offer will not fully go to those who need it, as burgeoning administrative costs in relief organizations will dilute the initial amount.
A pariah nation like Syria has taken in 1.2 million Iraqis according to the UNHCR. Aren’t the US and UK embarrassed that Syria is doing what they claimed they would do, that is, save the Iraqi people?
Syria, which inexplicably and horrendously refuses entry for Palestinians residing in Iraq, is still outdoing the Americans and British in aiding refugees.
Iraq’s neighboring countries are now closing the doors to the refugees. Simply put, they don’t have the resources to cope with this influx that continues as the war rages on.
Whatever the politics involved, we cannot turn people back to face what they are facing. The number of raped women and children in Iraq has reached dizzying heights. In one case a woman was raped by a gang of men while her little daughter tried vainly to stop them.
This story is the tip of the iceberg. Imagine millions of people potentially being subjected to similar horror stories and the hundreds of thousands who already have.
Egypt has accepted 150,000 Iraqi refugees till now. As this is nowhere near the numbers that Syria and Jordan have accepted; Egypt should think about rescinding recent restrictions on those seeking refuge here.
The fact that Egypt has a massive population with crippling economic issues is beside the point. That is not an argument for turning people back to their deaths and the deaths of their children.
In any case, 150,000 is still better than 7,000, or 202.
The countries that invaded Iraq must open their borders to the people whose displacement they have caused.
And here’s a deal: Let them in, and send them back when the utopia you have so confidently predicted in Iraq comes to pass.
