Despite what you may hear on TV, especially FOX NEWS, there are more Iraqi civilians leaving Iraq than those that are returning.
Between 12 and 15 MILLION Iraqis who now live in Syria and Jordan say they have no plans of returning to Iraq.
The reasons they give flys in the face of what the Bush administration and their puppet FOX NEWS are telling the American public.
Namely, it is still too dangerous in Iraq as witnessed by the two car bombs that went off in Baghdad on Monday morning killing at least 45 people and injuring scores of others.
The news comes on the heels of actress Angelina Jolie's recent visit to Baghdad as part of the United Nations Human Rights Commission where she stated the U.S. military should stay in Iraq until all the Iraqi refugees safely return to their country.
IRAQ: 'Not Our Country To Return To'
By Maki al-Nazzal and Dahr Jamail*DAMASCUS, Mar 3 (IPS)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41430
- More Iraqis continue to flee their country than the numbers returning, despite official claims to the contrary.
Thousands fleeing say security is as bad as ever, and that to return would be to accept death. "Return to Iraq?" asks 35-year-old Ahmed Alwan, an Iraqi engineer now working at a restaurant in Damascus. "There is no Iraq to return to, my friend. Iraq only exists in our dreams and memories."
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported September last year that there are between 1.2 and 1.4 million Iraqi refugees in Syria alone. Most, like Alwan, do not intend to return. "I shall never return to Iraq until the last American soldier and Iranian mullah leaves," Alwan says. "It is their country now, not ours. The only thing that might take me back is when I decide to fight for Iraq's real liberty." Iraqi refugees in Syria speak of lack of security back home, lack of services, fear of the future, mistrust of Iraqi politicians, and loss of homes. Most are simply too afraid to return.
A UNHCR report issued last month contradicts reports by mainstream media in the U.S., and claims by the Bush administration, that more Iraqis are returning to their homes than the number leaving.
The report says that from February 2006-October 2007 Syria received between 30,000-60,000 refugees each month. Immigration officials at al-Tanf on the border say the daily average for those entering Syria from Iraq in late January was over 1,200, while the daily average crossing back was less than 700.
"Many assassinations take place all over Iraq, including Baghdad, and military operations are still being carried out the same way as 2004 and 2005," Nayil Mufeed, a security advisor with a mobile phone company in Baghdad told IPS. "We have advised our employers that moving out of Baghdad to Amman is a definite necessity in such a fragile security situation."
Click on link above to read the full account of the Iraqi refugee problem.
2 comments:
12 to 15 million Iraqi refugees? You are off by a factor of ten.
The real numbers are indicative of the largest refugee crisis in the world, even exceeding Darfur. More than 4 million Iraqis have been driven from their homes, including those internally displaced. That is 14.5 percent of the entire population of Iraq.
Thanks for writing. Another chapter in this sad story is how the mainstream press in the United States continues to sweep information like this under the rug as if it really isn't happening.
As much as I blame the Bush administration for this crisis, I equally blame the mainstream media in the United States for not reporting on this except to show pictures of actress Angelina Jolie when she visited Baghdad two weeks ago to look into the refugee situation.
And let's not kid ourselves. The reeason there was so much coverge of Angelina Jolie in Baghdad was because of her good looks and not the mission she was on.
Post a Comment