JORDAN/ FILE: Conference on Iraqi refugees is held in Amman

At a conference in Amman to discuss ways of dealing with the problem of Iraqi refugees, Iraq's deputy foreign minister asks neighbouring countries which host the majority of Iraq's 2 million refugees to ease residency permit laws and entry restrictions. Iraq on Thursday (July 26) urged countries hosting over two million refugees who fled the country to escape violence to end their mistreatment and prevent their forcible return until stability returns to the violence torn country. Iraq's deputy foreign minister Mohammad al Haj Hamoud who was addressing a meeting attended by the United Nations and host countries said his country's neighbours must alleviate the plight of his countrymen who fled to safety outside their country after the U.S. led invasion of Iraq in 2003. "We hope that Iraq's neighbouring countries would ease residency permit laws for those Iraqis within their countries since their time of entry until this meeting on the 26 of July 2007, and to allow them to stay until the situation is appropriate for their return to their homeland. We also hope they would settle the cases of those who are violating their permits and to exempt them from the fines which have resulted due to the violations," Hamoud told the gathering that included several U.N aid agencies. Up to half of the refugees are being sheltered by neighbours Syria and Jordan, which say they are struggling to shoulder the burden, while nearly 2 million are displaced across Iraq. U.N. agencies say they are driven out by violence, poor services, loss of jobs and uncertain future. Haj said host countries had a moral imperative to help refugees by providing them a decent existence until they could return home and criticised tough measures adopted by countries like Jordan and to a lesser extent Syria without naming them who now impose tough entry restrictions and residency measures. "I would also like to shed light on some countries deportation of Iraqis at their borders and airports in addition to preventing them from entering their countries after they have dealt with the burden of travelling. In this case we ask these countries to adopt a way in which they issue VISA's for those who ask or to implement a process in which they deal with the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees to regulate the entry of Iraqis," said Haj without naming the countries. "Some other countries detain Iraqis at airports for several days despite their possession of a VISA from their embassies. They also subjects them to interrogation and then deport them to where they came from. This violates basic human rights," he added, saying security fears by host countries did not justify such heavy handed approach. While recognising the difficulties faced by Jordan and Syria, human rights groups expressed concern the countries were making it harder for fleeing Iraqis to enter. Syria hosts some 1.2 million Iraqis, a number equal to 12 percent of its own population, and says it needs $256 million to maintain aid, health care and education over the next two years. Jordan says the 750,000 Iraqi refugees inside its borders cost it $1 billion a year, stretching the resources of a country of just 5.6 million.

ITN Source | July 27, 2007

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