Gorilla’s Guides

NAIROBI, 3 March 2011 (IRIN) – Several Middle Eastern countries such as Iraq and Yemen are unlikely to achieve the education-for-all Millennium Development Goals by 2015 because of insecurity and conflict, according to a new report by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The education-for-all goals were endorsed by more than 160 countries in 2000. But according to Kevin Watkins, director of UNESCO’s 2011 Global Monitoring Report, children and education are not just getting caught in the cross-fire, they are increasingly the targets of violent conflict.

"The failure of governments to protect human rights is causing children deep harm – and taking away their only chance of an education," he said.

The UNESCO report, entitled The Hidden Crisis: Armed Conflict and Education, says 35 countries were affected by armed conflict between 1999 and 2008, several in the Middle East. “Children and schools are on the front line of these conflicts, with classrooms, teachers and pupils seen as legitimate targets,” it noted.

Egypt

Recent demonstrations and clashes in Egypt led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, but also closed many schools. In mid-February, half-term was extended for two weeks. Schools in only seven of the country’s 29 governorates reopened after the recess, according to sources in Cairo.

The Interior Ministry deployed police outside schools to beef up security and encourage a return to school, but thousands of parents still preferred to keep their children at home.

“A deteriorating security situation hinders the opening of the schools and this affects the whole educational process,” Fathi al-Sharqawi, a professor of educational psychology at Cairo’s Ain Shams University, told IRIN. “Teachers will have to skip some parts of the curricula after the students go back to their classrooms, which will also affect these students’ learning badly.”

Hundreds of parents have complained that their children are attacked by thugs on their way to school, according to human rights groups. The Egyptian Centre for Human Rights, for example, said some parents complain that criminals use weapons to grab money from children.

Manal Abdul Aziz, an Egyptian journalist who opted for home-based tuition for her two children, told IRIN in Cairo: “There is total obscurity about the future of this academic year.” The cost of hiring five teachers for her two children (aged 12 and 15) is the equivalent of US$169 a month – a significant sum for most families.

Iraq

Decades of war in Iraq, UN sanctions, poor security and the economic situation have adversely affected education and increased illiteracy levels. According to data produced by the government and UNESCO in September, at least five million of Iraq’s almost 30 million people are illiterate. Of these, 14 percent are school-age children who left school to feed their families, are displaced or have no access to suitable schooling.

Ahmed Khalid Jaafar, 14, told IRIN in Baghdad that he left school after his father died in an explosion three years ago, and sought work on the streets to feed his mother and two younger daughters.

"I sell gum and my mother works is a seamstress," said Jaafar. "We make 200,000-300,000 dinars (US$160-250) a month. We spend that money on the most important things, mainly food. School is not important now." Jaafar and his family squat in an abandoned government building.

The September data show that adult illiteracy in Iraq is now one of the highest in the Arab region. In rural areas, almost 30 percent of the population are unable to read or write. Significant gender disparities exist, with 40 percent of the illiterate being women.

Other countries

Bahrain is on track to achieve the goal of halving illiteracy levels by 2015, but countries like Iraq, Mauritania and Sudan are off track. "The recent experiences of Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait and Yemen show that literacy policy can be effective: all four countries have increased their adult literacy rates by at least 20 percentage points in the past 15-20 years," the UNESCO report said.

In Yemen, a reallocation of 10 percent of the military budget to education would put an additional 840,000 children in school. In the north, 220 schools were destroyed, damaged or looted during fighting in 2009 and 2010 between government and rebel forces, according to the report. "In Yemen, many internally displaced children complement family income by begging, smuggling or collecting refuse, and there are concerns that child labour is increasing."

In Syria, attendance rates in pre-school programmes varied from less than 4 percent for children in the poorest households, to just above 18 percent for wealthy households.

In harm’s way

According to the report, armed conflict places children directly in harm’s way. Some get killed while others are exploited as soldiers or forced to flee their homes and become refugees.

“Children subject to the trauma, insecurity and displacement that come with armed conflict are unlikely to achieve their potential for learning,” it said. All too often, armed groups see the destruction of schools and the targeting of schoolchildren and teachers as a legitimate military strategy.

In conflict situations, children fear to go to school, teachers to give classes and parents to send their children to school. According to UNESCO, in such situations, children suffer psychological trauma, as well as loss of parents, siblings and friends. One survey of Iraqi refugee children in Jordan found that 39 percent reported having lost someone close to them, and 43 percent witnessed violence.

“Armed conflict remains a major roadblock to human development in many parts of the world, yet its impact on education is widely neglected,” said UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova. “This groundbreaking report documents the scale of this hidden crisis, identifies its root causes and offers solid proposals for change.”

IRIN Middle East | MIDDLE EAST: Violence hits education | Egypt | Iraq | Lebanon | Oman | OPT | Syria | Yemen | Children | Conflict | Education

More than seven years after the US- and UK-led invasion of their country, Iraqis continue to endure an occupation that has systematically violated their rights to life, dignity, self-determination and economic development. The occupation has been and continues to be so destructive and so violent that one in four Iraqis are estimated to be dead or displaced. One in five Iraqis has been made a refugee or an internally displaced person (IDP).

In particular, the role and situation of women and girls has declined precipitously compared to prior to the invasion. From torture to rape to assassination, from forced separation for mixed couples to women and their children enduring the death of their husbands and fathers, from a loss of educational rights to expulsion from the workplace and public life, and from sexual slavery to forced flight or enforced disappearance, for the past seven years Iraqi women and girls have endured the most terrifying of fates. They are living at the mercy of an occupation that both seeks to terrorize them into submission, and to use them as objects for the terrorization of the whole of Iraqi society.

No security

Dr. Souad al-Azzawi, who authored a study on Iraqi women entitled "Deterioration of Iraq women’s rights and living conditions under occupation," published in January 2008, told The Electronic Intifada: "The most significant loss that Iraqi women have suffered is a complete and total loss of security." She explained that the loss of security entails both the loss of physical security and "the economic, social and civil securities Iraqi women were so accustomed to prior to the occupation."

In fact, it appears that the loss of physical and other aspects of security have a Catch-22 effect on the lives of women. The lack of legal and institutional support for women by an Iraqi puppet government which is at best ineffective has meant that in the vast majority of cases the criminals, mafias, militias, death squads, US occupation forces and Iraqi police and army forces committing crimes against women are not held accountable for their actions. This has in turn encouraged the development of a situation characterized by lawlessness and criminality, in which women are prime targets. As such, many women have been forced to leave their jobs and quit their education, for fear that they may be the next victim of rape or assassination.

According to al-Azzawi, Iraqi women have had to resort to "the relative security of their homes," often taking their children out of school too if they were the only parent able to accompany them there and back.

Echoing al-Azzawi’s words, an Iraqi refugee speaking on condition of anonymity said that she was forced to leave Iraq precisely because of death threats issued against her by militias who had found out she was actively working as a journalist seeking to expose the injustices taking place against women. Had she stayed in Iraq, the threats likely would have been fulfilled.

"Not only was I being targeted, but I was also without protection, given that Iraq has no government to speak of," she explained. She added that "I could have been killed at any moment, and no one would have been held accountable for it. It was for one reason alone that I fled: because I had no choice."

Criminal levels of poverty

The figures speak for themselves. According to a dossier on Iraqi women published by the BRussells Tribunal, prior to the invasion 72 percent of working women were government employees. The dismantlement of state institutions immediately after the invasion meant that these women became unemployed. Instability and ineffective institutions in Iraq render it impossible to pinpoint the total rate of unemployment today, but estimates range from 15 percent to 70 percent. The few stable jobs that exist, according to the dossier, are usually given to men, though a growing number of female-headed households means that many women need to take extraordinary risks in order to try and cater for their children ("Iraqi Women Under Occupation" [PDF]).

The same economic insecurity affects Iraqi refugee families. Aseer al-Madaien, the Protection Officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) – Syria, says that out of 139,000 registered Iraqis in Syria, 28 percent are households headed by women. In total, estimates for the total number of displaced Iraqis, including both refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), range up to almost five million, according to the international organization Medecins Sans Frontieres, which believes that there are 2.5 million Iraqi IDPs and 2.3 million refugees.

IDPs suffer both extreme vulnerability and insecurity, as they seek refuge in the homes of relatives and friends, said Hana Al Bayaty, member of the Executive Committee of the BRussells Tribunal. Many of them are the victims of ethnic cleansing, whereby a country once free of sectarianism is increasingly witnessing the targeting of persons on the basis of their religion or ethnicity. Mixed marriages in these conditions are all too often broken up by force, according to a report published by the UN-affiliated IRIN humanitarian news agency ("Mixed Marriages confront Sectarian Violence," 6 April 2006).

The majority of Iraqi refugees have headed to neighboring countries Syria and Jordan, where they are not allowed to work, as they are legally considered "guests." In 2007, the UNHCR reported that an estimated 40 percent of Iraq’s middle class had fled the country. Not only have almost half of those with the qualifications and experience to help rebuild Iraq left the country, but they are also suffering from the most extreme form of disempowerment, according to Al Bayaty.

Al-Azzawi explained that "For the educated middle class, this situation is shattering as everything we have worked so hard to earn and build up over decades of war and sanctions is being brought down by military force before our very eyes."

Unable to work legally, it is often refugee women who take upon themselves the burden and the risk of working as they are less likely to be asked for documentation on the streets of Amman, Damascus and beyond, and they thereby hope to be less likely to be deported.

Unemployment levels in Syria and Jordan, however, mean that even illegal work is hard to come by. It is because of this that the phenomenon of forced prostitution is becoming increasingly rife. The growing problem of sex trafficking is partly caused by poverty.

According to al-Azzawi, the lack of work permits, qualifications and opportunities "leads some women to prostitution in order to feed their children and their families." In other cases, the sheer lack of protection faced by some women push them into prostitution. Problems in such cases include threats of kidnapping issued against women should they not accept to prostitute themselves. These threats are issued especially against women whose husbands are dead or missing. "The women of Iraq live in a very fragile situation as a result of the American occupation’s crimes," al-Azzawi said.

Death, torture and enforced disappearance

No statistical reference can adequately convey the sheer suffering experienced by the people of Iraq, as a whole, from the genocidal sanctions period through the invasion and ensuing occupation. Current estimates place the number of dead at anywhere between 1.5 million and 2.5 million.

According to Iraqi human rights analyst and advocate Asma al-Haidari, "Up to one million Iraqis have been forcibly disappeared." Behind the enforced disappearances are the US army, Iraqi government forces including the army and police, and al-Qaeda and other militias that operate freely across the country, according to a presentation given by Dirk Adriaensens, member of the BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee, at a London conference organized by the International Committee Against Disappearances on 9-12 December 2010. According to calculations by Adriaensens, based on UNHCR statistics, 20 percent of internally displaced Iraqi families have reported cases of missing children ("Enforced Disappearance. The Missing Persons of Iraq" [PDF]).

It is also understood that, given that there is a very real and justified fear of retaliation against families who report the disappearances of their loved ones, many others suffer in silence. Thousands of detainees, some of them in secret, illegal prisons, according to al-Azzawi, are women. Estimates published in 2008 by the Iraqi Parliamentary Women’s Committee and the Iraqi Ministry of Women’s Affairs indicate that between one and two million Iraqi women are widows.

Inside Iraq’s jails, legal or not, cases of torture and sexual abuse have been widely reported. Revelations by WikiLeaks published on 22 October 2010 were described by Iraqi activists such as Sabah al-Mukhtar, president of the Arab Lawyers’ Union, as just "the tip of the iceberg," as he said on an Al-Jazeera English interview on 24 October. According to al-Azzawi, women are usually jailed on trumped-up charges of terrorism, where there is no proof and while there is no adequate legal system to ensure their right to a fair trial. "Many are awaiting execution," al-Azzawi added.

Further, when it is the man who disappears, whether he is dead or missing, women and their families have to fend for themselves in a hellish situation. Out of this horror comes forth one of the more obtuse trends, inexistent in Iraq up until 2003, of families giving their daughters away in early marriage for fear of being unable to adequately support them.

One immediate effect of this phenomenon is the fact that girls aged 13, 14 and 15 sold into early marriage lose their right to education. As figures currently stand, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report published on 1 September 2010, for every 100 boys in school, there are only 89 girls ("Girls Education in Iraq 2010" [PDF]).

"Lots of those little girls are very bright and are willing to finish their education if they are allowed to," said al-Azzawi.

Worse still is the flourishing of what are known as "pleasure marriages." These are short-term marriages conducted out of court, whereby separation is also very simple. It is a practice that Iraqi women’s rights advocates describe as linked to prostitution, because of the wrongful abuse of the practice by men in power, often blackmailing fathers into giving their daughters away in a "pleasure marriage," and also because once a girl or a woman has married in this way and has received alimony for her short-term commitment, she will find it very difficult to reintegrate back into her family.

"Many girls are forced into prostitution and ultimately sex trafficking this way," al-Azzawi added.

Forced Islamization of society

It is deeply telling that Iraqi society is becoming forcibly Islamized by militias tied to the Iraqi puppet government, which is dependent upon the United States for its survival. Meanwhile, Washington claims to be fighting a war on Islamic terrorism. The reality, as is frequently the case, is the precise opposite. Previously a secular state, Iraqi society is becoming forcibly transformed into a theocracy. In such systems, women and girls inevitably lose.

The results of the proliferation of fundamentalist militias are varied. While reports of Christian women veiling in order to avoid attacks are troubling in the Iraqi context, what is potentially much worse is that the notion of an Iraqi state for all its citizens is fast disappearing. Not only does this mean that Iraqi girls are no longer safe on the streets; it also means that if the occupation fulfills its goals, Iraqi "career women" may be a thing of the past.

Al-Azzawi notes that "Economically the country has lost a huge, skilled working force, which is exactly what the occupation planned to do, and the lives of millions of working women and families were shattered."

Considering that there is not a single right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that the US occupation has not violated — as the International Initiative to Prosecute US Genocide in Iraq team found when working in 2009 to bring a legal case for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against four US presidents and four UK prime ministers — it is amazing yet encouraging that the US occupation’s goals have failed.

Not only is the US administration under President Barack Obama still battling to maintain control over a country whose people resist in the name of their dignity and their love for Iraq, but many of the most outspoken and brilliant advocates for Iraqis’ rights in general are in fact women.

"I have much hope for Iraq," said human rights advocate Asma al-Haidari, "Nothing will make me lose hope."

Even with a new government finally in place in Iraq, the country is still on the brink of disaster, writes Salah Hemeid

Ordinary Iraqis expressed their relief last week at the fact that a new government was finally in place after nine months of gridlock, hoping that this will now be a step towards peace and stability in the beleaguered nation.

However, while the breakthrough may have ended the governmental impasse, the crisis has only highlighted the fragility of Iraqi state-building more than seven and a half years after the US-led invasion of the country.

The year 2010 did not start off well for Iraq as violence persisted and politicians’ bickering raised concerns about the country’s ability to get back onto its feet after the US withdrawal next year.

Thousands were killed, including civilian bystanders, army and security officers and government officials, and thousands others wounded in a string of suicide bombings and attacks in Iraq throughout the year.

The violence proved that the Iraqi security forces are not yet able to protect civilians in terms of numbers, equipment and training, while insurgents tied to Al-Qaeda continue to launch attacks, spreading an air of danger in many Iraqi cities.

Critics maintain that the newly trained Iraqi armed forces are incompetent and sharply divided along ethnic and sectarian lines and that they cannot be expected to succeed in ending the violence, raising questions about whether the remaining US troops in Iraq will be able to exit the country as many Iraqis desire.

The United States has reiterated that it will stick to plans to withdraw all its troops from Iraq by December next year, but Washington might have second thoughts if the new government fails to restore stability and insurgents continue their campaign to bring it down.

In addition to the security problems, the newly formed government has to end the chaos in Iraq and deal with multiple political, social and economic setbacks.

One of the biggest problems is the deep schism facing the country, which needs to be bridged by national reconciliation. Reconciliation of Iraq’s ethno-religious communities is seen as a necessary precursor to stemming the country’s sectarian violence.

There are dangers that the country is descending into a situation in which it is becoming less tolerant in terms of religious freedoms and human rights, as the government fails to deal with increasing fundamentalism.

An intensifying campaign is putting more pressure on the government to go after religious fundamentalists, operating in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, who seek to impose their strict interpretation of Islam.

There have been widespread reports that these groups have ordered social clubs, bars and alcohol shops to close down and that they are intimidating people who do not follow their version of Islamic values.

The crackdown has included shutting music and drama departments in arts institutes, banning arts festivals and circuses, and imposing strict codes of behaviour.

The moves have heightened concerns among academics and intellectuals that Iraq, now emerging from foreign occupation and war, is displaying all the tendencies of a Taliban-like Islamic state.

The year 2010 was also among the worst for the country’s Christians, with thousands fleeing their homes and more leaving the country during 2010 than at any time since the US-led invasion.

The latest exodus follows a massacre led by Al-Qaeda at a Christian Catholic Church in central Baghdad on 31 October, which left some 60 people dead, almost 100 maimed and an already apprehensive community terrified.

Since then, the terrorist group has targeted Christians in their homes, including family members of those who survived the attack.

In Baghdad, as well as in the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, Christmas services have been cancelled for fear of further violence.

After more than seven years of war, the Iraqi economy is in tatters, with the country depending largely on imports for nearly everything from cars to tomatoes. Unemployment is among the highest in any country worldwide.

The country also still lacks basic services. Electricity is in short supply, medicines are available mainly through the black market, and there are long lines for fuel in a country that has the third largest oil reserves in the world.

Another serious problem is corruption, which is spectacular even by world standards. Iraq is ranked fifth from the bottom of the pressure group Transparency International’s list of 180 nations.

Bribery and outright theft surround virtually every Iraqi government department, with some of the kickbacks being used by rival politicians to cement their power bases in order to perpetuate their hegemony in the country.

Some two million Iraqi refugees are either abroad or displaced inside Iraq after being forced to flee their homes to safe havens because of violence and sectarian threats.

Today, most of Baghdad’s neighbourhoods are shielded by high concrete walls from the rubble-strewn streets and are cordoned off by the security forces as residents are trapped in fear of a renewal of sectarian conflict.

However, the good news in 2010 was that Iraq increased its oil exports. New Petroleum Minister Abdel-Karim Luaibi said on Wednesday that Iraq’s crude oil production had increased by 100,000 barrels a day to 2.5 million barrels.

The ministry had announced earlier that sales from Iraqi crude oil exports during the first 11 months of 2010 had reached $46.9 billion. Last year, Iraq’s oil revenues reached $41.3 billion, compared with $60 billion in 2008.

Iraq might have made other small advances in 2010, especially in avoiding civil war, but the country still has a long way to go. At the end of a long and exhausting year, it is hard to see a clear end in sight.

Strengthening the Iraqi state will be hard, especially after the March elections that produced a government many Iraqis consider to be weak, fragmented and incompetent.

According to some scenarios for post-2010 Iraq, next year will be crucial as it will see the withdrawal of the remaining US troops. The pullout will mean that the US will no longer have a large foothold in Iraq, leaving the country to local forces and interests as it absorbs the after- effects of the American-led invasion.

One scenario is that the national partnership government will succeed in holding the country together and that a strong central government will emerge. This will be able to prevent violence escalating and erupting into all-out civil war.

A second scenario would be that the instability in Iraq continues, with the growing confrontation between the country’s Sunnis and Shias over power and resources leading the country into chaos.

Neighbouring countries will be fearful of the risk of contagion and will try to keep the chaos contained within Iraq’s borders. A proxy war could be the result, along the lines of what is happening in Somalia.

Another scenario would be the collapse of the government because of sectarian fighting and the country descending into outright civil war. This would most likely lead to Iraq’s disintegration with instability spreading to the entire region.

The year 2011 will be pivotal for Iraq’s future, and that future will be more than anything else determined by the fortunes of the new government.

It is to be hoped that Iraq’s politicians will not repeat their previous mistakes and that they will stand together to end the people’s misery and start rebuilding the devastated country.

Source: Al-Ahram Weekly | Region | A pivotal year for Iraqis

DAMASCUS, 28 December 2010 (IRIN) – Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis fled the country after sectarian violence broke out following the 2003 war which toppled Saddam Hussein. However, the precise number of refugees is hard to ascertain and fluctuates in line with changing perceptions and the security situation in Iraq.

"It would be nice to have the full picture, but the special circumstances of the Iraqi refugee population means we don’t… although we have a good idea of the refugees registered with us," said Andrew Harper, head of the UN Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) Iraq Support Unit in Geneva.

Host governments (largely in the Middle East) at one time estimated that more than 2.5 million Iraqis had fled to their countries. But that statistic is now too high, say independent experts not affiliated with UNHCR. Distinguishing between refugees and other migrants, and deducting the number of those who have returned to Iraq for good can be difficult.

UNHCR has registered just over 400,000 Iraqis since 2003 but currently they have 200,000 on their books. More refugees register every day – some 2,000 per month in Syria. However, the agency says those figures are not definitive.

"Many refugees choose not to register with us, either because there is a stigma attached in asking for assistance or they see no reason to register unless they need our services," said Harper.

Currently, host governments claim some 1.5 million Iraqis remain on their territories, while Refugees International, a US-based NGO, said it believed only 500,000 Iraqis remained outside the country.

Reasons for discrepancies

The Iraqi refugees are hard to track because they reside almost exclusively in an urban rather than a camp setting, predominantly in Syria and Jordan. In July last year, a UNHCR report detailed the challenges.

Population mobility is another factor, according to Harper. Many families are split or commute between Syria and Iraq to see relatives, work, or are checking the situation on the ground.

In such a situation, they are harder to count, or may have their files deactivated by UNHCR if they are absent for long periods. UNHCR says mobility is positive as it allows refugees to stay in touch with their country and prepare for an eventual return.

Bald statistics can be misleading

Bald statistics, without a breakdown, can be misleading due to the high rates of movement. Over the past few months, a fairly consistent number of refugees have been registered in Syria – currently some 139,586 – but this figure masks the fact that each month some refugees leave and others register. Some 32,200 files were deactivated in the first 10 months of 2010, 5,408 people were resettled elsewhere, 176 returned to Iraq under the UNHCR voluntary repatriation scheme, and some 18,719 registered in the same time period, UNHCR says.

Statistical methods are also variable. "Many Iraqi refugees fled before the war," said Elizabeth Ferris, a senior fellow and Iraq expert at the Brookings Institution. "There is no agreement as to which time period to count people in."

Challenges

Uncertainty over figures has posed challenges for aid agencies, but UNHCR says it bases its planning for staff and budget on the number of refugees it has registered.

Predicting trends can also be difficult, say experts. UNHCR has resettled more than 50,000 refugees, mostly in the USA, and assisted more than 2,000 to return to Iraq. But an unknown number is likely to have returned independently.

Within Iraq, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) registers returned refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). It says some 130,000 refugees have returned since 2007.

"Agencies have got used to working with imprecise figures," said Ferris, "but it is not good practice to develop programmes on this basis."

UNHCR contests this argument. "We have precise information regarding the registered refugees and base our programmes on their needs. This information is regularly updated," said Wafa Amr, UNHCR’s regional spokesperson.

Agencies have come up with novel techniques to meet the challenges. UNHCR has more than 150 outreach workers in Syria alone who visit neighbourhoods to identify refugees. Publications are used to raise awareness of the plight of the refugees. To maintain the dignity of refugees and overcome challenges posed by refugees living in an urban setting, UNHCR has made cash payments available via an ATM. UNHCR uses SMS text messages to alert refugees, and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) recently rolled out an SMS food voucher scheme.

IDPs

Despite the uncertainty, no new assessment of the Iraqi refugees is due. "There is a fear the numbers would come in lower and this would have an impact on governments such as Syria and Jordan as it may affect the amount of financing channelled to them," said Ferris.

More is known about IDPs, as the Iraqi authorities are better able to track them. UNHCR, Refugees International and Brookings agree on a figure of 1.5 million, 500,000 of whom live in slums. Of the returnees registered with the IOM, 86 percent are IDPs but overall numbers of returnees are said to be low.

"Our main concern is that a very substantial number of Iraqis needing assistance are going to remain in 2011 and probably longer," said Amr.

IRIN Middle East | MIDDLE EAST: Iraqi refugees – interpreting the statistics | Iraq | Syria | Conflict | Refugees/IDPs

MADRID, 20 June 2010 (IRIN) – Refugee officials and rights groups have urged a number of European countries not to forcibly repatriate Iraqi asylum seekers, particularly members of minority communities, because of prevailing insecurity in the country.

These demands were made in response to recent announced repatriation plans by the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway. The UK has already begun deporting some Iraqis, with some 40 asylum-seekers arriving in Baghdad on 17 June – the UK’s third deportation in that week.

“Our position and advice to governments is that Iraqi asylum applicants originating from Iraq’s governorates of Baghdad, Diyala, Ninewa and Salah-al-Din, as well as from Kirkuk province, should continue to benefit from international protection,” Melissa Fleming, a spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said at a press briefing on 8 June.

“Our position reflects the volatile security situation and the still high level of prevailing violence, security incidents, and human rights violations taking place in these parts of Iraq,” she said.

While its deportations have been criticized for being highly secretive, the British government has insisted the people it was repatriating were from safer parts of Iraq. UNHCR has expressed concern that the forced returns send the wrong message to host countries neighbouring Iraq, namely Syria and Jordan.

Minority attacks

Iraqi minorities – including Christians of various denominations, Yazidis and the Shabak – living in third countries are particularly fearful of any forced returns.

A Chaldean Christian Iraqi refugee who has lived in the Netherlands since 2006 told IRIN on condition of anonymity that he feared being singled out for deportation because of the many attacks against his community in Iraq.

"Kidnappings and politically motivated killings continue to take place in what seems to be an attempt to resettle or eradicate Iraq’s indigenous population," he said.

He is one of more than half a million Iraqi Christians who have fled since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003. According to the US-based Brookings Institution, an estimated 500,000 Christians remain in Iraq since numbering between 1 million and 1.4 million before 2003.

“Christians continue to be targeted and there is no protection from the Iraqi authorities,” said Dr Ghazi Rahho, a Christian Iraqi who fled the country several years ago and now works as a professor in Jordan.

Rahho’s cousin, Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, a leading Christian authority in Iraq, was kidnapped and killed in February 2008, an incident that led to some 12,000 Christians fleeing Mosul, about 400km northwest of Baghdad. “To date, kidnappings and assassinations are taking place. And other tactics are used to terrorize Christians. Our churches, for instance, are being bombed," said Rahho.

According to an April 2010 Amnesty International (AI) report, more than 100 people were killed between mid-July and mid-September 2009 in attacks targeting Christians, Sabean-Mandaeans, Yazidis, Turkoman Shias, Shabaks and Kaka’is.

AI has called on the international community to “end all forcible returns to any part of Iraq; any return of rejected asylum-seekers should only take place when the security situation in the whole country has stabilized.”

NGO Minority Rights Group International has detailed evidence of violence against Iraq’s minority communities in a June 10 report and expressed an urgent need for legislation implementing minority rights in the country to address an “ongoing climate of impunity that exists in relation to attacks on minorities”.

Iraqi refugee landmark

Meanwhile, UNHCR announced on 18 June that a landmark 100,000 Iraqis had been referred for resettlement from the Middle East to third countries since 2007. About 45 percent of that number lives in Syria, UNHCR said, adding that the referrals acceptance rate by host countries was 80 percent, of which 76 percent were accepted by the US.

Iraqis are the second largest refugee group in the world, according to UNHCR’s 2009 Global Trends report, with an estimated 1.8 million seeking refuge primarily in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey.

The report, released in advance of World Refugee Day on 20 June, said voluntary repatriation worldwide in 2009 was the lowest for 20 years, with around 251,500 returns, of which only 38,000 were Iraqi.

IRIN Middle East | IRAQ: Forced repatriation puts minorities at risk | Middle East | Iraq | Human Rights Conflict | News Item