Uprooted and unstable: Meeting urgent humanitarian needs in Iraq

from Refugees International

Five years after the US -led invasion, Iraq remains a deeply violent and divided society. Faced with one of the largest displacement and humanitarian crises in the world, Iraqi civilians are in urgent need of assistance. Particularly vulnerable are the 2.7 million internally displaced Iraqis who have fled their homes for safer locations inside Iraq. Unable to access their food rations and often unemployed, they live in squalid conditions, have run out of resources and find it extremely difficult to access essential services. The US , the government of Iraq and the international community must begin to address the consequences of leaving Iraqis' humanitarian needs unmet.

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Iraq and the Surge

Testimony by Robert Malley, Middle East and North Africa Program Director, International Crisis Group to the Senate Armed Services Committee, 9 April 2008.

from ICG

The tactical successes associated with the surge offer a fragile but genuine opportunity to reassess our overall approach and put the emphasis where it needs to be: steps by the US administration to credibly pressure the Iraqi government and alter the regional climate. This entails ceasing to provide the Iraqi government with unconditional military support; using our leverage and the threat of withdrawal to encourage progress toward a broad national compact and a non-sectarian, impartial state; designing a long-term program of cooperation to replenish Iraq’s depleted human resources; and, importantly, engaging in real diplomacy with all of its neighbors, Iran and Syria included.

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IRAQ: Humanitarian situation deteriorates in Basra

from IRIN

The humanitarian situation and aid operations continued to deteriorate in Basra as heavy fighting between government forces and militiamen of the Mahdi Army led by radical Shia leader Moqtada al-Sadr entered its third day, Salih Hmoud, head of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society’s office in Basra, told IRIN.

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YEMEN: UNHCR to build homes for displaced people

from IRIN

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is working to provide shelter for hundreds of families displaced after recent fighting between government forces and Shia rebels in the northern province of Saada.

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Iraqi crisis fuels rise in asylum seekers in industrialized world

from UNHCR via ReliefWeb

A five-year downward trend in asylum applications in industrialized countries was reversed in 2007, largely because of an increase in the number of Iraqi asylum seekers, according to provisional statistics compiled by the UN refugee agency.

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Humanitarian action in Iraq: Putting the pieces together

from ODI via ReliefWeb

International humanitarian action in Iraq since 2003 has been inadequate to the nature and scale of the task. It has been piecemeal and largely conducted undercover, hindered by insecurity, a lack of coordinated funding, limited operational capacity and patchy information. As humanitarian agencies look to scale up interventions in 2008, most of the earlier challenges to providing assistance in Iraq – political, institutional and operational – persist.

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Women with missing relatives: Recognizing the plight of those left behind

from ReliefWeb

For hundreds of thousands of women one of the worst consequences of armed conflict is the long and agonizing wait for news about their missing relatives. Since the vast majority of those who are killed or disappear are men, the burden of trying to find out what happened to them usually falls to the women in their family. On International Women's Day (8 March), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) highlights its commitment to easing the plight of these women.

Ashwak, an Iraqi refugee now living in Jordan, has lost track of her husband. "We looked everywhere. We went to all the prisons and the forensic institute. We searched for more than four months," she says. "We looked in all the places we could think of, but we always received the same answer - that he was not there. Yet we still have hope."

For those who are left behind like Ashwak, not knowing the fate of a relative is emotionally devastating. No matter how difficult it is to mourn the loss of a loved one, it is even more distressing not to be able to mourn at all. Many women spend years and their life's savings on a fruitless search. For those trying to trace a missing child, husband or father, peace in their country does not automatically bring peace of mind, because abandoning their quest would seem like a betrayal.

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UK aid agencies say Gaza humanitarian situation dire

from IRIN

The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is "man-made" and worse than it has ever been since the Israeli occupation in 1967, a coalition of British organisations said in a new report released on 6 March, urging better regional cooperation and saying Hamas can no longer be ignored.

Entitled A Humanitarian Implosion, the 16-page report details the various effects the Israeli-imposed blockade has had in the last nine months since the Hamas takeover of the enclave, and concluded that all aspects of life have been negatively affected, including healthcare, employment and education.

The agencies, such as CARE, Amnesty, Christian Aid, and Oxfam, quoted UN statistics showing that aid dependency has risen significantly.

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Stronger Women, Stronger Nations: 2008 Iraq Report

from Women for Women International via ReliefWeb

In March 2003, shortly after the United States invaded Iraq, women's rights and gender equity were mentioned as symbolic issues for Iraq's new national agenda. However, as the overall situation in Iraq began to deteriorate after the invasion, the focus on women was lost in the problems and violence facing the country as a whole. When it came time to transform symbolism into action by articulating support and solutions for the most pressing national issues, women's issues were considered an afterthought at best, a distraction from the "real" issues at worst.

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Fuel shortages continue to hamper basic functions in Gaza – UN aid agency

from UN News Centre

The Gaza Strip continues to be plagued by fuel shortages, leaving many ambulances unable to function and ensuring most residents have only an intermittent water supply, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) reported today.

Some 30 out of 87 ambulances run by the Health Ministry and the Red Crescent in Gaza cannot operate because of the lack of fuel, UNRWA said, while all 140 water wells in the area have now run out of fuel.

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Worsening conflict in Gaza leaves children at particular risk, UNICEF warns

from UN News Centre

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) today voiced its deep concern at the escalating conflict in the Gaza Strip, warning both Israel and the Palestinians to “take all feasible measures” to ensure the protection and care of children caught up in the violence.

Since the current upsurge in fighting began on Wednesday, at least 17 children from Gaza have been killed and more than 200 others injured, UNICEF said in a statement, quoting figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry.

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EGYPT: High rates of trauma, sickness among Iraqi refugees

from IRIN

Many of the estimated 70,000-150,000 Iraqi refugees in Egypt have developed serious psychological and stress-related illnesses, including cardiac problems, according to Ahlam Tobia, a medical doctor who works with refugees in Cairo.

Abeer Etefa, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesperson, said many of the refugees registered with the agency had chronic diseases such as heart ailments and diabetes.

“Stress caused by bad news from back home, by lack of funds, employment or education opportunities, has caused an increase in cases of heart disease and diabetes,” Ahlam said.

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Languishing at the Bottom of Yemen’s Ladder

from The New York Times

By day, they sweep the streets of the Old City, ragged, dark-skinned men in orange jump suits. By night, they retreat to fetid slums on the edge of town.

They are known as “Al Akhdam” — the servants. Set apart by their African features, they form a kind of hereditary caste at the very bottom of Yemen’s social ladder.

Degrading myths pursue them: they eat their own dead, and their women are all prostitutes. Worst of all, they are reviled as outsiders in their own country, descendants of an Ethiopian army that is said to have crossed the Red Sea to oppress Yemen before the arrival of Islam.

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Briefing to the Security Council on the Situation in the Middle East, Including the Palestinian Question

from UN OCHA via ReliefWeb

Excerept from Statement by John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator

I found conditions for the people of Gaza grim and miserable, and far from 'normal'. Eight months of severe restrictions on the movement of goods and people entering and leaving the territory, following the Hamas take-over in June 2007, have taken a heavy economic and social toll, coming on top of years of difficulty and economic decline. Whilst the most basic humanitarian goods, particularly food aid, have mostly continued to struggle through, other imports have been progressively closed off ... Only about 10% of what went into Gaza in January 2007 was allowed to enter in January 2008 ... Since June 2007, the movement of Palestinians in and out of Gaza has been virtually impossible, apart from the short period when the Rafah wall was down and with limited exceptions made for urgent medical cases, pilgrims, those with student and work visas and foreign residence documentation.

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UNHCR’s Guterres calls for more support to Iraqi refugees

from UNHCR

UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres on Thursday appealed to the international community for more support to Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan, for more resettlement places in third countries and for the government of Iraq to be more active in supporting its uprooted people.

Guterres, on the third day of a weeklong mission to the region, said his overall objective is to ensure that millions of Iraqis displaced by conflict receive as much protection and assistance as possible.

He said the international response remains disproportionate to the scope of the problem. "The international community needs to provide more support to Iraqis themselves through the programmes that assist Iraqi refugees in Syria, Jordan and other host countries," he said. "Up until now the international assistance has been out of proportion to the challenges that these countries face."

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Developments on Iraqi Refugee Resettlement: Priority Resettlement for Family Members

from U.S. Department of State (via Human Rights First)

In December 2007, the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration issued information confirming that Iraqi beneficiaries of approved family-based immigrant visa petitions (known as I-130 petitions) had been designated for direct access to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP). The new P-2 priority category will allow these Iraqi beneficiaries to apply directly for US resettlement, rather than requiring the extra step of a referral from UNHCR.

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Death Sentence for Afghan Student

from The New York Times

An Afghan court in northern Afghanistan sentenced a journalism student to death for blasphemy for distributing an article from the Internet that was considered an insult to the Prophet Muhammad, the judge in charge of the court said Wednesday.

The student, Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh, 23, who also works on a local newspaper, was charged with directly insulting Muhammad by calling the prophet “a killer and adulterer,” the judge, Shamsurahman Muhmand, said in a telephone interview.

The sentence was immediately denounced as unfair by Mr. Kambakhsh’s family and journalists’ organizations. Mr. Kambakhsh’s brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, denied his brother had committed blasphemy, and said his brother was not given enough time to prepare his defense for the trial and was denied a defense lawyer.

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Trauma survey in Syria highlights suffering of Iraqi refugee

from UNHCR

A UNHCR-commissioned survey of trauma among Iraqi refugees indicates widespread depression and anxiety among those interviewed and calls for programmes be set up to address mental health issues and their prevalence among some 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in Syria.

Final results of the study of 754 refugees in Syria were released in Geneva on Tuesday, including another key recommendation for increased advocacy among all groups within Iraq "to end deliberate torture and the numerous other horrific events" in the country.

The survey was conducted by the Ipsos market research agency among refugees registering with UNHCR in Damascus from October 31-November 25. The data collected was analyzed by the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia using standard assessment tools.

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Stop Attacks on Civil Society in Pakistan

from Human Rights First

Pakistani President and Chief of the Armed Forces, General Pervez Musharraf, announced the imposition of a state of emergency on November 3. With immediate effect, the President suspended the Pakistani Constitution, dismissed the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Chaudhry, and placed him and other members of the Supreme Court under house arrest when they refused to support the move, and announced stringent new restrictions on the media.

Among the reported 1,500 members of the opposition, judiciary and military targeted for arrest and detention, are several leading lawyers imprisoned under 30 day preventive detention orders. The detainees include the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Aitzaz Ahsan and two former presidents, Muneer Malik and Tariq Mahmoud. Other leading lawyers, including heads of bar associations, have gone into hiding to avoid detention.

Many other public figures, including political leaders and activists have been placed under house arrest, among them the prominent lawyer and human rights activist, Asma Jahangir, who is a previous recipient of the Human Rights First Human Rights Award and the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. Her detention order described her activities as "prejudicial to public safety and maintenance of public order" and cited "credible information that you will deliver inflammatory speeches for instigating the general public."

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Iraq's Forgotten Refugees

from Council on Foreign Relations

Ghaith Mubarak and Eenas Alkaissi are among the lucky ones. Death threats and kidnappings forced them to flee Iraq in 2006. When they landed in Fort Worth, Texas, last month, they became two of only sixteen-hundred Iraqis granted asylum in the United States this year. “It was a desperate situation, seeing people die every day,” Mubarak told the Star-Telegram, his new hometown newspaper, in October 2007. Yet protection is increasingly hard to come by for Iraq’s war-ravaged citizenry.
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