NEW YORK — Several recent reports on the situation in Iraq draw attention to the desperate plight of nearly 5 million Iraqi refugees. If the situation is not better addressed, hundreds of thousands of lives, including women and children, will be jeopardized. The world cannot continue to turn deaf ears to this humanitarian crisis.
According to Amnesty International, the international community is evading its responsibility toward Iraqi refugees by promoting a false sense of security in Iraq when the country is neither safe nor suitable for their return. The organization stressed that the world's richest countries are failing to provide necessary assistance to Iraqi refugees, "most of whom are plunged in despair and hurtling toward destitution."
According to recent estimates by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the number of Iraqis who have fled their homes since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 and the subsequent internal conflict has now reached 4.7 million.