Aid group warns of Iraqi refugee crisis

Phil Sands, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: November 18. 2009 12:32AM UAE / November 17. 2009 8:32PM GMT

DAMASCUS // The Iraqi refugee crisis is not over and remains a time bomb that can yet explode in the Middle East, the head of a leading aid organisation in Syria has warned.

Abdul Rahman Attar, the president of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, criticised the international community and the Iraqi government, saying both were failing in their duty to care for displaced Iraqis. And he cautioned there were dangerous implications in four million people continuing to live as refugees, many of them struggling to cope with increasing levels of poverty.

“Perhaps the world is underestimating the significance of the Iraqi refugees issue,” he said. “It is not a short-term matter. We are talking about medium- and long-term impacts. It has already been six years or more for some refugees and they need greater support.

“The international community should not allow its attention to drift easily away from the refugees. This issue is a bomb that can still explode at any time.”

According to UN figures, about two million Iraqis live in Jordan and Syria, with an additional 2.6 million displaced inside Iraq. From the experience of the Palestinians, the Middle East is familiar with the potential fallout of a long-term, large-scale refugee crisis.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children have grown up in an atmosphere of fear and the limbo of life as a refugee. Aid workers say that without proper intervention such conditions could produce endemic despair, create a cycle of violence and feed radicalism.

Security services in Syria and Jordan are wary of political and sectarian conflict from Iraq spilling over their borders with the influx of refugees. In Damascus, Shiite, Sunni and Christian Iraqis overwhelmingly live in harmony, but there are occasional unconfirmed reports of intra-Iraqi violence.

In addition, both Damascus and Amman are struggling to cope with the social ramifications on their own people of hosting large numbers of Iraqis. Syrian government services and infrastructure were already failing to adequately meet domestic needs before the refugees’ arrival and have now been pushed further beyond capacity.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians live in poverty – in the drought-hit eastern region, the World Food Programme has even been providing emergency aid – and Damascus can ill afford to spend resources on external refugees, especially at a time when it is undergoing painful economic reforms.

Despite that, Syria has kept a largely open door policy for Iraqis fleeing violence, and has won praise for allowing Iraqi children to study in government-run schools alongside Syrians.

“More than 50 per cent of the Iraqis here are young people and of course they need an education,” said Mr Attar, who also serves as Portugal’s honorary consul in Damascus. “Syria has taken the positive step of allowing Iraqis to integrate, not forcing them into camps, but half of the Syrian population is also young and, when combined with the Iraqis the load on our schools is too much.

“With the refugees, we are now seeing classes with 50 or 60 students in them and schools are working double shifts. It’s too much, we need more facilities.”

Mr Attar made his remarks at the opening of a UN-funded school in Jaramanah, a Damascus suburb that is home to a large number of Iraqis. Première Urgence, a French non-governmental organisation that implemented the project, estimates that 32 per cent of pupils in the area are Iraqi and that demand for classroom space outstrips supply by more than 20 per cent.

In the greater Damascus area, 33,500 Iraqi children attended public schools in the 2009 academic year, according to UN figures.

Sandra Luvisuttio, the head of the Première Urgence mission in Syria, said there was little sign of Iraqis preparing to return to their country in large numbers, the only long-term solution to the wider problems.

“Eighty per cent of [Iraqis] in Syria are from Baghdad and the situation there has not stabilised enough yet that families want to return,” she said.

“It’s important we continue educational programmes, and not only in Damascus; they are needed in other provinces where there are Iraqi refugees, such as Aleppo and Dier Ezzor. In all of these places, the Syrian education system has paid the price for letting in the refugees.”

Regardless of policy, thousands of Iraqi children are not enrolled in Syrian schools because of bureaucratic issues, their age or because they did not complete enough of their studies in Iraq to qualify.

“There is real psychological distress for them and it has a heavy impact on their futures,” Ms Luvisuttio said. “There are too many who have nothing to do but sit in front of the TV and that is not giving them a chance at a healthy future. It’s not giving them any opportunity.”

The question of refugees and political exiles living in Syria has long been a source of contention between Damascus and Baghdad. Syrian authorities say Iraq should bear a bigger share of the financial burden. That controversy became a diplomatic incident in August when Syria was accused of sheltering insurgents behind a blast that killed more than 100 in Baghdad, allegations it denies.

Some western diplomats insist the scale of the refugee problem has been exaggerated for political reasons. Syria’s record of allowing in international aid agencies has also been criticised, with many leading organisations, including Oxfam, being refused permission to work with Iraqi refugees.

This week, Eric Schwartz, the US assistant secretary of state for refugees, welcomed new proposals and financial incentives by Baghdad to encourage Iraqis to return home, but he called for more to be done.

The United Nations still does not advocate a return to Iraq, maintaining it must be a matter of individual choice, a position the Iraqi government officially supports, and hundreds of thousands of refugees elect to remain in exile.

psands@thenational.ae