Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Iraqi refugee crisis - how to help
Humanitarian
Iraqi refugee crisis - how to help:
Iraqi refugee crisis - how to help:
According to The UN High Commissioner on Refugees, in terms of raw numbers, the nearly two-and-a-half million Iraqi refugees displaced because of the war is a bigger crisis than Darfur. It’s also the largest mass migration in the Middles east since the exodus of Palestinians from Israel in 1948. The vast majority of Iraqi refugees have fled to Syria and Jordan, further straining already overstretched infrastructures in two of the region's poorer countries.
The result is inflated housing costs, scarce water resources and crowded public health facilities and schools. Well over a million Iraqis are internally displaced. According to The UN High Commission for Refugees estimates that as many as a third of externally displaced refugees now outside Iraq is Christian. [And it really matters not what religion they may follow. They are in need of help. Call or write your congress person today and tell them to support the Responsibility to Iraqi Refugees Act. Or make a contribution to the International Rescue Committee or Direct Relief International or American Friends Service Committee or International Committee of the Red Cross/Crescent
Very few organizations are working on getting aid to Iraqi refugees, and of those that are, many are too small or too beleaguered to accept individual donations; the Iraqi Red Crescent, for example, has suffered bombings and mass kidnappings, yet its volunteers continue to deliver aid to displaced families inside Iraq. One of the larger relief organizations working with the refugees is the Catholic group Caritas. Caritas helps a few thousand families a year, but "the demand far outstrips the money available to us," says Magy Mahrous, who oversees the project.
You can make a contribution at: International Catholic Migration Commission, Citibank USA, 153 East 53rd Street, 16th floor, New York, NY 10043. To ensure that the money reaches the Iraqi program, write "Iraq-icmc" on your check.
You can make a contribution at: International Catholic Migration Commission, Citibank USA, 153 East 53rd Street, 16th floor, New York, NY 10043. To ensure that the money reaches the Iraqi program, write "Iraq-icmc" on your check.
Labels: Caritas Iraq, Direct Relief International, IDPs, International Committee of the Red Cross, International Rescue Committee, Iraqi Red Crescent Society, Iraqi refugees, Jordan, Syria, UNHCR
Monday, May 14, 2007
Mass exodus from Diyala, AQI training camps discovered
Security
(Asharq Al Awsat Newspaper AR. vers.) - 13 MAY - A high level security source told our newspaper that intelligence information indicates that the Hamrin Mountain area has become a safe haven for Al Qaida terrorists. The terrorists are entrenched in the rocky and difficult terrain of the mountains which extends to the Iranian border to the east and Kurdistan to the north. They launch their attacks from this area on Diyala’s areas which has caused a mass exodus of Diyala’s people.
Due to the Baghdad security plan and Anbar’s tribal operations most of Al Qaida’s leaders have fled to the Hamrin area. Last month in Qazaniya, 30 km north of Baquba, the source said that seven training and recruitment camps were discovered. Displaced families from Diyala have confirmed the military source’s information. Abu Nassir, from Tuz Khormato, said that insurgents began distributing flyers that said Baquba will become an Islamic emirate. Some of the emirate’s rules have begun to be implemented such as the distribution of veils to primary school girls.
An Iraqi Red Crescent spokesman, Uday Abu Tabikh, announced that 700 families have been displaced from Diyala in one week. Abu Tabikh confirmed to the French Press Agency that the 700 families consisting of around 3,500 people were displaced because of the violence and the number of the displaced continues to increase. The displaced families are gathering near the Baghdad Governorate building asking for a place to live. Abu Tabikh added that the Red Crescent has opened a new camp in Mohammed Sakran in northern Baghdad Governorate. This new camp has around a one hundred family capacity. There is another camp with similar capacity in the Hussainiya area in NE Baghdad.
Labels: Al Qaeda in Iraq, Diyala, Hamrin Mountain, Iraqi Red Crescent Society, Mohammed Sakran, Qazaniya, refugee camp, terrorist training camp, Uday Abu Tabikh
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
ICRC to increase aid operations in Iraq
Humanitarian
(RFE/RL) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has announced a massive increase in its aid operations in Iraq. The ICRC said it planned to expand operations along with the Iraqi Red Crescent to reach some 660,000 displaced people, about twice as many as before. The Geneva-based organization said it is seeking $30 million to fund the expansion of its relief work in Iraq.
Labels: humanitarian aid, ICRC, IDPs, Iraqi Red Crescent Society, relief work
Monday, April 30, 2007
Aid workers killed
Humanitarian, Security
(Al Jazeera) - Four humanitarian workers from the Iraqi Red Crescent have been killed and three others wounded after their minibus was ambushed in the district of Zafaraniya in Baghdad. Saturday's deaths are the latest in a series of attacks on the Iraqi Red Crescent, one of the few aid agencies still working in the country. In December, dozens of Red Crescent employees were abducted from the group's office in the Iraqi capital. Many of the hostages were later released, but some are still missing.
Labels: attack, Iraqi Red Crescent Society, Zafaraniya
Saturday, April 07, 2007
246 families escape from Tal Afar to Mosul
Humanitarian
(VOI) – A total of 246 families from Talafar, whose houses were destroyed in the March 27 bombing incidents, arrived in the city of Mosul, Iraq's Red Crescent Society said on Friday."The society provided shelters for the families, composed of 1250 people, at a camp set up next to Ninawa's eastern wall and more families will follow," Shamil Muwaffaq, the Society's official in charge of security in Mosul, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
He said the camp has got all the humanitarian needs: water, foodstuffs, medicine and blanket.Talafar was the scene of bloody incidents last week when several car bombs blew up in areas inhabited by a Shiite majority, followed by nighttime armed militias' raids on houses of Sunnis, who were led outdoors and executed.
Labels: Iraqi Red Crescent Society, IRCS, Mosul, Tal Afar
Friday, March 23, 2007
Iraqi refugees flee to Kurdistan
Humanitarian
(AINA) About 160,000 Iraqis from outside the mountainous Kurdish north have moved there to flee a growing civil war, according to a draft of a report by an international group that tracks refugees and displaced people. That number is the first comprehensive figure for internal flight to Iraqi Kurdistan that has been released by any organization. It is also far higher than partial estimates previously disclosed by Kurdish officials.
The draft report, by Refugees International, which is based in Washington, says the Iraqis who have fled north face harsh living conditions. Inflation is rampant, and outsiders have few decent job opportunities. Little aid is available for those or other internally displaced Iraqis, because the Iraqi and United States governments, as well as the United Nations, have failed to acknowledge the extent of the crisis, the report said. The report's number of 160,000 displaced Iraqis in Kurdistan is based on estimates by the Iraqi Red Crescent Society.
Two researchers for Refugees International recently conducted a two-week survey of conditions in Iraqi Kurdistan and found that "many of the internally displaced are struggling to survive, the victims of inattention, inadequate resources, regional politics and bureaucratic obstacles," the report said.
The movement of Iraqis within and outside their homeland has produced the world's fastest-growing populations of refugees and internally displaced people. The United Nations estimates that two million Iraqis have fled the country, which has a population of 26 million.
According to United Nations figures, 727,000 have been displaced within the country since the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in February 2006 set off waves of sectarian violence. The Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration says about 470,000 displaced people have been officially registered with the government since the fall of Saddam Hussein, though that figure is almost certainly an undercount.
Iraqis moving to the north must pass through security checkpoints and provide the name of a Kurdish guarantor. Arab Muslims generally have a tougher time getting in than Kurds or Christians. Single Arab men have an especially hard time.
Over all, displaced people "who reach the Kurdish provinces must surmount difficulties in finding housing, shelter, employment and education for their children," the report said. That conclusion was reached based on interviews conducted by the two researchers, Kristele Younes and Nir Rosen.
Families that have moved from their original residences cannot get monthly food rations from the government, under a system started in the 1990s during the United Nations oil-for-food program. The children of displaced families often cannot enroll in schools, and few schools have classes taught in Arabic. Rents in urban areas have skyrocketed.
The report recommends several ways to help alleviate the problems. It said that the United States and the international community should take urgent steps to ease the lives of the displaced and that the Iraqi government should devise a new ration card system that would allow people to receive food and fuel in their new locations.
The draft report, by Refugees International, which is based in Washington, says the Iraqis who have fled north face harsh living conditions. Inflation is rampant, and outsiders have few decent job opportunities. Little aid is available for those or other internally displaced Iraqis, because the Iraqi and United States governments, as well as the United Nations, have failed to acknowledge the extent of the crisis, the report said. The report's number of 160,000 displaced Iraqis in Kurdistan is based on estimates by the Iraqi Red Crescent Society.
Two researchers for Refugees International recently conducted a two-week survey of conditions in Iraqi Kurdistan and found that "many of the internally displaced are struggling to survive, the victims of inattention, inadequate resources, regional politics and bureaucratic obstacles," the report said.
The movement of Iraqis within and outside their homeland has produced the world's fastest-growing populations of refugees and internally displaced people. The United Nations estimates that two million Iraqis have fled the country, which has a population of 26 million.
According to United Nations figures, 727,000 have been displaced within the country since the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in February 2006 set off waves of sectarian violence. The Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration says about 470,000 displaced people have been officially registered with the government since the fall of Saddam Hussein, though that figure is almost certainly an undercount.
Iraqis moving to the north must pass through security checkpoints and provide the name of a Kurdish guarantor. Arab Muslims generally have a tougher time getting in than Kurds or Christians. Single Arab men have an especially hard time.
Over all, displaced people "who reach the Kurdish provinces must surmount difficulties in finding housing, shelter, employment and education for their children," the report said. That conclusion was reached based on interviews conducted by the two researchers, Kristele Younes and Nir Rosen.
Families that have moved from their original residences cannot get monthly food rations from the government, under a system started in the 1990s during the United Nations oil-for-food program. The children of displaced families often cannot enroll in schools, and few schools have classes taught in Arabic. Rents in urban areas have skyrocketed.
The report recommends several ways to help alleviate the problems. It said that the United States and the international community should take urgent steps to ease the lives of the displaced and that the Iraqi government should devise a new ration card system that would allow people to receive food and fuel in their new locations.
Labels: IDPs, Iraqi Red Crescent Society, Kurdistan, Refugees International
Monday, March 19, 2007
Iraqi Red Crescent Society - humanitarian relief deliveries improve
Security, Humanitarian
(IRIN) - Baghdad's month-old new security plan is showing signs of progress as the capital's death toll has dropped by 30 percent and execution-style slayings have halved, say specialists. As such, access for humanitarian relief deliveries has improved, say aid workers. However, car bombs and suicide attacks are still commonplace.
The Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS), the country's only aid agency operating throughout the country, said that its teams are working like "bees" through its 40 offices in Baghdad. "We are still able to reach anyone who needs our help and our movement has not been hampered… It's better than before," Mazin Abdullah Saloom, a Red Crescent spokesman said. "We still have access to displaced families in Baghdad and its suburbs while medicine and essential items are still being brought into hospitals," Saloom added.
For the first time in many months, downtown shoppers have returned to Baghdad's outdoor markets as the rattle of gunfire and the blasts of bombs can be heard much less frequently. On 14 March, Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, spokesman of the US-Iraqi security plan, said the number of civilians killed in the capital since the operation started a month before had plunged to 265, compared with 1,440 people killed during the previous month.
Moussawi also said 94 militants had been killed while 713 militants and 1,152 other suspects had been arrested since 14 February. In the same period, 24 kidnap victims had been released and more than 2,000 displaced families had returned to their homes.
However, despite the improvement in security, Baghdad residents said that Shia militias and Sunni insurgents were still around, lying low or hiding outside the city until the new security operation is over. The absence of Sunni insurgents and the radical Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr and his fearful militiamen is considered one of the reasons behind the reduced violence in the capital.
The Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS), the country's only aid agency operating throughout the country, said that its teams are working like "bees" through its 40 offices in Baghdad. "We are still able to reach anyone who needs our help and our movement has not been hampered… It's better than before," Mazin Abdullah Saloom, a Red Crescent spokesman said. "We still have access to displaced families in Baghdad and its suburbs while medicine and essential items are still being brought into hospitals," Saloom added.
For the first time in many months, downtown shoppers have returned to Baghdad's outdoor markets as the rattle of gunfire and the blasts of bombs can be heard much less frequently. On 14 March, Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, spokesman of the US-Iraqi security plan, said the number of civilians killed in the capital since the operation started a month before had plunged to 265, compared with 1,440 people killed during the previous month.
Moussawi also said 94 militants had been killed while 713 militants and 1,152 other suspects had been arrested since 14 February. In the same period, 24 kidnap victims had been released and more than 2,000 displaced families had returned to their homes.
However, despite the improvement in security, Baghdad residents said that Shia militias and Sunni insurgents were still around, lying low or hiding outside the city until the new security operation is over. The absence of Sunni insurgents and the radical Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr and his fearful militiamen is considered one of the reasons behind the reduced violence in the capital.
"But this doesn't mean they are gone forever; they are just adopting a new tactic by bowing to the storm to reorganise themselves more to resurface later," said Baghdad-based analyst Mohammed Abbas al-Hamad. "Key leaders [of Shia militiamen and Sunni insurgents] have left the country or the capital while others are still around but have frozen their activities for the time being," al-Hamad added.
Labels: aid, Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, insurgents, Iraqi Red Crescent Society, IRCS, militias
