Refugees from Iraq .... prefer Sweden

12/07/2007 18:26 GENEVA, July 6 (AFP)

UN refugee agency boosts aid package for Iraqi refugees

The UN refugee agency on Thursday more than doubled its annual appeal for funding to help millions of uprooted Iraqis to 123 million dollars, to boost medical care, shelter and other support.

"UNHCR's revised appeal seeks to increase support to both the uprooted and those hosting them, but it must also be part of a much broader international effort because the problem is so huge," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

Last week, the UNHCR called on the international community to "put its money where its mouth is" after Syria and Jordan were left with little in the way of direct bilateral aid to cope with some two million Iraqi refugees fleeing widespread violence.

The UNHCR said it had received 66 million dollars so far for 2007 in a "generous" response to the agency's own funding needs.

However, it warned that even its own boosted requirements were not enough to cope with the situation for some 2.2 million refugees in neighbouring countries, alongside another two million people displaced inside Iraq.

"Whatever the UNHCR can do would not be enough to cover all needs," Radhouane Nouicer, director of the UNHCR's Middle East and North Africa bureau told journalists.

The UNHCR has warned that Syria and Jordan's healthcare, education systems and housing are under severe strain due to the continued influx of Iraqis.

About 9,000 of the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees have been referred to third countries for resettlement there, including 8,000 in the United States, the UNHCR said.

Only 133 Iraqi refugees have been allowed into the United States since October, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday.

He attributed the slow pace to rigorous security vetting of candidates for resettlement.

The UNHCR estimates that about 30,000 Iraqis settle in neighbouring Syria every month, while another 30,000 either return to their homeland or join migration flows to other countries further afield, especially in Europe.

Syria hosts some 1.4 million Iraqis and Jordan about 750,000, including people who had fled before the 2003 US-led invasion, according to the UNHCR.

An estimated two million people are displaced within Iraq, including some 822,800 who fled to safer areas since the Samarra bombing in February 2006 which sparked a surge in sectarian violence.

The United States is contributing an additional 19 million dollars to the Iraq appeal, bringing its total donation for the year to 37 million dollars, the US mission in Geneva said in a statement Thursday.

Other leading nations in the UNHCR's Iraq donors list prior to Thursday's boosted appeal have been Denmark (11.6 million dollars), Japan (9.5 million dollars) and Britain (3.2 million dollars).


©2007 AFP

But the following-up countries - Netherlands, Germany and Greece - aren't in Scandinavia :wink: