The Humanitarian Crisis Facing Iraqis

Millions of Iraqis have been uprooted because of violence. While fragile security improvements in recent months have helped the situation in certain areas, displacement continues to occur in others, and the humanitarian situation of those already displaced remains critical. The millions already displaced inside Iraq and the region require immediate assistance with food, medicine, and shelter. Their needs are enormous and they are not being met.

Almost seventy percent of Iraqis do not have access to safe drinking water, less than twenty percent have access to adequate sewage systems, and over forty percent of people live on less than a dollar a day. Unacceptably high poverty and unemployment rates are compounding the humanitarian crisis and contributing to instability. Women and girls have been subjected to kidnapping and rape by individuals and armed groups, as well as to retaliatory and criminal murder. Ethnic and religious minorities, including minority Christian, Mandaean, Yezedi, Turkoman, and Palestinian populations in Iraq, have also been particularly vulnerable to ongoing violence and unrest. As have those Iraqis who have worked with the new government and U.S.-affiliated and other international agencies.

Very few of the displaced have been able to return to Iraq. Among those who have returned, many are not able to live in their original homes because they have been taken over by other families or are in unsafe neighborhoods. As a result, some families have already been displaced two or three times. This constant migration has depleted many families’ savings and put significant stress on those communities that are trying to host refugees. For Iraqis this situation is made much worse by massive unemployment, and the widespread deterioration of basic water, health, sanitation, and educational infrastructures. In this environment, deadly waterborne diseases have been increasing in Iraq with a particularly high rate of infection among children.

Many Iraqis continue to flee each and every month. While the situation in Iraq remains tense, neighboring countries have either sealed their borders or imposed strict visa requirements for Iraqis, making it difficult for them to leave. Because they are largely unauthorized to work, their situation is growing more precarious by the day. Without adequate international aid and bilateral assistance to governments in the Middle East, the burden of hosting these refugees is only increasing. Even in Iraq, many of the “safer” regions have also closed their internal borders, unable to cope with the large influxes of displaced persons.

The Iraqi refugee crisis is the greatest displacement of people in the Middle East since 1948. This terrible humanitarian catastrophe represents a moral dilemma that the world has so far been unable to adequately address, as well as an emergency with serious regional and international implications. Now more than ever the Iraqi people need our vital advocacy and support.