Iraqi Refugees

The recently issued Human Rights Watch World Report 2007 notes in its Jordan country report that "Jordan hosts at least 500,000 Iraqi refugees... . ...The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Jordan only exceptionally recognizes Iraqis as refugees, instead providing applicants with asylum seeker cards. Jordan does not always respect asylum seeker status and the protection it entails against deportation." Syria hosts another 450,000 Iraqis.

A more detailed background report into the treatment of Iraqi refugees in Jordan, UNHCR policy towards them, and international response to their situation is provided in this November 2006 Human Rights Watch report: "'The Silent Treatment': Fleeing Iraq, Surviving in Jordan."

Refugees International undertook a November 2006 mission to Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, the three principal host countries for Iraqi refugees. They note that Iraqi displacement is the "fastest growing refugee crisis." Read more RI reports and policy recommendations.

See also UNHCR Guidelines Relating to the Eligibility of Iraqi Asylum-Seekers (Oct. 2005) and the more recent Return Advisory and Position on International Protection Needs of Iraqis Outside Iraq (Dec. 2006).

Two recent National Public Radio audiocasts report on the situation of Iraqis in Jordan and the U.S. State Department's refugee resettlement plans for Iraqis. For more information on U.S. policy towards Iraqi refugees, read an earlier NPR interview with the head of the U.S. Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Ellen Sauerbrey; a Boston Globe article; and a San Francisco Chronicle report.

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