Thursday
Dec212006
100,000 Iraqi refugees in Egypt?
Issandr El Amrani
A friend writes:
Link to Pentagon report [PDF], which says:
A new Pentagon report out yesterday describes the continuing disaster in Iraq. One item was on refugee flows. It says that:100,000 Iraqi refugees living in Egypt? I need to get out more. Does anyone know of any research done on the Iraqi community in Egypt?
"The numbers of refugees fleeing the violence are immense: 700,000 have fled to Jordan; 600,000 to Syria; 100,000 to Egypt; 40,000 to Lebanon, and 54,000 to Iran. Over 3,000 refugees per day are now appearing in Syria and Jordan."
Renewing my visa at the Mugamaa last month I saw people with bundles of Iraqi passports at the window usually reserved for Palestinian sans papiers.
Link to Pentagon report [PDF], which says:
Refugees. Many Iraqis have fled the country, and the number of refugees continues to rise. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) November 2006 Iraq Displacement Report, for Iraqis living outside Iraq, “the figures in the immediate neighbouring states are still imprecise, but we now estimate that there are up to 700,000 Iraqis in Jordan; at least 600,000 in Syria; at least 100,000 in Egypt; 20,000–40,000 in Lebanon; and 54,000 in Iran. Many of those outside the country fled over the past decade or more, but now some 2,000 a day are arriving in Syria, and an estimated 1,000 a day in Jordan. Most of them do not register with UNHCR.”
Reader Comments (6)
Yep, Mogamma's been swarming with Iraqis for months.
Heard there's arriving Iraqis in the thousands every week in Egypt.
Iraqis constitute the largest number of new registrants at the UNHCR these days and have for months. For the moment, they are automatically being issued yellow cards, meaning they have provisional protection. it does not entitle them (I don't think) to other forms of economic and social assistance that refugees with blue cards get (granted, that is a very limited amount anyway). It remains to be seen what the long term solution for the Iraqis will be, since Egypt signed onto the 1951 Convention and 1968 Protocol on refugees with reservations, meaning, in practice, refugees have very little rights in Egypt.
Thanks for the info, PH. Do you know of any NGO specifically working with them? Is there anyway to help them, financially or otherwise?
You can try Africa Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA), in Garden City. THe bulk of AMERA's work is legal assistance with refugees' individual status determinations. Since the Iraqis are getting blanket protection, AMERA does not need to provide them with legal assistance. But they do on occasion show up at the office with other questions. Large numbers live in Madinat Nasr and in 6th October.
it should be many chances to un refugess the entry visa to egypt ..and it should be very important reasson to dont alow any iraqi pertson to enter egypt ..specialy when allready all parts of the family had been enter to egypt since november and they refugees the father of the fanliy without any reasson and he is old man around 60 and he has alwyer and notheing about him ..
best reagrds and thanks for ur support
khaled