In 2006, Iraq has witnessed increasing political fragmentation driven by insurgency and crime, with factional violence escalating sharply throughout the Centre and the South of Iraq. Human rights violations increased both quantitatively and qualitatively, as brutal violence against official targets and civilian populations increased dramatically through the year.
The bombing in Samara in late February 2006 and its immediate aftermath of retaliatory acts signalled a dramatic change in the nature of violence. Since then, the systematic targeting of civilians through intimidation, acts of terror and factional violence have deliberately uprooted and expelled ethno-religious groups from their areas of residence, consolidating of homogenous areas within the country and changing the nature of population displacement throughout the country.
Iraqi people are now leaving their homes to other parts of the country or across international borders. Forced population movements of the three main ethno-religious groups -- Kurds, Sunnis and Shi’as -- are leading to the emergence of progressively more homogenous regions, but other ethnic and religious minorities are alsofinding increasingly difficult to live peacefully in today’s Iraq.
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Palestinian refugees from Iraq. Trucks with aid from the United Ararb Emirates being unloaded by Palestinian refugees from Iraq living between the Iraqi and Syrian border at Al Tanf.
[Photo: UNHCR/Wreford]
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Some 440,000 Iraqis have been displaced by new waves of violence and military operations since February 2006, based on estimates by Iraq’s Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoDM), the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and partner organizations. Another estimated 1.6 million Iraqis are sheltered in neighbouring states, with this influx having steadily accelerated in 2006. This includes some 500,000 Iraqis in Syria, another 500,000 to 700,000 believed to be in Jordan and tens of thousands more in Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, Egypt, and the Gulf States. In addition, a significant number of Iraqis have fled to Europe. Population movements show no sign of abating.
The new waves of violence and the deteriorating humanitarian situation have exacted a particularly high toll on Iraq’s refugee community, currently composed of some 43,293 individuals of Iranian, Turkish, Syrian, Palestinian and Sudanese origin throughout Iraq, as well as over 2,089 asylum-seekers who arrived after the fall of the former regime. Some of them, particularly Palestinian, Syrian and Ahwazi (Iranian Arab) refugees have been deliberately targeted as part of the new wave of factional and politically motivated violence through acts of discrimination and brutal attacks.
With the CERF grant, UNHCR and WFP in Syria will, in collaboration with a wide range of implementing partners, provide assistance to 40,000 Iraqi and 645 Palestinian refugees who have fled from Iraq and temporarily settled in Damascus and the Al Tanf and El Hol refugee camps.
The two camps for Palestinian refugees, Al Tanf and El Hol in Damascus, which were originally intended to be of a temporary nature can no longer be considered as such, and it is likely that the Palestinians from Iraq in those camps will be there for considerable time. With the onset of winter and the harsh conditions in the areas in which the camps are located, there is a range of humanitarian needs requiring urgent address.
Urgent humanitarian assistance to Iraqi refugees in Damascus and Palestinian refugees in the Al Tanf and El Hol refugee camp populations will include immediate winterisation of shelters, adequate water and sanitation facilities, and medical services with a focus on women, children, and other vulnerable groups. WFP will specifically increase access to food for displaced and isolated people and seek to avert a nutritional crisis by supported affected populations to manage food shocks and meet the most basic and necessary food needs.
[Last update: 20 December 2006]
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