Source: SIR
The international conference on the humanitarian consequences of the Iraqi crisis, promoted by the High Commission of the United Nations for the Refugees (Unhcr), opened in Geneva today.
The conference, which is going to end tomorrow, was opened by a speech by the High Commissioner Antònio Guterres, followed by speeches by the undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and coordinator for emergency aids John Holmes, the special representative of the Secretary General of the UN for Iraq Ashraf Qazi and the Managing Director of the International Red Cross Committee Angelo Gnaedinger. The continuation of violence in Iraq is forcing thousands of people out of the country. As a consequence, states the Unhcr, the international community has to face a wider and more complicated humanitarian crisis than the one that had been expected at the start of the war, in 2003. Currently over 4 million Iraqis have left their homes, about 1.9 million of whom are in the country, while over 2 million have sought refuge in the neighbouring Middle-Eastern countries and approximately 200 thousand in other countries across the world. In 2006, Iraqis were once again the single largest group of asylum seekers in the most industrialised countries in the world, but 95% of the refugees are still in the region.