The International Rescue Committee is stepping up assistance for Iraqi refugees in what has become the fastest growing refugee emergency in the world.
The brutal violence has forced more than four million people from their homes, but aiding this desperate and dispersed population comes with challenges.
In Jordan, where the IRC has recently launched aid programs, Iraqi refugees are trying very hard to hide. They mostly stay indoors, concealing themselves in dark squalid apartments clustered in crowded urban neighborhoods.
“Most are there illegally and are reluctant to register or access the few services available to them because they are afraid of being exposed and deported,” says the IRC’s Middle East regional director, Michael Kocher. “They also fear harassment from the host community where hospitality is waning. And coming from a country with spiraling sectarian violence, many distrust and fear each other.”
Jordan has its fears too. Most are rooted in concerns that the refugee population will drain limited resources and that violence and terrorism in Iraq could spill over the border. As a result, most Iraqi males are turned back these days and refugees who were able to enter Jordan in recent months and years are not recognized as refugees.
It is not clear how many Iraqis are in Jordan. The UN initially estimated 750,000. What’s clear is that their circumstances are getting worse by the day.
“The vast majority of them are unable to work, cannot put their children in schools and cannot afford health care,” says Kocher. “Whatever resources they might have brought with them are running out. They cannot return home due to the ongoing violence in Iraq and have no long term prospects as refugees.”
The IRC has started working through entrenched and established local partners to reach the most vulnerable refugees in need of assistance.
“It’s taking rigorous community outreach to find those in hiding, but through our partners and our staff, we’re able to access Iraqi families in their homes and identify needs on a case by case basis. In some cases we provide on the spot support,” says Kocher.
Programs include facilitating health care, linking children to education activities, providing counseling and other services for traumatized children and delivering basic supplies.
The IRC is also preparing to aid vulnerable Iraqis in Syria and northern Iraq. Emergency team staff will deploy to northern Iraq this month with an IRC delegation planning to visit Damascus in September.
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