Iraqi refugees
An estimated two million Iraqis have been forced to flee the violence.
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| Zeina Awad talks to Iraqi refugees on the streets of Amman |
The conflict in Iraq is causing the biggest refugee crisis in the Middle East in 60 years. An estimated two million Iraqis have been forced to flee the violence.
Almost half of them are in Jordan. The majority are illegal, and they live under the constant threat of being deported to war-torn Iraq at any moment. This does not include the hundreds of stateless Kurds and Palestinians who escaped Iraq only to get stuck in refugee camps, with no prospects of relocation anytime soon.
After it emerged that Iraqis were behind 3 deadly bombings in Amman at the end of 2005, Jordan clamped down on Iraqis coming in. Iraqi men in their 20’s and 30’s are now often turned away on the spot.
Jordan does not have the infrastructure to accommodate such an influx of refugees, and the United Nations says it can no longer cope with the burden on its own. Meanwhile, the international community – including the United States – still has not come to terms with the enormity of the refugee crisis.
People and Power’s Zeina Awad gains exclusive access to the border area between Jordan and Iraq and speaks to ordinary Iraqis in order to get to the bottom of why some refugees are more welcome than others. We also reveal how a recent dispute between the UN and the Jordanian government over the status of Iraqis ended in a showdown.
Watch this episode of People & Power here:
This episode of People & Power aired from 25 April 2007
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