Mass exodus: democratic Iraqis vote with their feet to escape daily terror

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http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=906892007

THE flow of Iraqis fleeing sectarian violence in their homeland has risen to more than four million - the largest refugee crisis in the Middle East since the creation of Israel in 1948.

Latest figures from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees show that 4.2 million Iraqis - 13% of the population - have been displaced since the US-led invasion of 2003, and that number is still rising rapidly as the sectarian strife intensifies.

The flood of refugees dwarfs the million Iraqis displaced in the 1990s as a result of the first Gulf War and the severe sanctions that the US and others imposed on the country for more than a decade after that.

"It's going on unabated. The magnitude of the crisis is staggering," UNHCR spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis warned.

In addition to the 2.2 million who have fled across Iraq's borders, a further two million have been driven from their homes but remain within the country, increasingly living in "impoverished shanty towns", Pagonis said.

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1. How?

I cannot begin to comprehend what the daily lives are like for these people....