Iraq - The World’s Fastest-Growing Refugee Crisis

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Dahr Jamail is an independent journalist whose previous reports from Iraq provided a crucial “unembedded” look at the reality of the U.S. occupation. Earlier this year, Dahr returned to the Middle East to cover one of the unreported tragedies of the Iraq war — what the United Nations calls the fastest-growing refugee crisis on the planet.

Eric Ruder: You witnessed firsthand the scale of the Iraq refugee crisis. Can you talk about that?

Dahr Jamail: For starters, it’s important that people know the numbers to get an idea of the scope of the crisis.

The office of the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) estimates that between 1 and 1.2 million Iraqis are in Syria. But the regional public information officer for UNHCR, a woman named Sybella Wilkes, said that the real figure is probably closer to that given by the Syrian government, because the UNHCR doesn’t have the money or the personnel to have someone on the border keeping a tally.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/05/the-world%E2%80%99s-fastest-growing-refugee-crisis/