by Floyd Rudmin
The 2003 invasion of Iraq has been a disaster for the Iraqi people. An estimated 1 million are now dead. Widows, orphans, amputees, and other victims of violence now abound. Soon, 5 million Iraqis will be refugees, including more than 2 million displaced internally.
On April 16, 2007, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) launched an emergency appeal (no. MDR81002) for “Middle East: Population Displaced from Iraq”. The IFRC report estimated that 40,000 to 50,000 people per month are fleeing from Iraq: “The exodus has been described by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as the largest long-term population movement in the Middle East since the displacement of Palestinians following the creation of Israel in 1948.”
Detailed online reports of the Iraqi refugee crisis are also available from the International Organization for Migration, from Amnesty International, from Human Rights Watch, and from news media such as The Independent, Asia Times, PBS, CounterPunch, and the Washington Post.
Particular groups of Iraqi refugees are in dire difficulties. An estimated 50,000 Iraqi women and girls have been forced into prostitution. An estimated 34,000 Palestinian refugees are trapped in Iraq, targeted by militia, with no where to flee. Iraqi young men are prime targets in Iraq and are also denied entry to neighboring nations; they are unwelcomed everywhere. This is especially deadly for Iraqi homosexuals. Iraqi Christians and Iraqi academics and writers are also targeted and need to flee.
More than 2,000,000 refugees have sought asylum in the neighboring nations of Syria and Jordan. Syria allows Iraqi refugees to have access to public health and public school services; Jordan does not. Both nations have modest economies, overwhelmed by the continuing waves of new refugees. Several hundred thousand refugees have been able to move on to Egypt and Lebanon. Iran has accepted up to 50,000 Iraqis on one-year visitor visas.
However, other neighboring nations prevent Iraqi refugees from finding refuge within their borders. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are wealthy nations, allied with the US and UK, who nevertheless reject Iraqi refugees. Another large neighbor also allied with the US and UK is Turkey, which has deported Iraqi refugees, sending them back into the war.
The nations who invaded Iraq and destroyed the Iraqi government, thus causing this crisis, have accepted few refugees or are deporting the few they do have. For example, the USA over the past 4 years has accepted a grand total of 133 Iraqi refugees, though the US State Department says it plans to take 7,000 more. The UK has rejected 90% of refugee applicants from Iraq, and has deported Iraqi refugees back into the war, as has Poland and now Denmark. Australia re-routes refugees to the small Pacific island nation of Nauru, but recently allowed 23 Iraqi refugees to enter Australia on temporary visas.
Belligerent Nations Have Obligations:
It is particularly important that private citizens of the belligerent nations consider paying towards the costs of helping the refugees their countries created. Contributions to the refugees should be in proportion to the contribution to the invasion: USA (~250,000 troops), UK (~50,000), Australia (~2000), Denmark (~300), Poland (~200). Other nations endorsed the war and subsequently sent supporting forces, including South Korea (~3600), Italy (~3200), Ukraine (~1700), the Netherlands (~1400), Spain (~1300), and Japan (~600). On one hand, if citizens opposed the war and regret the actions of their national government, then they might make moral amends by private donations. On the other hand, if citizens support the war, then private donations can be conceived as their personal contribution to their military misadventure.
In either case, these donations can be considered to be down payments on the reparations that all of the nations in the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” owe to the people of Iraq for the catastrophe caused by this unnecessary and illegal war. If German and Japanese reparations are a guideline, then each of the nations in the “Coalition of the Willing” should begin budgeting for the billions of euros they must pay to the Iraqi people in the coming decade.
1) International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies:
The IFRC allows you to direct donations to specific uses by means of a drop-down menu, one option of which is “Middle East: Population Displaced from Iraq.” Donations to this site will not result in tax deductible receipts.
2) American Red Cross:
Shamefully, the American Red Cross does not have a specific fund to help Iraqi refugees. But the Red Cross website does note that they will direct funds as donors specify: “If you would like to direct your gift to a Red Cross effort not listed, please contact 1-800 HELP NOW or mail your donation to American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013. Please indicate how you wish your gift to be used.”
3) British Red Cross:
The British Red Cross has a “Ten Minute Briefing: Life in Iraq” but has no way by which caring people in the UK can direct their donations to help Iraqi refugees. This is so shameful.
4) Australian Red Cross:
Similarly, the Australian Red Cross has “no appeal specifically related to Iraq, but may have one in the future.”
5) Danish Red Cross:
For Danes, donations sent to the bank account reg. no. 9541 account 6447600, with the reference I-ind-0301, will direct the funds to help refugees in Iraq.
6) Polish Red Cross:
The Polish Red Cross website has no entry for Iraq (or Irak) and is apparently unaware that Polish people, with painful memories of Nazi and Soviet military occupations, might like to contribute to helping the victims of the current military occupation of Iraq to which Poland contributed troops.
Donations to Iraqi refugee relief can also be made online via the UNHCR, via the UN’s World Food Program, via the International Rescue Committee, via ReliefWeb, and via other agencies approved by CharityWatch in its report on “The Best Way to Help with Crises in Iraq and Neighboring Countries”.