UN Warns of Five Million Iraqi Refugees

The population of Iraq is just under 27.5 million. Soon, the UN warns, almost one in five of them will be refugees. The "surge" ordered by George w. Bush, his last-chance "Hail Mary" gambit, just isn't working. From The Independent:

"The situation in Iraq continues to worsen," the UNHCR announced, "with more than two million Iraqis now believed to be displaced inside the country and another 2.2 million sheltering in neighbouring states."

The Iraqi refugee crisis is now surpassing in numbers anything ever seen in the Middle East, including the expulsion or flight of the Palestinians in 1948.

Since the sectarian pogroms that followed the destruction of the Shia shrine in Samarra in February 2006, an estimated 850,000 people have been displaced within Iraq, including 15,000 Palestinians who have nowhere to go.

"Individual governorates inside Iraq are becoming overwhelmed by the needs of the displaced," said an UNHCR spokesperson, Jennifer Pagonis. "At least 10 out of 18 governorates have closed their borders, or are denying access to new arrivals."

As a result, many refugees are taking refuge in shanty towns, and almost half of them are not receiving the state-subsidised rations that enable most Iraqis to feed themselves.

The UN Assistance Mission to Iraq and the World Food Programme estimate that "at least 47 per cent of the displaced have no access to official food distribution channels".

The exodus is not likely to end. The arrival of extra American troops in Baghdad, the so-called "surge", which started on 14 February, led to a brief decline in the number of sectarian killings, but these are once again on the rise.

Some 736 bodies were found dumped in the streets of Baghdad in May, which exceeds the number found in January prior to the new security plan. So far in June 206 bodies have been found. Most are the victims of sectarian killings.

American control of Baghdad remains very limited, with one divisional survey finding that US and Iraqi government forces control only 146 out of 457 neighbourhoods. US and government authority is even more limited in the towns around the capital.