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Iraq: Funds Urgently Needed for
Displaced, Aid Workers Say
IRIN
Iraq
January 30, 2007
Displaced Iraqis are
receiving less assistance from aid agencies each day.
A report released on Tuesday said that 1.5 million internally displaced
people (IDPs) in Iraq lack basics such as drinking water, sanitation,
health and education facilities, in addition to food and non-food items.
Yet funding allocated for the displaced is falling.
Entitled ‘Iraq Displacement 2006 Year in Review’, the report by the
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said that the most urgent
needs for IDPs in Iraq are food, water, shelter and employment.
“The increase in the number of IDPs has led to chaos in trying to meet
their needs. Dozens of local and international NGOs are encountering
difficulties in helping displaced families for various reasons,
including lack of security and funds,” said Mowafaq Abdel-Raoof,
spokesman for the Ministry of Displacement and Migration.
The majority of IDPs were displaced before the US-led invasion of the
Iraq in 2003, as a result of three decades of conflict, United
Nations-imposed sanctions and the policies of the former government of
the late president Saddam Hussein. However, people continue to be
displaced on a daily basis in Iraq due to the ongoing conflict and
sectarian violence in many parts of the country.
“Most of them are living in public buildings, camps or with host
communities throughout Iraq,” the IOM report said.
With donor support, IOM has been carrying out four main activities in
central and southern Iraq: supporting the implementation of Community
Assistance Projects for IDPs and their host communities; assessing and
monitoring IDP movements; assessing the needs of IDPs and finding
durable solutions; and providing emergency food and non-food items to
the most vulnerable.
Abdel-Raoof and local NGOs urged international donors to become more
committed to helping solve the growing problem of displacement in Iraq.
“People are suffering and displacement is happening on a daily basis in
every province in Iraq. The needs are increasing and we are having
difficulties coping with all requirements. We urge international donors
and communities to increase their budgets to this sector, which is so
delicate and important in Iraq,” Abdel-Raoof said.
Many displaced families are finding they have to keep packing up and
moving to other locations as violence spreads to different areas. They
are fed up with this constant upheaval and the uncertainty of not
knowing what will become of them.
“We were forced to leave our house six months ago and since then we have
moved more than eight times. Sectarian violence has now reached even the
displacement camps but we are tired of running away. Sometimes I ask
myself if it was not better to die than to live like a Bedouin all my
life,” said Abu Mustafa, 56, a Baghdad resident who was first displaced
in August 2006.
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