Still not close to the number of Syrians entering Jordan, but the pace of Iraqis on the run is increasing (again!).
Just when you thought one Muslim civil war was over and we could stop taking their “refugees,” along come the Islamists to fire things up again as we learned this weekend in the news from Iraq. It reminds me of the game ‘whack-a-mole!’
A BBC story on the resurgence of fighting in Fallujah inserts these paragraphs which doesn’t bode well for the US getting a break from Iraqi refugees—the largest group of refugees we resettled in FY2013—almost 20,000!
BBC:
Meanwhile the conflict appeared to be having an effect on the flow of Iraqi refugees into Jordan.
The UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said registration had increased fivefold since the beginning of December, though most new refugees came from minority communities in Baghdad. [Minorities also include Sunni Muslims—ed]
Smaller numbers were coming from Anbar province, where the fighting was taking place, and from the majority Shia community, the UN said.
An average of 415 Iraqi refugees a week are now entering Jordan, compared with 500 Syrians per day, it added.
Saudi Arabia does not allow refugees to come across the border, and if they manage to get in they are deported—even the Muslim ones.
This is our 599th post on Iraqi refugees.