Syria Today | Iraqi Christians seek refuge in Syria

Iraqi Christians seek refuge in Syria

Four hundred Iraqi Christians fleeing violence in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul have arrived in Syria in the past fortnight, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced on October 22.

Around 13,000 Iraqi Christians have fled Mosul in recent weeks as the city’s Christian community has come under attack. About a dozen Christians have reportedly been killed in the violence, while others have received death threats.

UNHCR has started providing assistance to 40 Iraqi Christian families now living as refugees in the northern Syrian cities of Aleppo and Qamishli. “Many Christians from Mosul have been systematically targeted recently and are no longer safe there,” UNHCR Syria representative Laurens Jolles said. “We are ready to provide support for those Iraqis who seek refuge in neighbouring countries.”

UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said it is unclear who is behind the violence and death threats which have forced half of Mosul’s Christian population to flee. He added that the displacement now appears to be slowing.

There are an estimated 600,000 Iraqi Christians living in Iraq, mainly in the northern provinces of Arbil, Nineveh and Dahuk.

UNHCR has roughly 220,000 Iraqi refugees registered in Syria, of whom 15,000 originate from Nineveh province where Mosul is located. In total, the Syrian government estimates the country hosts some 1.5m Iraqi refugees.

On October 14, UNHCR issued an urgent appeal for the resettlement of some 3,000 Palestinian-Iraqi refugees stranded at border camps on the Syrian-Iraqi border. The plea to the international community comes on the eve of UNHCR’s biannual consultations with resettlement countries.

Since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, thousands of Palestinians have fled their homes because of persecution, torture and death threats. Of the 3,000 refugees living on the borders in makeshift camps in the desert, 1,200 are classified by UNHCR as “highly vulnerable”.

A UNHCR press statement said some of the refugees are suffering from life-threatening diseases, in need of emergency treatment and “must be resettled immediately”.

Between 2006 and 2008, 400 Palestinian refugees were resettled to Brazil, Chile, Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, New Zealand and Canada. Another group is set to move to Sweden in the coming months.

“This, however, remains insufficient,” Redmond said. “With conditions deteriorating, UNHCR once again calls for urgent actions from resettlement countries all over the world.”