Amnesty says world is failing Iraqi refugees

World governments are failing Iraqi refugees and evading their responsibilities by promoting a false picture of the security situation in the country, Amnesty International said today.

In a new report the human rights group said the country is “neither safe nor suitable for return”.

The report, Rhetoric and Reality: the Iraqi Refugee Crisis, is based on recent research and interviews with Iraqi refugees. Amnesty said the world’s richest states are failing to provide the necessary assistance to Iraqi refugees, most of whom are “plunged in despair and hurtling towards destitution”.

“Governments have done little or nothing to help Iraqi refugees, failing in their moral, political and legal duty to share responsibility for them,” the report states.

“Instead, apathy and rhetoric have been the overwhelming response to one of the worst refugee crises in the world.”

Amnesty said the Iraqi government and the US and British governments highlight “improved” security or “voluntary” returns to Iraq out of political expedience, to demonstrate that their military involvement has been a success.

“Rhetoric cannot hide the reality that the wider human rights situation in Iraq remains dire,” said Amnesty.

“People are being killed every month by armed groups, the Multinational Force, Iraqi security forces and private military and security guards.

Kidnappings, torture, ill-treatment and arbitrary detention pervade the daily lives of Iraqis and people continue to attempt to flee, according to the report.

Amnesty has called on Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, as well as those of other

countries in the region, to allow unrestricted access to people attempting to flee Iraq, to cease all deportations to Iraq, and to grant refugees access to labour markets.