Legislators ask government to allocate money for refugees

 

By Alaa al-Tamimi

 

Azzaman, May 8, 2008

 

Iraqi legislators have urged the government to set aside part of the country’s oil revenues to help Iraqi refugees.

 

In a hearing attended by Deputy Prime Minister Burham Saleh, the deputies said there were more than four million Iraqi refugees, inside and outside the country, and as Iraqi citizens they were entitled to help.

 

Official statistics show that one out five Iraqis has become a refugee since the 2003 U.S. invasion. At least two million of them have fled abroad and the rest have been compelled to flee their hometowns or districts to safer areas.

 

Most of these refugees cannot have access to government food rations which all Iraqis are legally entitled to get.

 

The deputies told Saleh, who supervises the ministries of trade and finance, to allocate part of the country’s mushrooming oil revenues to help the refugees.

 

On Wednesday, the Syrian government issued pleas to world donors to increase their donations as the nearly 1 million Iraqi refugees in Syria now find it hard to make ends meet due to latest hikes in food prices.

 

The government has done almost nothing to help despite its oil revenues are projected to hit $48 billion dollars this year.

 

Last year, it gave both Syria and Jordan $15 million each, which is $15 for each refugee in a year.

 

Internally, Iraqi refugees live in horrific conditions and many of them cannot even have access to food rations.