Since the late 1970s until the present, Iraq has witnessed numerous waves of refugees and emigrants due to significant events in its modern history. These events have led to the displacement of millions of Iraqis. These include over three decades of repression, periodic violent attacks, and massacres targeting the Kurdish population in the north and the Shi'a in the south, all carried out by Saddam Hussein's regime. Other factors include the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), the Gulf War of 1991, the prolonged economic sanctions until the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, and the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. [1]
Since the 1980s, Europe has been home to a significant population of Iraqi exiles, a result of the Iran-Iraq War. The UK, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands, in particular, have witnessed a notable presence of the Iraqi diaspora (with the Netherlands hosting refugees since the Gulf War of 1991). However, Europe's response to the refugee crisis caused by the US-led invasion of Iraq has drawn widespread criticism from the UNHCR. The organization has expressed concern over the limited number of asylum applications accepted by EU countries. By the end of 2008, only 10 percent of the Iraqi refugees resettled by the UNHCR had been accommodated in EU nations, primarily Sweden and the Netherlands. [2]
Amidst escalating sectarian violence in Iraq following the Al-Askari mosque bombing in 2007, the United Nations urged Western nations to increase their acceptance of Iraqi refugees. After 18 months of persistent pressure from the UNHCR, the European Union (EU) eventually reached a non-binding agreement in November 2008, committing to accept up to 10,000 Iraqi refugees. This agreement placed particular emphasis on providing special assistance to those residing in dire conditions in Syria and Jordan. [2] However, the challenging living and working conditions faced by Iraqi refugees in Jordan persisted, leading to a continued influx of migration towards Europe. [3]
Over a period of decades significant numbers of displaced persons have fled Iraq as refugees. This intensified after the 2006 al-Askari mosque bombing in the city of Samarra. In 2003 as a result of the Iraq War the UNHCR adopted the position that every asylum-seeker from the central and southern regions of Iraq should be granted refugee status. [4] [5]
By 2008, the continuous violence in Iraq had displaced a total of 4.7 million people: 2.7 million were internally displaced persons (IDPs), and the remaining 2 million fled the country in search of refuge. Iraqis became the third largest refugee population after the Afghans and the Palestinians. According to some estimates, over 15 per cent of Iraq's population had been displaced. [1] : 1
Many European countries did not follow UNHCR's 2003 guidelines and argued that the post-war situation in these areas of Iraq was not enough for qualifying Iraqis as refugees. These discrepancies about the violence in Iraq—which had important political connotations, especially for those countries that participated in the invasion—and whether Iraqis should be eligible for protection enabled some countries not only to reject asylum applications, but also to repatriate asylum-seekers back to Iraq. [1] : 107–110 The UNHCR repeatedly condemned the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway, among other European countries, for forcibly repatriating Iraqis when the situation back in their homeland is still not safe for them. UNHCR's spokesman in Geneva, Adrian Edwards, said in September 2010 that "[w]e strongly urge European governments to provide Iraqis with protection until the situation in their areas of origin in Iraq allows for safe and voluntary returns. In this critical time of transition, we also encourage all efforts to develop conditions in Iraq that are conducive to sustainable and voluntary return". [6]
The EU does not have a unified system towards asylum-seekers. In 2000 Brussels announced the establishment of a Common European Asylum System that, however, has not been fully applied. A UNHCR research paper, "Fortress Europe and the Iraqi 'intruders': Iraqi asylum-seekers and the EU, 2003–2007," points out that the only commonality among EU countries lies on their efforts for preventing refugees from reaching their territory in the first place. First, the EU does not accept the 'S' series passport—the most common one in Iraq—, but require the 'G' series one, which are only issued in one office situated in Baghdad. Second, if the valid series of passport is obtained, the step is obtaining a visa, a process that is "virtually impossible". [7] Third neither coalition troops based in Iraq nor embassies in Iraq accept petitions for asylum. Therefore, Iraqis who want to reach Europe are left with two options. They can either access the UN resettlement program by arriving to Damascus or Amman and wait indefinitely for being resettled; or they can try to reach Europe illegally. The majority of Iraqis that enter the EU illegally do so through Greece, either by land crossing the Greco-Turkish border, or by reaching one of the numerous Greek islands by sea. Once in Greece, the majority travels to northern European countries and applies for refugee status from there. The estimated cost of this second and illegal option is around $10,000, an expensive alternative that only those with financial means can afford. [7] In addition to the UNHCR, the European Council on Refugees and Exiles along with human rights groups have denounced the EU's strict policies, which force many Iraqis to undertake long, dangerous and expensive journeys in order to find refuge in Europe. [8] These tough policies executed by the EU result in a small number of asylum petitions: out of the many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who sought resettlement in third countries from 2003 to 2007, only 60,000 had applied for asylum in the EU. [7]
The total Austrian population of Iraqi refugees is around 10,897 [19]
The total Belgium population of Iraqi refugees is around 13,000. [19]
The total Bulgarian population of Iraqi refugees is around 1,200. [19]
Denmark has been a strong host nation to Iraqi refugees, where there are approximately 12,000. [17] Kurdish Iraqis are one of the largest Iraqi ethnic groups living in Denmark. This is partially due to the large number of Kurds who have emigrated from northern Iraq.
The number of Iraqis in Finland is 32,778, which is the fourth largest in Europe, after Sweden, Germany and the UK. [20]
The current population of Iraqis in France is estimated at 8,200. [21]
Some reports claim that there are 1,300 Iraqi refugees living in France. [19]
France is set to host 500 Iraqi Christian refugees.
The number of Iraqis in Germany is estimated at 150,000. [22] In 2006, out of 2,727 asylum applications for Iraqi refugees, only 8.3 percent were accepted. [23] Some sources claim there to be just around 40,000 Iraqi refugees residing in Germany. [24] In 2006, Germany granted just 8.3 percent of Iraqi asylum demands, according to the ministry. [25]
In 2006, Germany received 2,117 applications for asylum from Iraqis, which is the third highest number in the EU. The country is already home to a sizeable Iraqi population, many of whom were granted protection by the German authorities after fleeing persecution from Saddam Hussein's former regime. However, the recognition rate for Iraqis has fallen from an average of 57 per cent between 1997 and 2001, to a mere 11 per cent for the year 2006, which is one of the lowest in the European Union. [12]
However, Germany has adopted another policy towards Iraqi refugees which has distinguished it from all other EU states, the German Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community has taken the unique step of systematically revoking the refugee status of thousands of Iraqis who were granted protection before 2003. Since the threat of persecution from the Iraqi Ba'ath regime is no longer present, 18,000 Iraqi refugees who entered the country before the 2003 invasion have thus had their refugee status revoked, placing them in a situation of uncertainty and precariousness. In June 2007, the German government asked the asylum authorities to temporarily suspend the revocation of refugee status for certain groups of Iraqis such as those from Baghdad, single women, and members of religious minorities such as Christians. [12]
It was estimated in April 2007 that 14,000 Iraqis were living with 'tolerated status' in Germany, with the threat of possible imminent deportation hanging over them.
Greece is the most common entry point into the EU for Iraqis. A large proportion enter the country after a treacherous journey across the quasi-border separating Central and Southern Iraq from the northern regions, from where they cross the mountains into Turkey. Thereafter, they continue along the same routes as thousands of illegal migrants, arriving at one of the Greek islands by speedboat or crossing the Greek–Turkish land border. From Greece, Iraqis generally travel on before making an asylum claim, either to the northern European countries, or to Madrid, Spain from where the USA or Latin America can be reached. [12]
Approximately 1,200 Iraqi refugees have immigrated to Hungary. [19]
Sources claim there to be 340 Iraqi refugees living in Ireland. [19]
The current population of Iraqis in Italy stands at 6,043 according to ISTAT, representing an increase compared to 2016, when they were around the half of the current population.; [26] however one source claims there to be 1,068, which is approximately 50 families. [19] Most of these are priests, nuns and seminarians who have come to pursue their studies in Italy. [27] The majority are residents of Rome.
There have been recent appeals from the Iraqi community living in Italy to free any Italian and Iraqi Italian residents currently working in Iraq. [28]
In November 2007, 800 Iraqi Kurds sought refugee in Italy, of which only 20 of them applied for asylum and the other received 15-day expulsion orders. [29]
As of 2019, there are at least 3.000 Iraqi-born people living in Romania. [30]
Significant groups of Iraqis have emigrated to Russia as early as the 1990s. [31] Iran credits Russia with being one of the first countries to provide concrete assistance in processing Iraqi refugees; Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry began preparing two sites for refugee camps in western Iran in April 2003. [32] However, Iraqis admitted to Russia often find themselves the targets of racism; as with Afghan refugees, they are mistaken for migrants from the Caucasus, who are stereotyped in Russia as drug dealers and criminals. [31]
The current population of Iraqis in Spain is unknown; however, since the Iraq War, Spain has been host to 45 Iraqi refugees. An additional 42 Iraqis requested asylum in 2006. [33] There are roughly about 3,700 asylum seekers in Spain, and a further 642 Iraqis hold residency permits. [34]
Iraqi immigration to Spain accounted for 1,706 permanent residents in the year 2006.
The current population of Iraqis in Switzerland is estimated to be around 5,000. However, the Swiss government is currently[ when? ] closing doors to future Iraqi refugees, and offering to send external aid instead. Christoph Blocher, the Swiss Justice and Police Minister, stated that "We already have 5,000 Iraqis in Switzerland and our country is in second place in Europe in accepting them". [35] [36]
The UK—a country that not only had historically hosted a large number of Iraqi refugees but one that had also participated in the invasion of Iraq—granted refugee status or complementary protection to only 8.7 percent of the Iraqi asylum-seekers in 2005, a significant decrease if considered that from 1997 to 2001 that rate averaged 44 percent. [1] : 107
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has 20,305 staff working in 136 countries as of December 2023.
A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as a result of who they are, what they believe in or say, or because of armed conflict, violence or serious public disorder." Such a person may be called an asylum seeker until granted refugee status by a contracting state or by the UNHCR if they formally make a claim for asylum.
An asylum seeker is a person who leaves their country of residence, enters another country, and makes in that other country a formal application for the right of asylum according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 14. A person keeps the status of asylum seeker until the right of asylum application has concluded.
The Dublin Regulation is a Regulation of the European Union that determines which EU member state is responsible for the examination of an application for asylum, submitted by persons seeking international protection under the Geneva Convention and the Qualification Directive, within the European Union.
The right of asylum, sometimes called right of political asylum, is a juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, such as a second country or another entity which in medieval times could offer sanctuary. This right was recognized by the Ancient Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Hebrews, from whom it was adopted into Western tradition. René Descartes fled to the Netherlands, Voltaire to England, and Thomas Hobbes to France, because each state offered protection to persecuted foreigners. Contemporary right of asylum is founded on the non-binding Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Throughout the 20th century, Iraq witnessed multiple periods of instability and conflict that prompted the creation and flight of many refugees. Earlier examples include the exodus of Iraqi Jews and the flight of Iraqi Kurds. The Iraqi invasion of Iran in 1980 and the ensuing Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988) triggered a deterioration of ties among the country's various ethnic and religious communities, and also exacerbated in violent events like the Ba'athist Arabization campaigns in northern Iraq (1968–2003), which led to the killing and displacement of thousands of minorities. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait (1990) and the ensuing Gulf War (1990–1991), which ended with Iraq's defeat and the application of United Nations sanctions (1991–2003), also resulted in the creation of many Iraqi refugees. It was not until the beginning of the ongoing Iraqi conflict, however, that sustained waves of Iraqi refugees would be created, numbering in the millions: the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the ensuing Iraq War (2003–2011) killed and displaced hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, both internally and externally, and the later War in Iraq (2003–2017) forced even more people to flee from the country. Many Iraqi refugees established themselves in urban areas of other countries rather than in refugee camps.
The International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) is an international organization that serves and protects uprooted people, including migrants, refugees, and internally displaced people, regardless of faith, race, ethnicity or nationality. With staff and programs in over 40 countries, ICMC advocates for sustainable solutions and rights-based policies directly and through a worldwide network of 132 member organizations.
Immigration to Greece percentage of foreign populations in Greece is 7.1% in proportion to the total population of the country. Moreover, between 9 and 11% of the registered Greek labor force of 4.4 million are foreigners. Migrants additionally make up 25% of wage and salary earners.
The number of Iraqis in Greece is unclear since numbers fluctuate greatly over time. as of 2007, Greece hosted 1,400 Iraqi refugees. Proving helpful, Greece offered one million dollars to Iraq for humanitarian purposes, this may be because they do not want to take in any refugees, as it was reported that Iraqis trying to enter Greece from Turkey are most definitely likely to be sent back to Iraq. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has confirmed that a group of 135 Iraqis were arrested while preparing to cross into Greece have been sent back to Iraq. Greece has the toughest migration policy in Europe, allowing only less than one percent of applications through.
The Iraqi diaspora refers to native Iraqis who have left for other countries as emigrants or refugees, and is now one of the largest in modern times, being described by the UN as a "humanitarian crisis" caused by the 1991 Gulf War and 2003 invasion of Iraq and by the ensuing war.
Palestinians in Iraq are people of Palestinians, most of whom have been residing in Iraq after they were displaced in 1948. Before 2003, there were approximately 34,000 Palestinians thought to be living in Iraq, mainly concentrated in Baghdad. However, since the 2003 Iraq War, the figure lies between 10,000–13,000, although a precise figure has been hard to determine. The situation of Palestinians in Iraq deteriorated after the fall of Saddam Hussein and particularly following the bombing of the Al-Askari Mosque in 2006. Since then, with the rise in insecurity throughout Iraq, they have been the target of expulsion, persecution and violence by Shia militants, and the new Iraqi Government with militant groups targeting them for preferential treatment they received under the Ba'ath Party rule. Currently, several hundred Palestinians from Iraq are living in border camps, after being refused entry to neighbouring Jordan and Syria. Others have been resettled to third countries.
Iraqis are the second largest minority group living in Sweden, with 146,048 Iraqi-born people living in Sweden and 79,732 Swedes with at least one Iraqi-born parent. They are also one of the largest Asian communities in the country. The size of this group has doubled in the period of 2002 to 2009; the influx of Iraqi refugees increased dramatically from 2006 to 2009 as a result of the US-led invasion of Iraq.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Representation in Cyprus is an office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) opened in August 1974 upon the request of the Government of Cyprus and the Secretary-General of the United Nations. UNHCR Representation in Cyprus was designated as Coordinator of the United Nations Humanitarian Assistance for Cyprus. UNHCR was also responsible upon the request of the Cyprus Government to examine applications for refugee status.
Sudanese refugees are people originating from the country of Sudan, seeking refuge outside the borders of their native country. In recent history, Sudan has been the stage for prolonged conflicts and civil wars, as well as environmental changes, namely desertification. These forces have resulted not only in violence and famine but also the forced migration of large numbers of the Sudanese population, both inside and outside the country's borders. Given the expansive geographic territory of Sudan, and the regional and ethnic tensions and conflicts, much of the forced migration in Sudan has been internal. Yet, these populations are not immune to similar issues that typically accompany refugeedom, including economic hardship and providing themselves and their families with sustenance and basic needs. With the creation of a South Sudanese state, questions surrounding southern Sudanese IDPs may become questions of South Sudanese refugees.
Refugees of the Syrian civil war are citizens and permanent residents of Syria who have fled the country in the course of the Syrian civil war. The pre-war population of the Syrian Arab Republic was estimated at 22 million (2017), including permanent residents. Of that number, the United Nations (UN) identified 13.5 million (2016) as displaced persons in need of humanitarian assistance. Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011 more than six million (2016) were internally displaced, and around five million (2016) crossed into other countries, seeking asylum or placement in Syrian refugee camps. It is believed to be one of the world's largest refugee crises.
Syrian refugee camp and shelters are temporary settlements built to receive internally displaced people and refugees of the Syrian Civil War. Of the estimated 7 million persons displaced within Syria, only a small minority live in camps or collective shelters. Similarly, of the 8 million refugees, only about 10 percent live in refugee camps, with the vast majority living in both urban and rural areas of neighboring countries. Beside Syrians, they include Iraqis, Palestinians, Kurds, Yazidis, individuals from Somalia, and a minority of those who fled the Yemeni and Sudanese civil wars.
The 2015 European migrant crisis was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and migrants into Europe, namely from the Middle East. An estimated 1.3 million people came to the continent to request asylum, the most in a single year since World War II. They were mostly Syrians, but also included a significant number of people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Eritrea, and the Balkans. The increase in asylum seekers has been attributed to factors such as the escalation of various wars in the Middle East and ISIL's territorial and military dominance in the region due to the Arab Winter, as well as Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt ceasing to accept Syrian asylum seekers.
A refugee crisis can refer to difficulties and dangerous situations in the reception of large groups of forcibly displaced persons. These could be either internally displaced, refugees, asylum seekers or any other huge groups of migrants.
The Turkish migrant crisis, sometimes referred to as the Turkish refugee crisis, was a period during the 2010s characterised by a high number of people migrating to Turkey. Turkey received the highest number of registered refugees of any country or territory each year from 2014 to 2019, and had the world's largest refugee population according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The majority were refugees of the Syrian Civil War, numbering 3.6 million as of June 2020. In 2018, the UNHCR reported that Turkey hosted 63.4% of all "registered Syrian refugees."
The migration and asylum policy of the European Union is within the area of freedom, security and justice, established to develop and harmonise principles and measures used by member countries of the European Union to regulate migration processes and to manage issues concerning asylum and refugee status in the European Union.
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