DAMASCUS, Syria– The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) held a three-day conference on Iraqi refugees and their rights to international protection from August 11 through August 13 at Damascus’s Four Seasons Hotel.

The workshop discussed such topics as international refugee law, refugee status determination, the rights and duties of refugees and asylum seekers and the protection of refugees with special needs.  The workshop focused mainly on the ever growing Iraqi refugee crisis in Syria.

As of August 2009, there were over two-hundred thousand Iraqi refugees registered with the UNHCR in Syria, of which 82, 427 were identified as children, adolescents, women, elderly people at risk or disabled persons with critical medical conditions or with special needs protection.  Yet, the numbers hardly end there.  Faisal al-Miqdad, Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister, contends the crisis is much deeper than that.  He believes the number of Iraqi refugees in Syria to be around 1.2 million, a staggering number in a country of roughly 18 million.  These huge influxes of refugees have complicated life for many throughout Syria.

The Deputy Foreign Minister also said that the human health needs of the arriving Iraqis is ever growing, particularly among women and children.  The Syrian government is attempting, with what resources it has available, to remedy the situation.  Despite their best efforts, a health care crisis had emerged.

The UNHCR recently estimated that the number of Iraqi refugee families in Syria without a breadwinner is approximately thirty percent.  This number is significantly higher among female-led houses.  As a result, many women have been forced into prostitution or have been forced to use their daughters in prostitution to sustain the family.  Furthermore, there is an urgent need to provide appropriate care for the elderly and for the very large number of arrivals with disabilities, mainly as a result of injuries sustained while in Iraq.

As such, the Syrian authorities have taken important steps to remedy the refugee situation from Iraq and other countries.  “This workshop reflects the significance that Syria accords to asylum issues, in view of its generosity in hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees from Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and other countries” said Radhouane Noucier, the UNHCR Middle East and North Africa Bureau Director.

For more information, please see:

Al Arabiya- Iraqi Refugees in Syria Worry as Governments Dispute– 13 September 2009

Syria Today- UNHCR Holds Refugee Protection Conference– September 2009

UN Syria- UNHCR Protection Workshop Highlights Refugee Issues in Syria– 14 August 2009

FMR Review- Iraqi Refugees in Syria– January 2009