Iraq needs to do more to help refugees return: US
(AP)
14 November 2009
14 November 2009
BAGHDAD - A U.S. State Department official says the Iraqi government has taken strides to help refugees displaced by the violence in the country to return home but needs to go much further.
Eric Schwartz, the assistant secretary of state for refugees, says Baghdad plans to increase the budget to assist refugees by 250 percent and to appoint a coordinator to help people move back home.
He called those “unquestionably good signs” on Saturday, but stressed that “these commitments need to be followed up with concrete implementation.”
The U.N. estimates that as of January 2009 there were around 2 million Iraqi refugees in neighboring Jordan and Syria, and some 2.6 million people displaced within Iraq.
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