Blog

Britain trying to send Iraqi asylum seekers home

Written by Paul Eedle Sunday, 25 October 2009 17:40

The UNHCR has criticized Britain, Denmark and Sweden for forcibly sending Iraqi asylum seekers back to areas of central Iraq which it believes are still not safe. Spokesperson Andrej Mahecic said UNHCR "advises against involuntary returns to Iraq of persons originating from Central Iraq until there is a substantial improvement in the security and human rights situation in the country".

People

Ahlam in Chicago Tribune video

Written by Paul Eedle Sunday, 25 October 2009 15:55

"Abandoned. Adrift. Enduring" is the title of a Chicago Tribune video and article featuring Ahlam Ahmed, one of the main characters in our film Hard Way Home, and other Iraqi refugees struggling to stay afloat in Chicago. "Weary Iraqi refugees describe how life in Chicago and America has left them with very few options."

Blog

UNHCR helps Iraqis to rebuild homes

Written by Paul Eedle Saturday, 10 October 2009 11:12

UNHCR is trying to help some of the 2 million Iraqis who are refugees inside their own country to rebuild their houses so they can return home.

Blog

1.6 million Iraqis still displaced in their own country

Written by Paul Eedle Tuesday, 22 September 2009 09:13

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has published a detailed picture of the desperate state of 1.6 million Iraqis driven from their homes during the sectarian civil war of 2006-2007 and still unable to go home.

The IOM says: "Despite improved security in most places in Iraq, without work, their own home, schooling for children, access to water, electricity and health care, life for the vast majority of Iraq's internally displaced and for those returning home continues to be a bitter struggle."

Blog

Aftermath - Iraqi refugee stories on stage in New York

Written by Paul Eedle Friday, 18 September 2009 09:25

From the New York Times:

Assembled by its creators, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, from interviews with Iraqi refugees living in Jordan, “Aftermath” might be said to be set in limbo. Its performers, first seen sitting rigid on benches with their backs to us, seem to exist in an eternal waiting room.

When they turn around to tell their stories, with a courtly politeness that eventually shades into a sorrowing, baffled rage, there’s no doubt that it is we, the Americans in the dark, to whom they’re speaking. It was our country invading theirs, in 2003, that brought them to the point that, as one puts it, “I am floating between here and nowhere.”

Films

Hard Way Home

Five million Iraqis have been driven from their homes by sectarian terror since Saddam Hussein was overthrown. Security has improved but most still can't go home. If the world doesn't help, Iraq may never recover.

Out There News has been reporting Iraq since 2002. Many of our friends are now refugees. We made this film to show what their life is like. We built this website to try to help them.

Read more: Hard Way Home

People

Ahlam helping Iraqis settle into Chicago

Written by Paul Eedle Wednesday, 19 August 2009 07:54

Ahlam has helped to set up a volunteer group in Chicago, the Iraqi Mutual Aid Society, to help other Iraqi refugees settle into the city. The August edition of a Chicago Muslim newspaper, Chicago Crescent, has an article about her - read on to see it.

Read more: Ahlam helping Iraqis settle into Chicago

Blog

Obama appoints senior officials for Iraqi refugees

Written by Paul Eedle Monday, 17 August 2009 23:33

Barack Obama has followed up the concern he's shown for Iraqi refugees and internally displaced people by appointing two senior officials to coordinate the Administration's work on the issue.

Blog

World's Most Unwanted

Written by Paul Eedle Thursday, 23 July 2009 17:33

The UNHCR says Slovakia has agreed to set up an 'evacuation transit centre' which means 98 of the Palestinian refugees stranded on Iraq's border with Syria can be moved to more decent surroundings.

But this helps just 98 of the 2,713 people who have been stranded in three squalid camps in the desert for six years, and it's just a temporary solution 'while their final resettlement to other countries is arranged'. Can we really not find proper homes for this handful of the World's Most Unwanted?

Blog

Saudi Arabia makes first donation to help Iraqi refugees

Written by Paul Eedle Tuesday, 30 June 2009 15:58

Saudi Arabia has made its first donation to help Iraqi refugees in Syria, $3.5 million to UNHCR. This is a breakthrough in Arab support for the refugees. Full press release here in Arabic and English.