CAIRO, March 5 (UPI) -- U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres urged Arabs to take a more active role in helping hundreds of thousands of Iraqis fleeing conflict.
"Looking back through history, the most direct line between tradition and contemporary refugee law is found in Islam," Guterres told the League of Arab States' Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Cairo Sunday, noting the majority of refugees around the world are Muslims.
"From its very beginnings, from the Holy Koran and the Sunnah of the Prophet, Islamic law has considered the question of asylum at length and has given the asylum seeker (Al mustamin) prominence, dignity and respect. A community's moral duty and behavior always included how it responded to appeals for asylum," he said.
The refugee crisis in Iraq has placed an enormous burden on nearby host countries, particularly Jordan and Syria, Guterres said, calling it "the biggest displacement crisis in the Middle East since the dramatic events" of Israel's independence in 1948, forcing one in eight Iraqis from their homes.
"Some 1.8 million Iraqis are currently displaced internally and up to 2 million others have fled the country," he said. "Last year alone, we estimate that nearly 500,000 Iraqis moved to other areas inside the country."
With up to 50,000 Iraqis still fleeing their homes inside the country each month, the impact of the crisis was felt first and foremost by the victims themselves. "But two neighboring countries, Jordan and Syria, have shouldered the heaviest share of the humanitarian burden, with more than 1 million Iraqis now in Syria and up to 750,000 in Jordan," he said.
