Iraqi refugees rejected by other countries.

[madfloridian]

AFP/Getty
Baghdad, IRAQ: Crowds of Iraqis gather in front of Iraq's Passports Department to have their travel documents issued in Baghdad, 21 July 2007.

Iraqis Rejected, Humiliated by Arab Brethren

After enduring the daily brutality and pervasive fear of living in the war zone, Iraqis who run for the Jordanian border are discovering their suffering engenders little sympathy from their Arab brethren to the south.

Jordan has already absorbed an estimated 750,000 Iraqi refugees, so some tension resulting from the influx is to be expected, and attempts by Amman to limit the number of new arrivals would not be unreasonable. But recent accounts of Iraqis' attempts to enter Jordan do not speak of an overwhelmed bureaucracy as much as they do the deliberate and unnecessary humiliation of an already desperate and injured people.

IraqSlogger's Zeyad Kasim recently posted a video of the "jail" at Amman's airport, and the accounts of a number of Iraqi bloggers who were held there while waiting for the Jordanian authorities to put them on a plane back to Iraq.

And it's not just the displaced seeking shelter who are turned away by Jordan. George Packer prints the frustrated and dismayed e-mail of a former translator for the US, who is seeking admittance to the US, but needs the medical exam required as part of the visa-application process. The embassy in Baghdad does not perform the exams, so the State Department scheduled an appointment at the embassy in Amman.

They are having to set up their own refugee camps.

Displaced Iraqis are having to establish their own camps, others overflowing.



BAGHDAD, 12 July 2007 (IRIN) - Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in southern Iraq are concerned about the fate of newly arriving internally displaced persons (IDPs), after the authorities in the southern provinces said they could not cope with any more of them.

This is the legacy of George Bush's America.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Better off without Saddam?

[madfloridian]

2. That same thought entered my mind.

The other countries are overwhelmed by the tragedy we have caused.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. For as bad as Saddam supposedly was, I don't ever remember

this kind of exodus.

[emilyg]

5. And mine.

[burrowowl]

4. Millions fleeing

8 million with no water or food!

I wonder if Riverbend got out with her family and how are they doing?

Destroying the infrastructure for water nd electricity and the sanctions under Bu$h I and Clinton qualify as CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY and CRIMES AGAINST PEACE!
But BU$H II and COMPANY should be brought before the HAGUE along with those Generals who COLLABORATED! GD, we instituted the NUREMBURG TRIALS!

[madfloridian]

7. I have wondered about Riverbend also.

And a couple of other Iraqi bloggers I followed for a while. One of my favorites quit posting on in November 2006.

[aquart]

6. God, that looks familiar.