Forced Migration Online is a website from The Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford, which as the name suggests, focuses on Forced Migration Issues and Refugee Movements. Among its many panel discussions was most recently on the refugees of Iraq. Held in Amman, Jordan on 13 April 2010, this one-day event featured a number of presentations offered by experts in the field regarding Iraqi refugees in the region as well as IDPs (Internally Displaced Person).
While the overall view of the presentations is sobering at best, it illustrates the many complexities of the current (and it is still current) crisis in Iraq. The topics included are the conditions of IDPs and returnees in Iraq, the reactions of state actors in the region (Jordan and Syria mostly), innovations in refugee welfare, and most importantly of all the severe danger of the Iraqi refugee crisis becoming a protracted refugee crisis.
The last point is the one that deals the most with the mission of The List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies. Constant reference is made to the predicament of the Palestinian people who are neighbors in the region and have experienced a protracted refugee situation due to the failures of the United Kingdom’s hasty withdrawal as well as the UN system to deal with the crisis as it was occurring. In this instance the United States and other concerned actors have the responsibility and the moral imperative to act before it is too late.
The link to the presentation’s podcast can be found at:
http://www.forcedmigration.org/podcasts/iraqs-refugees/