International Alliance for Justice (AIJ), the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH), Fondation France Libertés, and the French Human Rights League organised an international conference on Iraqi refugees and displaced persons on July 4th, 2002, in Paris. The conference minutes are now available in French and in English on the organisations' websites, www.i-a-j.org (Report - AIJ), www.fidh.org, www.france-libertes.fr, www.ldh-france.asso.fr .
In this report, the best experts describe the causes of emigration and forced displacements in Iraq, as well as the situation of Iraqi refugees in several countries in the Middle East, in Europe and in Australia.

For over 30 years, Iraqi people have been forced into exile: according to several sources, approximately three million people, out of a current population of twenty-three million people, have left Iraq. Despite its extent and seriousness, the issue of Iraqi refugees remains little known or forgotten. The conditions of their exile, their survival in appalling material and psychological conditions, are ignored, and silence remains over the causes of this exile. This document provides essential information on this issue.

Several thousands of Iraqi people have died, either drowned in the Aegean Sea or between Indonesia and Australia, killed while crossing borders or summarily executed. Some of Iraq's neighbouring countries have jailed and deported Iraqis, thus exposing them to great risks, while other countries have placed landmines in neighbouring regions. The economic plight imposed on the Iraqis by the restrictions forces most of them to live in appalling conditions. The number of Iraqi asylum seekers in Western countries has kept on increasing, while these countries have been trying to prevent the arrival of migrants on their soil.
Several neighbouring countries of Iraq expect a massive arrival of refugees in case of a conflict; they have reinforced the controls at their borders, in order to prevent people from crossing them.

International Alliance for Justice, the International Federation of Human Rights League, Fondation France Libertés, and the French Human Rights League call upon Iraq's neighbouring countries to comply with the international conventions on the right of asylum and to provide the necessary means of survival to the refugees in case of massive arrivals.

Download the minutes of the international conference on Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons (PDF format) :
http://www.i-a-j.org/pdf/conference_internationale_refugies_deplaces_irakiens.pdf

Contact : Françoise Brié, Thierry Royer
Tel: +33.1.48.00.03.20 - Fax: +33.1.48.00.03.30 - Email : aij@noos.fr