The US-led war on Iraq has already spawned a variety of deep uncertainties in the region. The Jordanian government in particular is keenly aware of the political, security and humanitarian
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- British military and humanitarian relief agencies have allocated some $150m so far for humanitarian operations.
- Unlike its US counterpart, Britains Department for International Development sees
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- A 2001 government census reported that Iran hosted more refugees than any country in the world most from Afghanistan and Iraq.
- The UNHCR plans to set
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- The Turkish government has been preparing for months for a refugee exodus from northern Iraq, and has already set up 18 refugee camps
- The Turkish Red
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- The US military has pre-positioned non-food relief supplies for one million people in the region, and (with Iraq in mind) organised a new Pentagon Office of Reconstruction
* Plans to return asylum seekers from Britain to protection areas in Asia and Africa are misguided and unworkable, and would place asylum seekers at considerable risk.
* Sharing the burden of
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- UN estimates warn of up to 1.45 million refugees fleeing from Iraq and 900,000 internationally displaced in the event of military attack.
- The UNHCR
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- The Pentagon has set up a humanitarian operations centre in Kuwait as part of the US military headquarters there. American NGOs are discussing placing an observer in
The impact of war and disaster on populations, and the record of international agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in dealing with them, receive too little attention in the mainstream media.
