The UN estimates that up to four million refugees have fled Iraq, writes Jamie Smyth,European Correspondent
The murder of more than 30 students at a Virginia university campus this week may have focused the media spotlight on the United States, but the body count in Iraq keeps on rising.
Almost 200 people died in five co-ordinated car bomb attacks in Baghdad on Wednesday, which onlookers said turned a market square into "a swimming of pool of blood". Last month 90 people died in a double suicide bombing in Hilla, demonstrating that the recent US-led security "surge" is failing to halt the relentless sectarian bloodletting in Iraq.
Little wonder then that 50,000 Iraqis flee their homes every month, according to UN figures released at a major conference on the Iraqi refugee crisis on Wednesday. "The humanitarian dimension of the problem can no longer be overlooked. Almost four million Iraqis are watching us today."
UN high commissioner for refugees, Antonio Guterres told officials from governments which gathered in Geneva this week to address the problem at a major UN conference. "Their needs are as obvious as the moral imperative to help. All of us, representatives of governments, international organisations and the civil society, are now compelled to act."
The UN estimates that two million people have already escaped to neighbouring states such as Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, while a further two million refugees have fled their homes to try to find safer areas within Iraq.
With no sign of the violence receding, Iraq's neighbours are getting increasingly nervous about the refugee influx.
Carsten Jurgensen, who recently visited Jordan to assess the situation of refugees for Amnesty International, says the conditions are getting worse for Iraqis fleeing violence as neighbours such as Syria and Jordan try to stem the flow of people.
"The Jordanian authorities have increased restrictions on entry significantly in the past few months, the vast majority of refugees live in fear of deportation, most have no income and quickly spend their savings and children have no access to school."
Amnesty has documented one case where a group of six or seven Iraqi Shias were beheaded by Sunni militants on their way back from being deported from Jordan.
The bureaucratic obstacles facing Iraqis are set to increase in June if the Jordanian authorities push ahead with plans to stop recognising Iraqi passports. Iraqi refugees also tell Amnesty there is an unofficial policy operating at the Jordanian border whereby young men between the ages of 18 and 35 are refused entry. "The authorities fear the sectarian violence in Iraq could spill over into Jordan," says Mr Jurgensen.
The situation is similar in neighbouring Syria, which hosts up to one million Iraqis.
Nawal Abdul Karim of the Iraqi Women's League, who has just returned from a fact-finding mission to Syria, says the treatment of refugees is inadequate, with abuse by the police common and a host of bureaucratic problems for those seeking asylum.
"I even heard of some Iraqi refugees being sent to the desert to file their applications for refugee status," says Ms Karim, whose extended family recently fled to Syria following the assassination of her brother-in-law and the confiscation of his property.
So how are Europe's leaders responding to a refugee crisis that could further destabilise the volatile Middle East region? "Ostrich-like" and "confused" is how some human rights groups describe the piecemeal and chaotic response so far.
"Many EU states have been slow to react and some are still foot dragging.Mostly they are unwilling to have any more Iraqi asylum seekers coming to Europe," says Bjarte Vandvik, secretary general of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles.
He highlights a paradox in Europe, where several states have sent troops to save Iraqis from Saddam Hussein but are unwilling to offer refugees sanctuary at home. Even the US, which has accepted less than 500 Iraqi refugees so far, recently decided to accept 7,000 as part of an UNHCR resettlement programme.
UN asylum statistics show that comparatively few Iraqi refugees have fled to Europe.
In 2006 there were 22,200 claims for asylum in Europe by Iraqis, compared to 12,500 in 2005. Sweden was the destination of choice for 9000 of these asylum seekers, drawn by its large existing resident Iraqi population and the sympathetic official policy towards Iraqi claimants. Sweden grants refugee status and leave to remain to more than 80 per cent of claimants, whereas the EU average is about 10 per cent.
Yet despite the carnage in Iraq, many EU states refuse to award those fortunate enough to reach Europe with refugee status. The most recent home office statistics show Britain rejected 1,675 out of 1,835 asylum requests from Iraq in 2005. It has also continued deporting failed Iraqi asylum seekers to northern Iraq, a measure that human rights groups strongly criticise in light of the unstable condition of Iraq.
Ireland, which gave €1.4 million aid to refugees in Jordan and Syria this week, has refused 294 Iraqi requests for refugee status at initial recommendation and granted 118 requests since 2003, says the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner.
The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), which represents 70 local refugee organisations in Europe, accuses several EU states of ignoring the problem. Slovakia and Greece are rejecting, closing or simply not processing Iraqi asylum claims, while Germany, which holds the current six-month rotating EU presidency, has stripped 20,000 Iraqis of their refugee status. In Denmark up to 600 Iraqis have been refused asylum and are living in a "legal limbo". They are in danger of falling into destitution, according to an ECRE report prepared for a meeting of EU justice ministers yesterday, which discussed how to react to the Iraqi refugee crisis.
Human rights groups and Sweden have been pushing EU states to agree a joint approach to growing numbers of Iraqis seeking asylum in Europe.
More aid for housing Iraqi refugees in Europe, more aid for the region and establishing a proper resettlement programme that would enable some of the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees to relocate from Jordan and Syria to Europe were the key points on the agenda.
Following the meeting, justice commissioner Franco Frattini announced €11 million in aid to help refugees in the region and €7 million for EU states that host asylum seekers.
But there was no agreement on establishing an EU-wide resettlement programme, which would bring more Iraqis into Europe.
Neither did member states agree to co-ordinate their treatment of Iraqi asylum seekers who make it to Europe, despite pledges by EU leaders in 2006 to forge a common EU asylum system.
"No one said it was going to be easy. Asylum policy is extremely sensitive for many member states. But Iraq is concentrating people's minds," said one EU official. EU ministers will return to the issue for further discussion in June. But, with the situation in Iraq deteriorating rapidly, the fear is they will act too late.