JourneyOnline
Uniting Church President Rev Gregor Henderson is one of sixteen heads of churches who have called on the government to act on the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Iraq and the surrounding region.
“Australia has a moral responsibility to help protect Iraqi civilians and those displaced by the violence,” the statement said.
The heads of churches expressed concerns that the current debate has focussed almost exclusively on whether Australian troops should be in Iraq and that scant recognition has been given to the scale of the humanitarian crisis now confronting the Middle East.
“Australia’s leaders must recognise that Iraq is haemorrhaging.”
The heads claim that 4.2 million Iraqis have now fled their homes – 2 million internally and 2.2 million in neighbouring countries, mainly Syria and Jordan
Each month, another 50,000 Iraqis flee Iraq and it is estimated that up to another 3 million people may be displaced.
With the closure of the Syrian border to Iraqis – the last to have remained open – and with 11 out of Iraq’s 18 provinces now denying entry to displaced Iraqis fleeing violence internally, Iraqi civilians have virtually nowhere to escape.
Conditions inside Iraq are also deteriorating as humanitarian access declines and 23% of children in Southern Iraq now have ‘chronic’ malnutrition.
“While the international community has pledged billions of dollars for recovery and development programs, these pledges are of little use until the situation has stabilized,” the statement said.
The heads of churches have asked the Australian government to significantly increase aid to Iraq’s internally displaced people and Iraqi refugees in Jordan and to ensure that adequate funds are available for repatriation, reintegration, reconstruction and development to support Iraq’s internally displaced people and Iraqi refugees in the region that will eventually wish to return home.
Photo : NATIONAL NEWS
