100,000 Iraqi refugees found a place to resettle

As man as 100,000 Iraqi refugees have been referred for resettlement in other countries, announced UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) chief Antonio Guterres Friday.  

The refugees have been living in various Middle East countries since 2007. Over 52,000 of them left the region before May 2010.

Guterres said this is a great achievement as “many have been living in limbo for years.” The UN official’s statement takes place at the start of a three-day visit to Syria, which says it hosts one million refugees, mostly from Iraq.

But Guterres called on countries to “facilitate the speedy departure of refugee they have accepted for resettlement”.

Lengthy security checks and the time it has taken for state processing mechanism to be established have led to considerable delays in the departure of refugees to their new homes.

The acceptance rate by resettlement countries of UNHCR’s referrals now stand at 80 per cent, of which nearly 76 per cent have been accepted by the Unites States, UN officials says.

Currently 1.8 million Iraqis are currently seeking refuge in Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey.