Jordan, Syria beg world to help with Iraq refugees

GENEVA (Reuters) - Jordan and Syria begged the international community on Tuesday to help them shoulder the burden of some 2 million Iraqi refugees straining their resources and economies.

Senior officials from the two states were addressing a meeting convened by the United Nations to tackle the problem of nearly 4 million Iraqis driven by the conflict to seek refuge either inside or outside Iraq.

"We, in the Syrian Arab Republic, are facing a huge mass of refugees ... this lays great pressure on the economy and infrastructure of our country," Vice Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad told the talks.

Syria is hosting an estimated 1.2 million Iraqis -- a number equal to 12 percent of its own population -- and needs another $256 million to continue providing them with aid, health care and education over the next two years, Mekdad said in a speech.

Mukhaimer Abu Jamous, secretary-general of Jordan's Interior Ministry, said 750,000 Iraqi refugees were costing his government $1 billion a year, stretching to the limit the resources of a country of just 5.6 million.

"We hope that this important conference results in a clear and firm commitment by the international community to take part in shouldering the great burden," he said.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, who is chairing the two-day talks, said host countries in the region had vowed to keep open their borders.

"Today it is clear that the countries of asylum have pledged that they would go on granting protection to Iraqis and that they consider to send Iraqis forcibly into the country against their will is not acceptable," he told a news conference at the end of the first day.

Donor countries had pledged financial aid and to take in more of the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees for resettlement, he said, without giving details.

U.S. Under-Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky, among more than 450 officials from 60 countries attending, said there was a "moral imperative" to help Iraqis until they could return home.

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Some 1.9 million people have been uprooted within Iraq, many of them in the last year. The UNHCR refugee agency said up to 50,000 fled their homes each month, driven out by violence, poor services, loss of jobs and an uncertain future.

Earlier, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent a message urging neighboring states to keep their borders open and to abide by the international principle of no forced returns.

"More and more people are fleeing daily, especially academics, doctors, scientists, engineers, civil servants and businessmen," said Iraqi foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari.

Zebari also announced that Iraq's government would provide $25 million to help Syria and Jordan provide care for Iraqi refugees, as a "first step" to "reach out to these people".

While recognizing the problems faced by Jordan and Syria, human rights groups have expressed concern that neighboring countries are making it harder for fleeing Iraqis to enter.

They say there are also cases of refugees being forcibly returned, in violation of international humanitarian law.

Jordan and Egypt had imposed new restrictions and "pretty much closed their doors to Iraqi refugees", while Saudi Arabia was building a $7 billion border barrier and Kuwait simply refused all asylum requests, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said.