US gets serious about helping Iraq refugees

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States, mired for four years in the Iraq war, has begun to look seriously at the problem of millions of Iraqis turned refugees by the fighting -- especially those who have collaborated with the Americans.

While the 2003 US invasion sparked most of the exodus, Washington has been accused of taking little interest in the two million Iraqi who have sought refuge abroad, as well as the 1.7 million people displaced inside the country, according to figures from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

With 50,000 people fleeing the country each month, the war has sparked the most serious refugee crisis in the Middle East since that of the Palestinians at the creation of Israel in 1948, according the UNHCR.

Yet the United...