SYRIA: A Lot of Uninvited Guests (Dahr Jamail)

SYRIA:
A Lot of Uninvited Guests
Dahr Jamail

DAMASCUS, Apr 18 (IPS) - The massive influx of Iraqi refugees into Syria has brought rising prices and overcrowding, but most Syrians seem to have accepted more than a million of the refugees happily enough.

<snip>

The refugee crisis continues to escalate every day. Suburban trucks commonly hired by Iraqis fleeing from Baghdad to Syria line many streets in neighbourhoods of Damascus where Iraqis are congregating.

Adhem Mardini, a public information assistant with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Damascus says the UNHCR is working alongside the government of Syria, the Red Crescent and other groups to bring relief to the rising number of refugees.

Mardini told IPS that at least a thousand Iraqis enter Syria every day, and that the UNHCR is short of staff and funding.

"We have an emergency conference in Geneva Apr. 17-18," Mardini told IPS. "And we are praying that we will obtain more help from it because the Iraqis are suffering so much. The Iraqis coming here are completely desperate, and we need all the help we can get."

<snip>

But while many Syrians complain about rising prices and other difficulties as a result of the influx, they are sympathetic towards the refugees, and blame the U.S. government rather than the refugees themselves.

"Bush is responsible for all of this," Adnan, a 51-year-old merchant in the Bab Touma district of Damascus told IPS. "He burnt the Middle East and caused this suffering. We support the Iraqis here, but he is ultimately at fault."

<more>

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37388