Iraqi refugees overwhelm UN centre in Syria

They know they may have to wait for a long time, maybe even months. But still they come, and their numbers are increasing by the day. The never-ending flow of refugees fleeing to Syria from the endless violence in neighbouring Iraq is overwhelming the UN relief centre.

"With such a growing flow (of refugees), we have boosted our operations,"Sybella Wilkes of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees told AFP at the UNHCR centre in the Damascus suburb of Duma. "It's a real human tragedy." She said the centre registered 33,000 refugees between January and mid-April this year alone -- the same number it helped between 1991 after the first Gulf War and 2006.

The UNHCR says that aid requirements are skyrocketing, with up to 50,000 Iraqis fleeing the violence in their country every month.
About four million Iraqis have fled their homes, including nearly 800,000 since sectarian violence involving Iraq's Sunni and Shiite Muslim communities intensified in February 2006.

Syria hosts the largest number of Iraqi refugees in the region, an estimated 1.2 million people, according to UNHCR figures. Refugees at Duma who spoke to AFP did so on condition that their real names not be used, because they feared retaliation against family members still living in Iraq.

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