The Middle East region continued in 2007 to host diverse groups of internally displaced people with differing levels of humanitarian needs, some newly displaced by conflict and violence, and others who had been waiting for generations for a durable solution to their plight. It was a year in which continuing violence and deepening humanitarian crises brought international attention to displacement across the region.

Ongoing conflicts and accompanying widespread human rights violations causing more...

According to UNHCR and International Organization for Migration (IOM) report that there are around 2 million Iraqis living outside of Iraq and another 2.7 million are displaced within the country since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Now humanitarian assistance to Iraqis has become one of the largest and most complex humanitarian operations in the world. This Policy paper discusses U.S. policy and the response of the United Nations. Also examines the political dimensions of Iraqi displacement, pr more...

'Since the beginning of the 2003 war, millions of Iraqis have been displaced inside Iraq and throughout the region. The largest concentrations of refugees are in Jordan and Syria. These refugees were forced to flee targeted persecution because they practiced a disfavored religion, were born into a marginalized minority, or agreed to work in support of the U.S. government. Without the legal right to work, many of these refugees are struggling to survive on limited savings.'

With a Shia mother and a Sunni father, and having worked for the US forces in Iraq, Asad al-Johari and his family found themselves a target for both sides of Baghdad’s civil war.

His mother was murdered in a Sunni neighbourhood of west Baghdad, two years ago, but when they moved east to the Shia stronghold of Sadr City the family received a letter telling them to “leave or die”.

Abeer smiles for the first time in years, hiding the scars of war that have plagued her life for years. A former head of the library at the University of Baghdad, she was forced to flee to Syria after her life was threatened in 2006. Like many refugees in Syria, Abeer now lives an on-going life of insecurity.

Today, however, Abeer is experiencing new hope.

According to the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration in 2007, almost 5 million Iraqis had been displaced by violence in their country, the vast majority of which had fled since 2003.

Refugees International generates humanitarian assistance and protection for displaced people around the world and works to end the conditions that create displacement.

During the past five years, Iraq witnessed a horrific and overwhelming wave of displacement that affected almost all Iraqi communities; according to reports from The UN, IOM, and the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration, there are currently 2.7 Million Iraqis displaced in Iraq and estimates of another 2 Millions displaced in neighbouring countries and an alarming increasing in numbers of Iraqis seeking refuge in Europe and North America. Roughly, 20% of the population of Iraq are displac more...

All of us here in Iraq have difficult lives. The history of Iraq is war and suffering. We aren’t sure what will happen here in the future. This is Iraq, we don’t have any rest from war and suffering. My husband and I moved to Baghdad from a village in Northern Iraq when we got married. We lived in Baghdad for 33 years. We have three sons, one daughter and three granddaughters.
Before the Iran-Iraq war started in 1980 my husband worked as an electrician for a company owned by the government more...

Thousands of civilians, including children, were killed or injured amid continuing sectarian and other violence. All sides involved in the fighting committed gross human rights violations, some of which amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Many civilians died as a result of bomb attacks by groups opposed to the Iraqi government and the US-led Multinational Force (MNF), while others were victims of sectarian killings by Shi’a and Sunni armed groups. Hundreds of people were abduct more...

After several years of bloody conflict the South Asian state of Nepal is set to become a republic and end 240 years of royal rule. The country has recently elected constituents to an assembly that is meeting in Kathmandu to draft a new constitution for the Himalayan state. Deependra Jha, a human rights activist from the ethnic Madhesi community, discusses some of the main challenges facing minorities in this current transition phase.

Despite minor incidents of violence in a few districts, the more...