By NNN-KUNA
Vienna : Most Iraqi refugees outside Iraq are suffering from psychological problems, said United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Roland Schoenbauer.
Schoenbauer said in a press release Thursday that 77 per cent of the 19,000 Iraqi refugees interviewed by the UNHCR in Syria last year survived air raids and missile attacks while 80 per cent witnessed gunfire clashes and 75 per cent were informed of the killing of one of their relatives.
The UN official said these statistics were based on a study prepared by the UNHCR and estimated the number of Iraqis who had fled their homes and hometowns to 2.4 million. Some 2.2 million refugees are in Jordan and Syria.
The UNHCR stressed in its study the importance of providing psychological care to Iraqi war victims, noting that the money allocated to assist the Iraqi refugees in 2008 reached USD 261 million, part of which to be used for psychological care.
Virtue of the new Austrian law issued in July 2005 on foreign refugees, refugees suffering from psychological problems may now be deported.
The new law also calls for detaining anyone who does not get asylum for up to 10 months if he or she does not leave the country within two years, he added. Furthermore, the refugee may be sent back to the country from which he entered Austria.