By Xinhua,
Amman : A UN official has revealed that nearly 10,000 displaced Iraqis in Jordan are resettled to third countries in 2008, daily newspaper The Jordan Times reported here Wednesday.
“Although some may say this number is small compared to the overall number of displaced Iraqis, this is a significant increase,” Imran Riza, representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Representative (UNHCR) in Jordan, was quoted as saying.
Among the resettled Iraqis, majority of them, at about 6,990, were sent to the United States, said Riza, adding he expected a greater number of relocations in 2009.
According to the UN official, the number of Iraqis relocated stood at around 8,000 in 2007 and several hundreds in 2006.
Riza noted that although there have been cases of Iraqis returning to their home country, resettlement remains the most viable option for many.
“Resettlement is a very important tool as some people will never be able to go back, or will have to wait quite a while before they can return,” he said.
The official warned that global financial crisis is considered the major challenge facing the agency and overall efforts to provide support to Iraqis because as nations worry about economic recession, humanitarian aid becomes an afterthought.
“When there are hard economic times, as we have seen, funding in the humanitarian sector dries up,” he said, pointing out that 97 percent of UNHCR’s total budget is dependent on voluntary donations.
According to UNHCR estimates, the number of displaced Iraqis to be 4.4 million after the U.S. invasion in 2003, among which some 2.2 million fled to neighboring countries including Jordan, Syria and Egypt, with the remaining 2.2 million are internally displaced.