Iraq is Bleeding

Sean and Kristele are now safely back in our Washington, DC office from their mission to Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan to assess the Iraqi refugee crisis. This week the team briefed the staff during one of our morning meetings.

Their findings are both riveting and unsettling. Sean and Kristele report that there are currently more than 2 million Iraqi refugees, mostly living in Syria and Jordan. As a result, RI is categorizing the Iraqi refugee situation as the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world.

During their mission, Sean and Kristele discovered that everyone in Iraq is a target for violence, from Sunnis to Christians to Shi'as to hairdressers. These personal stories that the team collected powerfully demonstrate the scope of the problem and the need for immediate international attention and assistance.

Like this story, told to Sean and Kristele by an Iraqi who fled to Jordan after being targeted for working for an international NGO:

On July 27, Yasir was outside his house with his son Malike, washing his car. An unknown car came speeding down the street, and shot ten rounds at Yasir. Though he was able to keep Malike from harm, he took three bullets to the body, none of them fatal. He is confident that he was targeted for working with international organizations seen as being part of the occupation of Iraq.

There is a lot of buzz going on in the RI office as we gear up our advocacy efforts on this very important issue. We've already gotten some media coverage - you can listen to a recent radio interview that Sean conducted with PRI on the Iraqi refugee crisis here. You can be sure we'll have more to share soon.