Funding crisis puts refugees at risk

FUNDING CRISIS: High Commissioner Antonio Guterres has warned that an existing humanitarian crisis could grow even larger. (AFP)

The UN's refugee agency warned Friday that it would have to reduce or even suspend programmes to help hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees due to a funding shortfall.

The Geneva-based United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it needed another $127 million to fund programmes for people uprooted in and around Iraq until the end of the year.

"Without this support, the humanitarian crisis we have faced over the past two years may grow even larger," High Commissioner Antonio Guterres said.

"We will not be able to help hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees and internally displaced if we do not receive funding for the remainder of 2008," he added.

In January the UNHCR appealed for $261 million for its operations on behalf of some of the 4.7 million people uprooted by the conflict in Iraq.

It has so far received only 134 million dollars, it said.

The funding crisis comes as the prices of fuel and food have risen dramatically in recent months, the agency pointed out.

About two million Iraqi refugees have fled to Syria, Jordan, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon and Turkey and other countries.

Another 2.7 million are internally displaced within Iraq. In addition, the agency cares for some 41,000 non-Iraqi refugees in Iraq, including Palestinians and Iranians.

A survey for the UNHCR in March found that 20% of Iraqi refugees survive on less than $100 a month, whilst five months earlier the figure was 5%.

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