Talk:Refugees of Iraq

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[edit] Merger with Iraqi diaspora discussion

I would give my assent to the proposed merger. Please see my comments on that article's Talk page regarding religious and ethnic minorities. Dogru144 00:29, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

  • Strongly object to merger: Diaspora and refugees are completely different concepts. Internal refugees are not part of a diaspora. (Sarah777 07:23, 31 May 2007 (UTC))
  • Change of earlier position, to Object. The diaspora began in the early part of the 20th Century. The refugee phenomenon and crisis began in 2003, after the invasion. Dogru144 09:28, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
  • Object. It seems many people left before the Iraq War. I suggest changing the name of this article to Refugees of the Iraq War to clarify the difference with the article, Iraqi diaspora, which covers a much longer period. --Timeshifter 02:45, 25 July 2007 (UTC)
  • Object This article is about the current refugee problem caused in the region by the recent (2003-present) conflict in Iraq, this is a totally unrelated topic to the wider 'Iraqi diaspora' outside Iraq, someone should remove that suggestion template, the term diaspora and refugee are unrelated anyway, and I agree with the suggestion by Timeshifter Bleh999 19:05, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Question on figure

I believe the 1.4 million Iraqi refugees figure is unfounded. It may be a faulty quotation from UNHCR:

"Iran continued to host the largest number of refugees of any country in the world in 1996. The total included 1,400,000 Afghan refugees and 580,000 Iraqi refugees. Another 40,000 persons listed by the government of the Islamic Republic as being “displaced” are most likely refugees of other nationalities, including Bosnians, Tajiks, Azerbaijanis, and others."

Maybe it'd be best to put "citation needed" on the sentence.

The above anonymous author has not set out a logical justification for the questioning of the UNHCR figure. No, it is not appropriate to add citation needed. The UNHCR data is sufficient. This editor"s argument reeks of POV. Dogru144 01:56, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Refugee sections of other articles

Can some editors from this article also coordinate the Iraqi refugee sections of

For example of some lack of coordination of info, in the various articles there seem to be varying numbers for the number of Christian refugees.

The 2 articles need very short sections summarizing the main refugeee points. The Iraq War article section especially needs to be short, because many articles are spunout from that article, and there is little room to summarize those many articles there. Please see WP:SPINOUT.

I just don't have time to keep up with the refugee issues, updates, references, etc.. I have enough trouble helping keep the casualty stats and references up to date. Thanks for all the work you have done editing the refugee info in all the articles.

Here is the old Christian refugees info, and the following paragraph, that I removed from the Iraq War article:

UNHCR reports that Christians comprise 44% of Iraqi refugees, although only 4% of the overall population is Christian.[1] Iraq's Christian community numbered 1.4 million in 1980 at the start of Iran-Iraq War. But as the 2003 invasion has radicalized Islamic sensibilities, Christians' total numbers slumped to about 500,000, of whom 250,000 live in Baghdad.[2] As a small minority without a militia of their own, Iraqi Christians have been persecuted by both Shi’a and Sunni Muslim militias, and also by criminal gangs.[3][4] There are some uncorroborated claims made to Dutch Parliament member Joel Voordewind that in some cases, Iraqi Christians, or people involved in mixed marriages, have been crucified by militants.[5][6]

Most refugees ventured to Jordan and Syria, creating demographic shifts that have worried both governments. A fear persisted in both countries, and others hosting sizable Iraqi refugee populations, that sectarian tensions would spill over amongst the exiles. These refugees were estimated to have been leaving Iraq at a rate of 3000-per-day by December 2006.[7]

The Christian refugees info incorrectly summarizes the reference articles. Especially the numbers, the timeline, and the percentages.

The whole refugee section in Iraq War needs to be summarized in around 3 or 4 paragraphs. People can come here for the full picture.

Here is the info removed from Casualties of the conflict in Iraq since 2003:

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees reports that Christians comprise 44% of Iraqi refugees, although only 4% of the overall population is Christian.[8] Iraq's Christian community numbered 1.4 million in 1980 at the start of Iran-Iraq War. But as the current war has radicalized Islamic sensibilities, Christians have seen their total numbers slump to about 500,000 today, of whom 250,000 live in Baghdad.[9]

The numbers are all confused in it too. --Timeshifter 02:35, 25 July 2007 (UTC)