The Guardian:

The spiralling violence in Iraq has created what is becoming the biggest refugee crisis in the world, a humanitarian group said today.

A report (pdf) by Washington-based Refugees International said an influx of Iraqis threatened to overwhelm other Middle Eastern countries, particularly Syria, Jordon and Lebanon.

Last month, the UN estimated that 100,000 people were fleeing the country each month, with the number of Iraqis now living in other Arab countries standing at 1.8 million.

The horrific irony is that the potential humanitarian crisis anticipated at the time of the invasion was largely avoided -- only to have it spiral now into this. US-occupied Iraq has become the source of the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world.

Posted by Laura at December 7, 2006 06:27 AM