Five years ago the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) described the Iraqi refugee crisis as "the largest long-
term population movement in the Middle East since the
displacement of Palestinians following the creation of Israel in
1948." Not much has changed at the end of 2012, a year after US
forces pulled out of Iraq. "Some one million people remain
displaced throughout the country, of whom hundreds of thousands
live in dire conditions," the UNHCR recently noted. "Most are
unable to return to their areas of origin because of the
volatile security situation, the destruction of their homes, or
lack of access to services." More than 2 million have fled to
neighboring countries, where many subsist in designated
resettlement areas. The United Nations reports that women are
increasingly forced to resort to prostitution. Child labor has
become a scourge. In Syria, more than 30 percent of Iraqi
children are without schooling. Also see: Broken Promises:
America's Forgotten Iraqi Allies Face Death an