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Iraqi Refugees in Syria Page 3 of 4 Special Report of a Medical Delegation to Syria, July ‘07 |
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While the United States provides significant support to the overall work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees which has an office in Damascus, the U.S. is apparently supplying no significant help to the Iraqi refugees in Syria. |
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Our hosts told us that Syria had received very little humanitarian assistance from the international community for the over 1.5 million Iraqi refugees it is hosting. It seemed to us, as Americans, that our government has a moral obligation to help the Iraqi refugees, especially since it was our invasion of Iraq which precipitated the crisis. |
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Throughout our visit, the delegation met with a warm welcome from our Syrian hosts. Our impression of Syria was very different from the picture of Syria portrayed in the American media. Left, the delegation was offered sunflower tea, a local seasonal delicacy. |
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Syrians wish they could change the image that many Americans have of them. “Americans think we’re all terrorists and that we all live in tents,” one doctor said to us, with a bittersweet smile. |
