As this week marks the fifth anniversary of the Coalition invasion of Iraq, some steps have been taken to improve the lives of those displaced; Jordan has opened up it's classrooms to 50,000 Iraqi refugees this academic year, and an amnesty was issued for those refugees living in Lebanon – hundreds of whom were had been imprisoned for many months simply for being refugees. But more action is urgently needed if we are to offer meaningful hope to the trapped generation of Iraqi youth.

The war, which promised to be decisive and short-lived, has turned into one of the world's greatest humanitarian crises, the effects of which have spilled across the entire region.


'The scale of the crisis facing the people of Iraq, inside and outside its borders, is so great that it's neighbours simply do not have the necessary resources to cope,' said World Vision's Advocacy Director for the Middle East, Sharon Payt.


A year ago World Vision warned of a 'trapped' generation of Iraqi youth, who were growing up in poverty, bearing the psychological scars of war, with few prospects for education or employment.


Today, one in six Iraqis has been displaced and hundreds of thousands of civilians killed. Over two million Iraqis have sought refuge in the urban centres of Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. But for most of these refugees, the sanctuary they sought has thus far eluded them.


Small numbers of vulnerable Iraqis have been resettled to third countries. And in 2008, chronic under-funding of UN appeals threatens to force a severe curtailment in the level of services currently on offer to refugees from the humanitarian community.


Though there have been reports of large numbers of returnees, the reality is that these do not yet outweigh the number of Iraqis still fleeing the country.

Religious minorities and the Christian Church in Iraq are both under serious threat. Targeting by religious militias and criminal groups – as was tragically seen last week in the discovery of the body of and abducted Chaldean archbishop – has forced many from the country, raising doubts about the continued presence of these ancient religions in Iraq once the dust of war settles.

World Vision's own work over the past year has focused on caring for Iraqi children in Jordan, targeting psychosocial support and education through an integrated programmatic and advocacy emergency response.

For further information:
http://www.iraqichildrentrapped.org/