Statement of David Holdridge

Middle East Regional Program Director, Mercy Corps

Committee on Foreign Affairs

Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia

Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight

U.S. House of Representatives

Hearing on:

“No Direction Home: An NGO Perspective on Iraqi Refugees and IDPs”

May 1, 2008, 10:00 am

2172 Rayburn House Office Building

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee:

I want to express my appreciation to Chairman Rep. William Delahunt of the International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight Subcommittee, Chairman Rep. Gary Ackerman of the Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee, and to Ranking members Rep. Dana Rohrbacher and Rep. Mike Pence for the opportunity to offer testimony today on the current situation facing the over 4 million Iraqis who have been displaced inside of Iraq and to surrounding countries like Jordan and Syria.

Mercy Corps has been working in Iraq since 2003, with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development and other funding sources. Mercy Corps’ programs in Iraq meet urgent humanitarian needs, strengthen communities and promote the rights of vulnerable populations like women, youth, and persons with disabilities. To date, we have invested over $150 million in programs that have reached over 4.5 million beneficiaries. We also have active programs in Jordan and Syria that serve Iraqi refugees and other vulnerable populations.

I began my work with Mercy Corps in 2003, as the Country Director for Iraq – a post I held through October 2005. Since that time, I have been working as the Middle East Regional Program Director, overseeing Mercy Corps’ programs in Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and West Bank/Gaza. I have been based in the region since 2003 and, as such, I have witnessed first-hand the impacts of the US-led invasion, the Coalition Provisional Authority, and the post-2006 sectarian violence that has been a major cause of the dramatic increases in displacement. My remarks today will focus on the situation facing refugees in Jordan and in Syria, and on the long-term challenges this poses for the international community.

In Jordan, the situation of Iraqi refugees is well known, in part due to the very well developed operations of international NGOs there with full staffs and active programs. Overall, official UN estimates place the total number of refugees at 500,000. However, based on data collected in a recent FAFO study, and by those NGOs that are providing services to the refugee population, our best guess is that the total number is actually somewhere between 150,000 and 350,000.

Iraqi refugees in Jordan are not a homogenous group. There are a significant number – mostly Christians – who came to Jordan before 2003 to escape religious persecution even before the US invasion. Another significant percentage came during the 2004 – 2005 time period: these refugees are mostly middle class Iraqis with college educations, assets in bank accounts, and property outside of Iraq. They have likely been net contributors to Jordan’s economy since they have invested there. Many of them are Sunnis who saw the political changes taking place in Iraq as unfavorable and, as such, took refuge early.

Since 2006, many more Iraqis have taken refuge in Jordan. Refugees in this last wave of displacement are distinct. They are mainly from the Baghdad area – although some come by way of Basra or Diyala – and they tend to be from relatively poor backgrounds, and escaped due to sectarian violence and lack of opportunities for a secure, dignified way of life in Iraq. This group – because they have fewer resources and face more discrimination – has the greatest needs.

We have seen a significant improvement in the response of the Jordanian government, which now allows Iraqi refugee children to attend school, as well as allowing Iraqi refugees similar access to health care as is offered to Jordanians. Largely because of the positive encouragement and political pressure of US Embassy officials in Jordan, the government has also developed effective means of cooperation with UN agencies and with international NGOs.

However, most Iraqi refugees are not in Jordan legally, producing rampant fears of deportations – despite the fact that there has of yet been no organized deportation of Iraqis by the Jordanian government. This fear keeps many refugees from registering or from accessing services that may be available to them.

The situation in Syria is remarkably different. There, official UN estimates place the total number of Iraqis at roughly 1.2 million. While all Iraqis living outside of Iraq are suffering, those in Syria are in the most precarious situation. This is in part due to the significant challenges facing aid providers there, where all reports indicate an assistance “traffic jam.” Despite the allocation of resources from the international community to address the crisis, very little is in fact getting spent.

There is insufficient local civil society or NGO capacity in Syria, and almost all international organizations operate in conjunction with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. Both the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the High Commissioner for Refugees offices are staffed locally by civil servants appointed by the government. They have not developed the capacity required to effectively provide emergency or long-term assistance to such a large number of Iraqi refugees: their systems and staff have been overwhelmed by the magnitude of the current crisis because these systems for aid provision are nascent and compromised. Meanwhile, most international NGOs that could effectively deliver assistance have limited operational space, due to ongoing apprehension on the part of the Syrian government. This means that needs assessments in Syria have not been conducted to the level of detail required.

Most Iraqis refugees live with local populations in marginal neighborhoods, making it much more difficult to locate or provide services to them. Mercy Corps recently started up our programs in Syria, where we are now working with the Syrian Computer Society to develop training courses for Iraqi and Syrian youth, and working with the Middle East Council of Churches to provide assistance to Iraqi refugees. The Middle East Council of Churches works with religious leaders from all groups – Christians, Sunnis, and Shi’as – to locate Iraqi refugees and vulnerable Syrians and to prioritize and address their needs. At present, this program has remained focused on providing emergency food aid and non-food items to the most vulnerable. The needs in terms of education and health care remain largely unmet. There are an estimated 34,000 Iraqi refugee children in school in Syria – out of an overall population of over a million refugees. Mercy Corps has applied for additional funding to continue and expand these programs in Syria, and we hope to soon be able to address this dire situation more completely.

So where does this situation leave us?

In the short term, it is clear that assistance will need to be provided to many – if not most – of these refugees. Given the historic experience of Jordan and Syria with accepting and integrating refugees, they are understandably reluctant to accommodate such large numbers of Iraqis on a long term basis. To address these needs, in April Mercy Corps joined a coalition of over 20 humanitarian organizations in calling on the US Administration and Congress to increase humanitarian funding and to make strategic use of international NGOs with the capacity to guarantee effective and accountable delivery of assistance.

In the long term, it is clear that the majority of Iraqi refugees living in Jordan and Syria will not obtain permanent residence, and an even smaller number will be resettled to other countries. However, to date very few Iraqis have returned – and at present the conditions do not exist inside Iraq to promote significant returns. In order to return, refugees would need to feel confident that in Iraq they would not only find adequate security, but also that they would have access to the full range of services required for them to live dignified lives: health care, education, electricity, shelter, and jobs.

While efforts to encourage the Iraqi government to increase humanitarian aid are positive, this is not just a question of whether the Iraqis have money to contribute – which they clearly do. It is, more importantly, a question of whether the Iraqi government is capable of effectively budgeting and expending resources to meet basic needs and guarantee services to all Iraqis. The international community needs to understand that this capacity in Iraq simply does not exist. Good governance is not built overnight: it requires substantial investments in capacity building over a whole generation. If we hold out any hope at all for a significant return of Iraqis, it is essential that the US prioritize assistance that supports NGO-led programs to assist the Iraqi government and civil society in their efforts to construct systems to guarantee good governance and effective service delivery.

Yet at present, only a very small portion of total US assistance to Iraq supports long term capacity building programs managed by qualified civilians professionals at the State Department or USAID – and even less of that finances NGOs that have decades of experience doing complex development work. The Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq - rather than effectively improving the performance of Iraqi government Ministries or increasing the participation of local citizens - create parallel systems for service delivery that are, at best, a short term fix for ensuring that some assistance reaches people despite the massive bottlenecks that continue to plague the Iraqi government.

The only viable long term solution to this crisis is to ensure that someday Iraqis will be able to return home. For this reason, it will be essential for US policy makers to ensure that the overall policy goals for Iraq include support for robust programs to promote the development of good governance and community participation throughout Iraq.