More refugees as violence spirals

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=100334&version=1&template_id=42&parent_id=18

BAGHDAD: Raging sectarian violence has pushed up the number of refugees in Iraq by 20,000 in the last 10 days alone, the migration ministry said yesterday. It said in a statement the total number of people displaced has reached 182,154.

The crisis is likely to be far graver because ministry figures include only those who formally ask for aid within the country, some of them living in tented camps.

By excluding thousands fleeing abroad or quietly seeking refuge with relatives, officials accept the data is an underestimate.

The figure of 182,154, based on the ministry’s data of 30,359 families, is the number of those claiming aid since the February 22 bombing of a Shia shrine in Samarra sparked a new phase of killing by Shia and minority Sunni groups.

Some 27,744 people have fled Baghdad alone in the past five months. More and more houses are boarded up in the capital and many shops in once bustling commercial districts have shut after being threatened with violence or attacked.