Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-02-15-Speech-4-183"
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"en.20070215.25.4-183"2
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"Mr President, my thanks to colleagues for initiating this important debate. I cannot agree with the point made by the previous speaker, which was not discussed when we framed this report. May I say that what we can do in the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament is something different.
There are huge numbers of Iraqi refugees in Jordan, in Syria and in other neighbouring states, yet in almost every one of those countries these refugees are not allowed to work. Their children are prevented from going to school. Their parents and children are not allowed access to healthcare. They are in a desperate plight and there is no state support for them, as there would be were they in European Union Member States as refugees.
Inside the country there are huge numbers of IDPs – internally displaced people – equally without work, without food, far from their homes. They have been displaced mainly through religious and ethnic cleansing, one of the most miserable of wars to fight internally, as we know so well from our past history in Europe. The Shia are fleeing the Sunni, the Sunni are fleeing the Shia and many others are fleeing because of the various different insurgencies that are going on.
I would suggest, therefore, that the European Commission, which has worked mightily on this problem, should declare Iraq an emergency. I would ask the Council of Ministers, which has also worked incredibly hard with the Government of Iraq, to discuss this with the Commission and with other G8 donors, for example.
Iraq has in a sense been put on one side. People have been unclear as to what to do, but today, now, the Iraqi people are back in the sort of crisis they were in under the prolonged dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, under whom many more fled and under whom many more were killed. But here we are. They need our help.
I strongly request that the Commission and the Council of Ministers declare Iraq to be in an emergency state, to mobilise donor funding and spend it accordingly: housing inside, aid outside. There is a lot that we can do, but we have to look at the situation differently."@en1
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