EU drops calls to take in more Iraqi refugees

European Union interior ministers dropped calls for the bloc to take in more Iraqi refugees after Iraq's prime minister said his government was trying to convince refugees to return home to help Iraq rebuild.

The U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates 2 million Iraqi refugees are living abroad, mostly in neighboring Jordan and Syria, where they often lack the legal right to work. More than 2.5 million are internally displaced. The UNHCR has long lobbied the EU to take in more Iraqi refugees.

German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had urged European countries in April to do more to provide shelter to Christians among the refugees who have fled to Iraq's neighbors to avoid ethnic strife after the 2003 war.

But Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, on a visit to Berlin earlier this week, urged Germany to abandon this initiative, Schaeuble told reporters.

"They (the Iraqi government) campaigned for us in the EU not to take additional initiatives which would be counterproductive to their efforts," Schaeuble said.

Conflicting perspectives

Earlier this week the International Crisis Group, a global think tank, slammed the Baghdad government for what it called a lack of generosity towards millions of Iraqis who have fled the conflict in their country over the past five years.

"The Iraqi government deserves no praise. Flush with oil money, it has been conspicuously ungenerous toward its citizens stranded abroad," the International Crisis Group said.

The Brussels-based group's report on "Failed Responsibility: Iraqi Refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon" also urged Iraq's neighbors to do more.
"The Iraqi government should assume its responsibilities toward citizens turned refugees by stepping up direct and indirect support, providing a mechanism to support refugees willing to return," the report said.

The report also criticized Western nations including the United States "which, while contributing more than most, has admitted few refugees and provided far less assistance than needed."

Maliki, however, had stressed that security was better and Iraq was working on convincing refugees to come back, adding that refugees were needed to rebuild the country, according to Schaeuble.

An EU statement agreed on Thursday said the priority was to create the conditions allowing refugees to go back home and noted that some EU countries have taken in refugees, without calling other countries to do the same.

In Berlin, Maliki invited German firms to invest in his country, saying the security situation had improved sufficiently.