GENEVA (AFP) - The UN refugee agency has warned donors that it is "distressed" at the lack of an international response to a growing humanitarian crisis in Iraq caused by alarming levels of violence.
"UNHCR officials who just returned from the region warned that we are now facing an even larger humanitarian crisis than we had initially prepared for in 2002 to 2003," Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said Friday.
Redmond told reporters the agency briefed representatives of donor governments at a meeting in Geneva on Thursday.
"UNHCR said it was increasingly alarmed over the incessant violence in Iraq and distressed over the lack of an international humanitarian response to deal with the massive numbers of people who are being displaced," Redmond added.
There are now hundreds of thousands more displaced than the 600,000 refugees planned for three years ago, yet the agency is" sorely lacking" in funding to deal with the situation inside and outside the country, Redmond said.
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