Refugees of Iraq

On his fifth attempt, Iraqi refugee Wisam Sami finally succeeded in reaching Greece with thousands of others fleeing war in his homeland. Now he is setting his sights on the Paralympics.
Four years after reaching Greece on a journey that took him from war-torn Mosul to Athens via Turkey, Sami is hoping to bag a spot to compete in fencing at Tokyo 2020.

Greek authorities say dozens of asylum-seekers have turned up at the home address of European border agency employees helping police the border with Turkey.

The Turkish Red Crescent handed out winter humanitarian aid packs to at least 150 orphans and their families in a refugee camp in northern Iraq on Nov. 26.

Turkey has been very generous against Syrian refugees, but it needs international solidarity especially to help the children refugees, according to Philippe Duamelle, UNICEF Representative in Turkey.

Turkey said Oct. 17 that it was taking necessary measures against a possible refugee influx from Iraq and Syria, as an operation was launched to take Iraq's Mosul back from jihadists and Turkey-backed Syrian rebels indicated their next target was Syria's al-Bab following the capture of Dabiq on Oct. 16.

The refugee and migrant camp in Idomeni, northern Greece, has been crowded over the past few days, while incidents recorded on Monday at 3pm, when more than 600 migrants attempted to cross the borders to continue their journey to Europe.

Turkey has received an award from the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S. for its humanitarian efforts towards Syrian and Iraqi refugees.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) presented the 2015 Humanitarian Award to the Turkish ambassador to the U.S., Serdar K?l?ç, during an annual ceremony of the organization on Oct. 17.

Conflicts and violence across the world have increased the number of people forced to leave their homes to the record 60 million on a global scale, as reported by the UN.

The number of people going away from their homes has increased by 8,3 million since 2013, marking the biggest increase in history, according to a recent UNHCR global trends report, entitled ''World at War''.

A lack of funds has forced the U.N. World Food Programme to stop providing food vouchers for 1.7 million Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt, the agency said Dec. 1.

About 13.6 million people have been displaced by conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and many are without food or shelter as winter starts, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Nov. 12

Amin Awad, UNHCR's director for the Middle East and North Africa, said the world was becoming numb to the refugees' needs.