UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
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4. Doctors and Medical Personnel<br />
Doctors and other health workers in Iraq continue to be threatened, killed or kidnapped. 620<br />
Large numbers of them have fled to the three Northern Governorates or have left the<br />
country, often due to threats against their lives. Estimates of doctors and other medical<br />
personnel that have been killed or who have fled the country are generally not available.<br />
The International Committee of the Red Cross said in January 2007 that more than half of<br />
the 34,000 registered doctors in Iraq had left the country and hundreds had been killed. 621<br />
The Iraqi Medical Association (IMA) estimates that roughly half of Iraq’s 34,000<br />
physicians, who had been registered prior to 2003, have fled the country since and puts the<br />
figure of those killed at about 2,000. 622 IMA in Mosul reported that at least 11 doctors had<br />
been killed in Mosul alone and another 66 had left the city since 2003. 623 UNAMI HRO,<br />
referring to figures received from the Ministry of Health, reported that between April 2003<br />
and 31 May 2006, 102 doctors were killed; 164 nurses were killed and 77 wounded; and,<br />
142 non-medical staff (drivers, guards, administration personnel) were killed and 117<br />
wounded. In May 2006 alone, eight doctors were killed and 42 wounded; eight nurses were<br />
killed and seven wounded and six non-medical staff were killed and four wounded. It<br />
further said that some reports suggest that approximately 250 doctors have been kidnapped<br />
in the past two years. 624 The Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) said that in<br />
Baghdad those doctors still practicing medicine have moved their clinics into residential<br />
areas or inside medical compounds for safety. 625 Others use prolonged unpaid leave as<br />
a way to avoid security risks. 626<br />
As with other professionals, a number of motives drive such attacks. With the Ministry of<br />
Health and hospitals under control of religious militias, health personnel may be targeted<br />
for belonging to either sect. 627 They might be threatened by the police, militias or insurgent<br />
620<br />
For a (non-comprehensive) list of attacks on doctors and other medical personnel, see “Annex VI: Attacks<br />
on Doctors and Other Medical Personnel”.<br />
621<br />
IRIN, Iraq: Baghdad hospitals in crisis as they lack security and drugs, say specialists, 28 January 2007,<br />
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=65825.<br />
622<br />
Ibidem, Iraq: Country’s healthcare system rapidly deteriorating, 7 November 2006, http://www.irinnews.<br />
org/report.aspx?reportid=61923.<br />
623<br />
UNAMI HRO, June 2006 Human Rights Report, p. 6, see above footnote 27.<br />
624<br />
Ibid. The Iraqi Doctors Association believes that at least 65 physicians were killed in 2005 alone; see<br />
Scott Johnson, Doctors in the Cross Hairs, Newsweek, 9 January 2006, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/<br />
10655555/site/newsweek. Unofficial data suggests that at least 200 health professionals have left Basrah since<br />
January 2006; see: David Wilson, Where Have All the Doctors Gone? The Collapse of Iraq’s Health Care<br />
Services, Counterpunch, 14-15 October 2006, http://www.counterpunch.org/wilson10162006.html. According<br />
to the Ministry of Health’s Strategy Department, more than 160 nurses have been murdered and more than<br />
400 wounded since 2003; see: IRIN, Iraq: Neglected nurses fight their own war, 19 November 2006,<br />
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=61948.<br />
625<br />
IWPR, Violence Drives Doctors From Iraq, Iraqi Crisis Report, ICR No. 170, 29 March 2006,<br />
http://iwpr.net/?p=icr&s=f&o=260625&apc_state=henh.<br />
626<br />
IRIN, Iraq: Baghdad hospitals in crisis as they lack security and drugs, say specialists, 28 January 2007,<br />
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=65825.<br />
627<br />
Louise Roug, Decrepit healthcare adds to toll in Iraq, Los Angeles Times, 11 November 2006,<br />
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-health11nov11,0,3477207.story?coll=la-homeheadlines;<br />
Lara Logan, Death Squads In Iraqi Hospitals, CBS, 4 October 2006, http://www.cbsnews.com/<br />
stories/2006/10/04/eveningnews/main2064668.shtml. Amit R. Paley, Iraqi Hospitals Are War’s New “Killing<br />
118