UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...

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