Iraqi diaspora

[1] The diaspora is formed of various ethnic and religious groups from Iraq, including: Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Turkmens, and Circassians who are mostly Muslims (practicing Sunni or Shia Islam).

The Iraqi diaspora is not a sudden exodus but one that has grown exponentially through the 20th century as each generation faced some form of radical transition or political conflict.

During the first Gulf War, Iran provided refuge for 1.4 million Iraqis, though many did not settle there permanently.

Facing international pressure, the United States agreed to allow Iraqis in the Rafha refugee camp in Saudi Arabia to resettle in America.

Sweden has allowed 18,000 refugees to enter, by far the most of any European country, but has indicated that it too plans on tightening restrictions.

[29] 25,000 Iraqis, either permanent residents or refugees awaiting entry to the United States, live in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

[citation needed] Approximately 340,000 Iraqi refugees have emigrated to Brazil, where there's already a large Arab population.

Greece has long attracted Iraqis and other Arabic-speaking peoples from the Middle East for centuries during Ottoman Turkish times (the late 16th to early 20th centuries) and in the 2000s, many Iraqi and Syrian workers are thought to have arrived from Cyprus to find jobs in Greece.

[46] In November 2007, 1,800 Iraqi Kurds sought refugee in Italy, of which only 20 of them applied for asylum and the other received 15-day expulsion orders.

[51] Iran credits Russia with being one of the first countries to provide concrete assistance in processing Iraqi refugees; Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry began preparing two sites for refugee camps in western Iran in April 2003.

However, the Swiss government is currently closing doors to future Iraqi refugees, and offering to send external aid instead.

Christoph Blocher, the Swiss Justice and Police Minister, stated that "We already have 5,000 Iraqis in Switzerland and our country is in second place in Europe in accepting them".

[citation needed] The current Iraqi population in Kuwait is difficult to determine, as there are no official figures.

[60] Due to the historic Iraqi–Kuwaiti wars, Kuwait had previously announced that it will not provide shelter for Iraqi refugees and will prevent them from entering the country by guarding the border with Saudi Arabian troops.

However, Kuwait did announce that they will hold any refugees in a 15 kilometer-wide demilitarized strip on the Iraqi side of the border, where it would provide humanitarian assistance.

[12] Since the war in 2003, despite not sharing a border with Iraq, Yemen has become a host country for many Iraqi refugees.

However, in 2004, the Yemeni government has changed its policy and currently requires Iraqi nationals to hold visas before letting them into Yemen; this has restricted their entry into the country.

It is difficult to estimate how many Iraqis are in Yemen, as the numbers vary frequently, with many arriving and leaving quickly.