Report: Five Million Orphans Live in Iraq

Date: 14 December 2021 - 21:30

News ID: ۹۷۷۳۰

BAGHDAD (Middle East Eye) – Five million orphans - equivalent to five percent of all orphans worldwide - are in Iraq, with nearly the same number of young people living in poverty, data published in a new Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights report has revealed.
According to the report, covered in Asharq al-Awsat, one million children are working as laborers to support their families, including 45,000 who don’t have official identification documents as a result of their parents’ affiliation with the Daesh terrorist group.
IHCHR official Ali al-Bayati told Asharq Al-Awsat that the report based its number on various indicators from international and local organizations.
The number of orphans was based on UNICEF figures. The rest of the indicators were based on the statistics of the Iraqi Ministry of Planning and UN agencies or complaints received by the Commission.
Around 4.5 million children are in families living below the poverty line with 25 percent of the total population of Iraq living in poverty and an unemployment rate of 14 percent, the commission found.
The number of missing citizens since 2014, the year the Daesh terrorist group launched its offensive in the country, has reached 8,000. The commission said Iraqi authorities have failed to fulfill their duty to those missing to investigate their whereabouts or compensate their families financially.
The country needs 3.5 million housing units to overcome its housing crisis and 8,000 schools to adequately address students’ needs, and the overall dropout rate from learning institutions was 73 percent in 2021.
In addition, there are about 4000 slums inhabited by about half a million families, most of which are concentrated in Baghdad.